Proton and deuteron distributions as signatures for collective particle dynamics and event shape geometries at the RHIC

We present predictions for the formation of (anti)nuclear bound states in nucleus-nucleus reactions at ultrarelativistic energies. The phase-space coalescence method is used in combination with RQMD v2.4 trans port calculations to demonstrate the relevance of particle production, as well as the longitudinal and transverse flow components. The formation of deuterons follows an approximate scaling law proportional to the relative freeze-out densities of nucleons and produced secondaries. For antideuterons, an additional suppression appears that is proportional to the number of nucleons, pointing toward multiple rescattering and absorption prior to freeze out. [S0556-2813(99)50411-1].