Higher order Bose-Einstein Correlations test the Gaussian density matrix and the space-time approach

A multiparticle system produced by a large number of independent sources is described by a gaussian density matrix Ŵ. All theoretical approaches to Bose-Einstein Correlations Cn in high energy physics use this form for Ŵ. One of the most salient consequences of this form is the fact that all higher order (n>2) moments of the current distribution can be expressed in terms of the first two. We test this property by comparing the data on C2(Q2), C3(Q2) and C4(Q2) from π+p and K+p reactions at 250 GeV/c with the predictions of a general quantum statistical space-time approach. Even a simplified version of such an approach involving only 4 (instead of the total of 10) independent parameters (proper-time, correlation-length, transverse radius of chaotic source, chaoticity) can account for the data. Previous attempts along these lines, which did not use the space-time approach, met with difficulties.