Spectral spacing correlations of nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energies

Abstract

We propose a novel approach to the analysis of experimental data obtained in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions which borrows from methods developed within the context of Random Matrix Theory. It is applied to the detection of correlations in momentum distributions of emitted particles. We find good agreement between the results obtained in this way and a standard analysis based on the two-pair correlation function often used in high energy physics. The method introduced here is free from unwanted background contributions.