INTERACTIONS OF 10.6 GEV NUCLEON GOLD NUCLEI IN NUCLEAR-EMULSION

Stacks of nuclear emulsion were exposed at the Brookhaven AGS to a 10. 6 GeV/n beam of gold nuclei in the BNL 868 experiment. A preliminary a nalysis of the main features of the interactions of these nuclei is re ported here and compared with those observed previously at lower energ ies, E < 1 GeV/n. The multiplicity and pseudo-rapidity distributions o f the singly charged particles emitted both in central and in minimum bias samples of interactions have been analyzed in order to look for a ny non random effects indicative of the nuclear state during the inter actions. The fragmentation characteristics of the gold projectiles app ear to be different at 10.6 GeV/n from those at less-than-or-equal-to 1 GeV/n incident energy. Fission of the gold projectiles, which was re latively frequent at low energy, is almost entirely suppressed. Some o f alpha particles from the projectile are emitted with very large tran sverse momenta. In gold-emulsion interactions the residual target nucl ei are significantly smaller than in oxygen and sulfur interactions in emulsion.