EVENT TEXTURE SEARCH FOR CRITICAL FLUCTUATIONS IN PB+PB COLLISIONS AT THE CERN SPS.
Mikhail Kopytine, SUNY at Stony Brook, for the NA44 Collaboration.
Talk at the Parallel Session III-B of the 15th Quark Matter Conference, January 19, 2001, Stony Brook

Abstract :
NA44 uses a Si pad array covering 1.5 < eta < 3.3 to study charged hardon production in 158 A GeV/c Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS. We apply a multiresolution analysis, based on a Discrete Wavelet Transformation, to probe the texture of particle distributions in individual events by simultaneous localization of features in space and scale. Scanning a broad range of multiplicities, we look for evidence of critical behaviour in the power spectra of local density fluctuations. Measured results are compared with detailed simulations of detector response, using as input heavy ion event generators. An upper limit is set on the probability and magnitude of critical fluctuations.

Significant fraction of the talk (motivations, technical introduction, analysis of the background effects and systematic errors, basic results) was as at the ISMD meeting . Only new slides are shown here.




The multifireball event generator was used to study the sensitivity of the method (including detector response simulation) to the presense of local fluctuations/texture of varying "grain coarseness". In the model, a final state of certain charged particle multiplicity Nch is constructed by making a superposition of isotropic fireballs undergo a longitudinal expansion. The longitudinal expansion is simulated by Lorentz-boosting the fireballs along the longitudinal azis. Total momentum of the system is fixed at 0, and total transverse momentum of every fireball is fixed at 0. The grain coarseness is controlled by changing the Nch/fireball parameter of the model.

Conclusion : Back to Main