The production of $\rho$, $\omega$ and $\phi$ vector-mesons by protons and sulphur ions with incident momentum of 200 GeV/c per nucleon

The production of rho omega and phi vector-mesons, detected through their mumu decay channel, is studied in p-W, S-S, S-Cu and S-U reactions at 200 GeV/c per nucleon incident momentum. Their inclusive cross-sections are determined in various transverse momentum intervals and their dependence on the projectile and target mass numbers is investigated. The relative yield B/sub mumu/sigma/sub phi //(B/sub mumu/sigmaas a function of the transverse momentum, p/sub T /, and of the collision centrality. While this ratio exhibits no significant dependence with p/sub T/, it clearly increases with the centrality of the collision. Effective temperatures deduced from the transverse mass spectra, dsigma/dM/sub T/, lead to values of Trho +omega equal or slightly higher than T/sub phi/. Both these effective temperatures smoothly increase from p-W to S-U reactions.