Photon Multiplicity Measurements : From SPS to RHIC and LHC

Abstract

Results from the photon multiplicity measurements using a fine granularity preshower photon multiplicity detector (PMD) at CERN SPS are discussed. These include study of pseudo-rapidity distributions of photons, scaling of photon multiplicity with number of participating nucleons, centrality dependence of mean transverse momentum of photons, event-by-event fluctuations in photon multiplicity and localised charged-neutral fluctuations. Basic features of the PMD to be used in STAR experiment at RHIC and in ALICE experiment at LHC are also discussed.

12 pages, Invited talk at the 4th International Conference on the Physcis and Astrophysics of the Quark-Gluon-Plasma, November 2001, Jaipur, India, to appear in Pramana