Nuclear stopping and rapidity loss in Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}}=62.4 GeV

Understand

Transverse momentum spectra of protons and anti-protons measured in the rapidity range 0<y<3.1 from 0-10% central Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}}=62.4 GeV are presented.

• The rapidity densities, dN/dy, of protons, anti-protons and net-protons N()p-N(pbar) have been deduced from the spectra over a rapidity range wide enough to observe the expected maximum net-baryon density.
• From mid-rapidity to y=1 the net-proton yield is roughly constant (dN/dy ~ 10),but rises to dN/dy ~25 at 2.3<y<3.1.
• The mean rapidity loss is 2.01 +-0.16 units from beam rapidity.