A measurement of continuum dimuon production in proton-copper collisions at 800-GeV incident energy is presented. The dimuons observed in this experiment cover the mass range from 6.5 to 18 GeV near y=0 in the proton-nucleon center-of-momentum frame. Scaling forms of the cross section for the continuum are compared with the results of other experiments in the context of the parton model and quantum chromodynamics. The present limitations of such scaling comparisons are discussed.
Experimental results on the production of dimuons by 800-GeV protons incident on a copper target are presented. The results include measurements of both the continuum of dimuons and the dimuon decays of the three lowest-mass ϒ S states. A description of the apparatus, data acquisition, and analysis techniques is included. A comparison of the results with data taken at lower incident energies indicates a scaling behavior of the continuum dimuon yields.
Absolute cross sections as functions of kinematic variables are presented for the production of muon pairs from 800 GeV proton bombardment of H2. Drell-Yan (continuum) dimuons were recorded in the mass regions 4.5≤Mμ+μ−≤9 GeV and Mμ+μ−≥11 GeV, with an x-Feynman range -0.1≤xF≤0.75. This range corresponds to smaller masses and larger values of xF than previous 800 GeV Drell-Yan data. Cross sections for the Υ(1S) resonance are also given versus the transverse momentum and xF.