We have studied the rapidity distribution of secondary hadrons produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultrarelativistic energies within the ambit of the Landau’s hydrodynamical model. A reasonable description of the data can also be obtained by using the Bjorken’s hydrodynamical model if the boost invariance is restricted to a finite rapidity range. The sensitivity of the hadronic spectra on the equation of state vis-à-vis the velocity of sound has been discussed. The correlation between the velocity of sound and the freeze-out temperature has been indicated. The effects of the nonzero widths of various mesonic and baryonic degrees of freedom up to the mass value $\sim 2.5\text{GeV}$ are seen to be small.

• Received 28 July 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.68.064903