Centrality dependence of the thermal excitation-energy deposition in 8-15 GeV/c hadron-Au reactions

The excitation energy per residue nucleon (E*/A) and fast and thermal light particle multiplicities are studied as a function of centrality defined as the number of grey tracks emitted Ngrey and by the mean number of primary hadron-nucleon scatterings (□ν□) and the mean impact parameter (□b□) extracted from it. The value of E*/A and the multiplicities show an increase with centrality for all systems, 14.6 GeV p-Au and 8.0 GeV π-Au and p̄-Au collisions, and the excitation energy per residue nucleon exhibits a uniform dependence on Ngrey.