CHARGED-PARTICLE MULTIPLICITY IN SI-28 + AL, CU, AND PB REACTIONS AT ELAB = 14.6 GEV/NUCLEON

Collisions of Si-28+Al, Cu, and Pb at E(lab)=14.6 GeV/nucleon were studied at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. Charged particle multiplicity was measured over the pseudorapidity interval 0.875 less-than-or-equal-to eta less-than-or-equal-to 3.86 with a silicon pad detector. A strong correlation is seen between the multiplicity and the transverse energy measured in the interval -0.5 less-than-or-equal-to eta less-than-or-equal-to 0.8. Correlation with the energy going forward after the collision and comparison with calculations indicate that rescattering is required to explain the data. The data are compared under the assumption of Koba-Nielson-Olesen scaling. The measured multiplicity scales approximately with the total number of participant nucleons and less well with the available center-of-mass kinetic energy.