Study of hadrons emission in 4.5A GeV/c32S interactions with emulsion

An experimental study of the forward and backward emission of relativistic and fast hadrons in the interactions of 4.5A GeV/c S-32 with emulsion was carried out. The study supports the conclusion that a collective mechanism is responsible for the production of particles in the backward hemisphere (which is restricted beyond the kinematics limit). The backward emission of both shower and grey particles can be described by an exponential decay law independent of the projectile size. The experimental results suggest that the backward particles result from the decay of the system in a latter stage of the interaction. While the average multiplicities of the shower particles emitted in the forward hemisphere are strongly dependent on the projectile size and incident momentum, the average values of those emitted into the backward hemisphere are found to be only a function of the target size (i.e., impact parameter). Thus, the backward particle production can be considered as a yield of a highly excited target system, in its rest frame.