Two-proton correlations from 14.6A GeV/c Si+Pb and 11.5A GeV/c Au plus Au central collisions - art. no. 054905

Two-proton correlation functions have been measured in Si+Pb collisions at 14.6A GeV/c and Au+Au collisions at 11.5A GeV/c by the E814/E877 Collaborat ion. Data are compared with predictions of the transport model RQMD and the source size is inferred from this comparison. Our analysis shows that, for both reactions, the characteristic size of the system at freeze-out exceed s the size of the projectile, suggesting that the fireball created in the c ollision has expanded. For Au+Au reactions, the observed centrality depende nce of the two-proton correlation function implies that more central collis ions lead to larger source sizes. [S0556-2813(99)00510-5].