Scaling of particle and transverse energy production in $$^{208}$$Pb+$$^{208}$$Pb collisions at 158$$\cdot A$$ GeV

Abstract. Transverse energy, charged particle pseudorapidity distributions and photon transverse momentum spectra have been studied as a function of the number of participants ($$N_{part}$$) and the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions ($$N_{coll}$$) in 158$$\cdot A$$ GeV Pb+Pb collisions over a wide impact parameter range. A scaling of the transverse energy pseudorapidity density at midrapidity as $$\sim N_{part}^{1.08 \pm 0.06}$$ and $$\sim N_{coll}^{0.83 \pm 0.05}$$ is observed. For the charged particle pseudorapidity density at midrapidity we find a scaling as $$\sim N_{part}^{1.07 \pm 0.04}$$ and $$\sim N_{coll}^{0.82 \pm 0.03}$$. This faster than linear scaling with $$N_{part}$$ indicates a violation of the naive Wounded Nucleon Model.