The energy, target-mass, and rapidity-window independence or approximate independence of the multiplicity moments in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions are analyzed. It is pointed out that all of these properties are due to nuclear geometry. It is proved under general conditions that, when the target mass is not extremely light and the rapidity window not very narrow, the normalized moments of multiplicity are approximately equal to that of the number of participating nucleons. The calculated results for both minimum-bias and central events agree with recent experimental data.

• Received 3 October 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.42.848