Characteristics of Nucleus-Nucleus Interaction with Relativistic Heavy-Ions

A systematic study of relativistic heavy-ion collisions in nuclear emulsion, initiated by ('40)Ar, ('56)Fe at E = 1.8 GeV/N, ('56)Fe at 0.8 GeV/N, and ('12)C at 400 MeV/N, has been made. Projectile fragmentation reactions, where there is no visual indication of target excitation, are studied in terms of multiplicity and projected angular distributions. The standard deviation widths of the projected angular distributions are compared with the first order theory of Lepore and Riddell. In quasi-central collisions, where a part of both the projectile and target nuclei participate, we have undertaken a study of the space angle distributions of the relativistic alpha particles, emitted in ('40)Ar -emulsion interactions at E = 1.8 GeV/N and ('56)Fe-emulsion interactions at E = 0.8 GeV/N. The large angle alpha particle distributions are fitted with moving relativistic Boltzmann distributions, and compared with distributions obtained by Monte Carlo simulation of (alpha)-p hard scattering process. Mean free path of secondary relativistic projectile fragments, emitted in such collisions, are carefully studied to verify the presence of 'anomalous' mfp component among these fragments. This is followed by a study of the mean free path of secondary alpha particles. Finally, in central collisions, the angular distributions of singly charged particles with (beta) > 0.7 are studied with a view to observe collective phenomena, such as nuclear shock wave in nuclear matter.