Identical pion intensity interferometry in central Au+Au collisions at 1.23A GeV

Abstract

We investigate identical pion HBT intensity interferometry for central Au+Au collisions at 1.23A GeV. High-statistics $\ddot{I}{€}^{-}\ddot{I}{€}^{-}$ and $\ddot{I}{€}^{+}\ddot{I}{€}^{+}$ data are measured with HADES at SIS18/GSI. The radius parameters, derived from the correlation function depending on relative momenta in the longitudinal-comoving system and parametrized as three-dimensional Gaussian distribution, are studied as function of transverse momentum. A substantial charge-sign difference of the source radii is found, particularly pronounced at low transverse momentum. The extracted Coulomb-corrected source parameters agree well with a smooth extrapolation of the center-of-mass energy dependence established at higher energies, extending the corresponding excitation functions down towards a very low energy. Our data would thus rather disfavour any strong energy dependence of the radius parameters in the low energy region.

7 pages, 5 figures, updated author and grant lists