Results from the HELIOS External Spectrometer on kaon production in 200 GeV/ A S + W and p + W collisions are presented. The K π ratios are compared with results from a lower beam energy and are found to be remarkably similar. Evidence for secondary production of K + by meson-baryon rescattering is reviewed. Our results at y = 1.0–1.5 are compared with neutral strange particle results at midrapidity.
We report on the production ofe± μ∓ pairs in 450 GeV/c pBe collisions at the CERN SPS. Theeμ signal, which has average missing energy of 21 GeV, is shown to be consistent with expectations from charm decay, and implies a σ ×B for\(c\bar c\) production in p-nucleon collisions of 0.63 ± 0.35μb. Alternatively, using an estimate of charm production from other experiments, the data imply a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.16μb on any new physics process which producese±μ∓.
We present measurements of the rapidity and transverse-momentum distributions of the protons emitted in S+W, O+W, andp+W reactions at 200 GeV/A around the target rapidity (y=1). The rapidity density rises linearly with the transverse energy for all three systems, but the slope forp+W is much steeper than for O+W and S+W. The rapidity density forp+W is much higher than predicted by summing single nucleonnucleon collisions without any nuclear effects, indicating substantial rescattering of the produced particles. The predictions of the VENUS 3 model, including rescattering, show reasonable agreement with the data for all three systems. We do not have evidence for a strong collective flow of the outgoing particles.
We have measured the inclusive cross-section as a function of missing energy, due to the production of neutrinos or new weakly interacting neutral particles in 450 GeV/c proton-nucleus collisions, using calorimetric measurements of visible event energy. Upper limits are placed on the production of new particles as a function of their energy. These upper limits are typically an order
The HELIOS experiment has measured inclusivep⊥ spectra of negative particles in the rapidity region 1.0<y<1.9. The general shape of thep⊥ spectra in p +W, O+W and S+W is similar, but cannot be described by a single exponential. Compared to p+p collisions, an excess is observed for low and highp⊥. This effect increases with the projectile mass. Except for very lowE⊥, the average transverse momentum <p⊥> is found to be approximately constant up to the highest accessible values ofE⊥.