Two-particle correlations at 40, 80, and 158 AGeV Pb - Au collisions

In this thesis, a centrality dependent study of tow-particle momentum correlations of like-sign pions (HBT interferometry) from Pb-Au collisions at beam energies of 40, 80 and 158 AGeV is presented. The three-dimensional correlation function C_2, depending on the relative momentum components of the particle pair, was parameterized using a three-dimensional Gaussian, modified to consider the final state Coulomb repulsion. The parameterization was done in the Cartesian out-side-long system as proposed by G. Bertsch and S. Pratt. A differential analysis of the HBT radius parameters as a function of the mean transverse pair momentum k_perp allowed to determine transverse geometrical source sizes of about 5.5 fm to 7 fm, increasing with energy and centrality. The mean transverse flow velocity v_perp was found to be of the order 0.5--0.6 c. For the freeze-out time tau_f values between 6 and 8 fm/c were obtained with a duration of particle emission compatible with zero. The beam energy dependence of the HBT radii provide evidence for a universal pion freeze-out condition. The analyzed data have been recorded with the CERES spectrometer at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) accelerator at CERN.