Multiboson effects in Bose-Einstein interferometry and the multiplicity distribution

Multiboson symmetrization effects on two-particle Bose-Einstein interferome try are studied Cor ensembles with arbitrary multiplicity distributions. Th is generalizes the previously studied case of a Poissonian input multiplici ty distribution, In the general case we find interesting residual correlati ons which require a modified framework for extracting information on the: s ource geometry from two-particle correlation measurements. In sources with high phase-space densities, multiboson effects modify the Hanbury Brown-Twi ss (HBT) radius parameters and simultaneously Generate strong residual corr elations. We clarify their effect on the correlation strength (intercept pa rameter) and thus explain a variety of previously reported puzzling multibo son symmetrization phenomena. Using a class of analytically solvable Gaussi an source models, with and without space-momentum correlations, we present a comprehensive overview of multiboson symmetrization affects on particle i nterferometry. For event ensembles of (approximately) fixed multiplicity, t hr: residual correlations lead to a minimum in the correlation function at nonzero relative momentum. which can be practically exploited to search, in a model-independent way, for multiboson symmetrization effects in high-ene rgy heavy-ion experiments. (C) 2001 Academic Press.