System, centrality, and transverse mass dependence of two-pion correlation radii in heavy ion collisions at 11.6A and 14.6A GeV/c -: art. no. 054906

Two-pion correlation functions are analyzed at midrapidity for three systems (14.6A GeV/c Si+Al, Si+Au, and 11.6A GeV/c Au+Au), seven distinct centrality conditions, and different k(T) bins in the range 0.1-0.5 GeV/c. Source reference frames are determined from fits to the Yano-Koonin source parametrization. Bertsch-Pratt radius parameters are shown to scale linearly with both number of projectile and total participants as obtained from a Glauber model calculation. A finite lifetime parameter that increases linearly with system/centrality is also reported. The m(T) dependences of the Bertsch-Pratt radii for the central Si+Au and central Au+Au systems differ only by an overall normalization factor given by the measured system/centrality dependence.