Transverse Energy And Charged-Particle Multiplicity In P-Nucleus Collisions At 14.6-Gev/C

We present the transverse energy distributions, d sigma/dE(T) and dE(T)/d eta, and the charged particle multiplicity distributions, d sigma/dN(c) and dN(c)/d eta, produced in p+Al and p+Pb collisions at 14.6 GeV/c. The data exhibit a weak correlation between these global variables. While a significant increase of the mean multiplicity with the mass of the target is observed, the transverse energy distributions show little target dependence. The dE(T)/d eta distribution shifts backward as the mass of the target increases, indicating the presence of rescattering. The data are compared to the predictions of the relativistic quantum molecular dynamic model (RQMD) and Fritiof event generators. RQMD reproduces well the main features of the data while Fritiof predicts too forward peaked transverse energy and particle multiplicity pseudorapidity distributions.