Azimuthal correlations in the target fragmentation region of high energy nuclear collisions

Results on the target mass dependence of proton and pion pseudorapidity distributions and of their azimuthal correlations in the target rapidity range -1.73 less than or equal to eta less than or equal to 1.32 are presented. The data have been taken with the Plastic-Ball detector set-up for 4.9 GeV p+Au collisions at the Berkeley BEVALAC acid for 200 A . GeV/c p-, O-, and S-induced reactions on different nuclei at the CERN-SPS. The yield of protons at backward rapidities is found to be proportional to the target mass. Although protons show a typical ''back-to-back'' correlation, a ''side-by-side'' correlation is observed for positive pions, which increases both with target mass and with impact parameter of a collision. The data can consistently be described by assuming strong rescattering phenomena including pion absorption effects in the entire excited target nucleus.