title: Evidence for a Soft Nuclear Equation-of-State from Kaon Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions.
abstract: The production of pions and kaons has been measured in 197Au+197Au collisions at beam energies from 0.6 to 1.5A GeV with the kaon spectrometer at SIS/GSI. The K+ meson multiplicity per nucleon is enhanced in Au+Au collisions by factors up to 6 relative to C+C reactions, whereas the corresponding pion ratio is reduced. The ratio of the K+ meson excitation functions for Au+Au and C+C collisions increases with decreasing beam energy. This behavior is expected for a soft nuclear equation-of-state.
authors.affiliation: Technische Universität Darmstadt, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany.
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sturm
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Böttcher
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: D&ecedil;bowski
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Förster
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grosse
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Koczo&nacute;
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kohlmeyer
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Laue
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Naumann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oeschler
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pühlhofer
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schwab
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Senger
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Speer
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ströbele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Surówka
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Uhlig
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Walu&sacute;