ANTIDEUTERON PRODUCTION IN HIGH-ENERGY HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS

Experiment E858 at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Alternating Grad ient Synchrotron has recently reported the detection of two antideuter ons produced in 14.6A GeV/c Si + Au collisions. The data were interpre ted as implying antideuteron production rates about an order of magnit ude below expectations. We use an extended RQMD model to demonstrate t hat the antideuteron yields are readily explained in a dynamical scena rio that includes collective expansion and strong antinucleon absorpti on.