Charged particle multiplicities from high multiplicity central interactions of 158 GeV/nucleon Pb ions with Pb target nuclei have been measured in the central and far forward projectile spectator regions using emulsion chambers. Multiplicities are significantly lower than predicted by Monte Carlo simulations. We examine the shape of the pseudorapidity distribution and its dependence on centrality in detail.
Results of the production of Xi and Xi-bar hyperons in central Pb+Pb interactions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon are presented. This analysis utilises a global reconstruction procedure, which allows a measurement of 4pi integrated yields to be made for the first time. Inverse slope paramters, which are determined from an exponential fit to the transverse mass spectra, are shown. Central rapidity densities are found to be 1.49 +- 0.08 and 0.33 +- 0.04 per event per unit of rapidity for Xi and Xi-bar respectively. Yields integrated to full phase space are 4.12 +- 0.02 and 0.77 +- 0.04 for Xi and Xi-bar. The ratio of Xi-bar/Xi at mid-rapidity is 0.22 +- 0.03.
We present the combined results on electron-pair production in 158 GeV/n {Pb-Au} ($sqrt{s}$= 17.2 GeV) collisions taken at the CERN SPS in 1995 and 1996, and give a detailed account of the data analysis. The enhancement over the reference of neutral meson decays amounts to a factor of 2.31$pm0.19 (stat.)pm0.55 (syst.)pm0.69 (decays)$ for semi-central collisions (28% $sigma/sigma_{geo}$) when yields are integrated over $m>$ 200 MeV/$c^2$ in invariant mass. The measured yield, its stronger-than-linear scaling with $N_{ch}$, and the dominance of low pair $p_t$ strongly suggest an interpretation as {it thermal radiation} from pion annihilation in the hadronic fireball. The shape of the excess centring at $mapprox$ 500 MeV/$c^2$, however, cannot be described without strong medium modifications of the $rho$ meson. The results are put into perspective by comparison to predictions from Brown-Rho scaling governed by chiral symmetry restoration, and from the spectral-function many-body treatment in which the approach to the phase boundary is less explicit.
The J/$psi$ azimuthal distribution relative to the reaction plane has been measured by the NA50 experiment in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon. Various physical mechanisms related to charmonium dissociation in the medium created in the heavy ion collision are expected to introduce an anisotropy in the azimuthal distribution of the observed J/$psi$ mesons at SPS energies. Hence, the measurement of J/$psi$ elliptic anisotropy, quantified by the Fourier coefficient v$_2$ of the J/$psi$ azimuthal distribution relative to the reaction plane, is an important tool to constrain theoretical models aimed at explaining the anomalous J/$psi$ suppression observed in Pb-Pb collisions. We present the measured J/$psi$ yields in different bins of azimuthal angle relative to the reaction plane, as well as the resulting values of the Fourier coefficient v$_{2}$ as a function of the collision centrality and of the J/$psi$ transverse momentum. The reaction plane has been estimated from the azimuthal distribution of the neutral transverse energy detected in an electromagnetic calorimeter. The analysis has been performed on a data sample of about 100 000 events, distributed in five centrality or p$_{rm T}$ sub-samples. The extracted v$_{2}$ values are significantly larger than zero for non-central collisions and are seen to increase with p$_{rm T}$.
Results are presented on hyperon and antihyperon production in Pb-Pb, pPb and pBe collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon. Lambda, Xi and Omega yields have been measured at central rapidity and medium transverse momentum as functions of the centrality of the collision. Comparing the yields in Pb-Pb to those in pBe interactions, strangeness enhancement is observed. The enhancement increases with the centrality and with the strangeness content of the hyperons, reaching a factor of about 20 for the Omega in the central Pb-Pb collisions.
New measurements by the NA49 experiment of the centrality dependence of event-by-event fluctuations of the particle yield ratios (K$^{+}$+K$^{-}$)/($pi^{+}+pi^{-}$), (p+$bar{text p}$)/($pi^{+}+pi^{-}$), and (K$^{+}$+K$^{-}$)/(p+$bar{text p}$) are presented for Pb+Pb collisions at 158$A$ GeV. The absolute values of the dynamical fluctuations of these ratios, quantified by the measure $sigma_{text{dyn}}$, increase by about a factor of two from central to semi-peripheral collisions. Multiplicity scaling scenarios are tested and found to apply for both the centrality and the previously published energy dependence of the (K$^{+}$+K$^{-}$)/($pi^{+}+pi^{-}$) and (p+$bar{text p}$)/($pi^{+}+pi^{-}$) ratio fluctuations. A description of the centrality and energy dependence of (K$^{+}$+K$^{-}$)/(p+$bar{text p}$) ratio fluctuations by a common scaling prescription is not possible since there is a sign change in the energy dependence.