BEAM ENERGY INDEPENDENCE OF THE TARGET FRAGMENTATION ABOVE EKIN = 1 GEV/N

Above a beam energy of 1 GeV/N the distributions of protons and fragments in the target rapidity regime become independent of the beam energy. The reaction scenario is close to that expected from the simple geometrical participant-spectator model. The difference between the rapidity distributions of baryons reported for the reaction of Ne (2.1 GeV/N) + Au and O (200 GeV/N) + Au is caused by a different experimental acceptance. The slope of the measured transverse energy spectra of protons at 200 GeV/N (<E(t)> = 75 MeV) is very close to that calculated at 2.1 GeV/N (<E(t)> = 86 MeV). Thus spectator matter does not act as a "detector" for particles created at high beam energies as hoped. This is the result of the "quantum" molecular dynamics (QMD) calculations employed for these asymmetric systems.