Rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and antiproton production from Au-197+Au-197 collisions at root S-NN=130 GeV

We report on the rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and anti-proton transverse mass distributions from {sup 197}Au + {sup 197}Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 130 GeV as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. Our results are from the rapidity and transverse momentum range of |y| < 0.5 and 0.35 < p{sub t} < 1.00 GeV/c. For both protons and anti-protons, transverse mass distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions demonstrating characteristics of collective expansion. The measured rapidity distributions and the mean transverse momenta versus rapidity are flat within |y| < 0.5. Comparisons of our data with results from model calculations indicate that in order to obtain a consistent picture of the proton(anti-proton) yields and transverse mass distributions the possibility of pre-hadronic collective expansion may have to be taken into account.