Two-Pion Correlation Measurements for 14.6 A.GEV/C SILICON-28 + X and 11.6 A.GEV/C GOLD-197 + Gold.

Two-pion correlation functions have been measured in the central rapidity regions (1.5 < y < 2.0) for 14.6 A cdot GeV/c Si+Au to 2 pi^-+rm X (central and peripheral), Si+Al to 2pi^++ rm X (central and minimum bias), Si+Au to 2pi^++rm X (central), and 11.6 A cdot GeV/c Au+Au to 2pi^ -+rm X (central) systems. Two-dimensional fits in R-tau and R_{T}-R_ {L} were performed for these systems for different cuts in the total charged particle multiplicity and forward energy. The R, R_{T}, and R_{L} radius parameters for systems involving the Si projectile were found to increase with increasing charged particle multiplicity. These parameters were observed to scale linearly with A _sp{pp}{1/3}, where A_{pp} is the number of projectile participants as calculated from the forward energy deposition. The correlation functions were also fit to several three-dimensional functions. In all cases these fits proved to be consistent with the results of the two-dimensional fits. Events generated from the RQMD cascade code indicate that pions within experimental acceptance are produced from a region that is smaller than the entire region of pion production. A direct measure of the RQMD source for pions within the acceptance show qualitative agreement with the observed scaling. A minimization function was developed which is derived from the Poisson fluctuations in both the actual and background distributions. Progress was made in understanding the errors of event-mixed background distributions. An empirical study confirms that fluctuations within a bin are indeed Poisson for typical backgrounds generated during this analysis. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617 -253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.).