Nuclear stopping in Au+Au collisions at square root of S(NN)=200 GeV.

ABSTRACT

Transverse momentum spectra and rapidity densities, dN/dy, of protons, antiprotons, and net protons (p-p) from central (0%-5%) Au+Au collisions at square root of S(NN)=200 GeV were measured with the BRAHMS experiment within the rapidity range 0proton and antiproton dN/dy decrease from midrapidity to y=3. The net-proton yield is roughly constant for y<1 at dN/dy approximately 7, and increases to dN/dy approximately 12 at y approximately 3. The data show that collisions at this energy exhibit a high degree of transparency and that the linear scaling of rapidity loss with rapidity observed at lower energies is broken. The energy loss per participant nucleon is estimated to be 73+/-6 GeV.