The NA60 experiment studies muon pair production at the CERN SPS. In this letter we report on a precision measurement of J/psi in In-In collisions. We have studied the J/psi centrality distribution, and we have compared it with the one expected if absorption in cold nuclear matter were the only active suppression mechanism. For collisions involving more than ~80 participant nucleons, we find that an extra suppression is present. This result is in qualitative agreement with previous Pb-Pb measurements by the NA50 experiment, but no theoretical explanation is presently able to coherently describe both results.
The yield of muon pairs in the invariant mass region 1<M<2.5 GeV/c^2 produced in heavy-ion collisions significantly exceeds the sum of the two expected contributions, Drell-Yan dimuons and muon pairs from the decays of D meson pairs. These sources properly account for the dimuons produced in proton-nucleus collisions. In this paper, we show that dimuons are also produced in excess in 158 A GeV In-In collisions. We furthermore observe, by tagging the dimuon vertices, that this excess is not due to enhanced D meson production, but made of {\em prompt} muon pairs, as expected from a source of thermal dimuons specific to high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The yield of this excess increases significantly from peripheral to central collisions, both with respect to the Drell-Yan yield and to the number of nucleons participating in the collisions. Furthermore, the transverse mass distributions of the excess dimuons are well described by an exponential function, with inverse slope values around 190 MeV. The values are independent of mass and significantly lower than those found at masses below 1 GeV/c^2, rising there up to 250 MeV due to radial flow. This suggests the emission source of thermal dimuons above 1 GeV/c^2 to be of largely partonic origin, when radial flow has not yet built up.
The cross section of charm production in γγ collisions σ(e + e − →e + e − c c ̄ X) is measured at LEP with the L3 detector at centre-of-mass energies from 91 GeV to 183 GeV. Charmed hadrons are identified by electrons and muons from semileptonic decays. The direct process γγ→c c ̄ is found to be insufficient to describe the data. The measured cross section values and event distributions require contributions from resolved processes, which are sensitive to the gluon density in the photon.
A study of neutral-current four-fermion processes is performed using a data sample corresponding to 55.3 pb −1 of integrated luminosity collected by the L3 detector at LEP at an average centre-of-mass energy of 183 GeV. The neutral-current four-fermion cross sections for final states with a pair of charged leptons plus jets and with four charged leptons are measured to be consistent with the Standard Model predictions. Events with fermion pair masses close to the Z boson mass are selected in all observable final states and the ZZ production cross section is measured to be σ ZZ =0.30 +0.22 +0.07 −0.16 −0.03 pb, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. No evidence for the existence of anomalous triple gauge boson ZZZ and ZZ γ couplings is found and limits on these couplings are set.
A search for single and multi-photon events with missing energy is performed using data collected at centre-of-mass energies between 161 GeV and 172 GeV for a total of 20.9 pb −1 of integrated luminosity. The results obtained are used to derive the value for the ν ν γ(γ) cross section as well as upper limits on new physics processes.
Cross sections for the production of two isolated muons up to high di-muon masses are measured in ep collisions at HERA with the H1 detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 71 pb^-1 at a centre of mass energy of sqrt{s} = 319 GeV. The results are in good agreement with Standard Model predictions, the dominant process being photon-photon interactions. Additional muons or electrons are searched for in events with two high transverse momentum muons using the full data sample corresponding to 114 pb^-1, where data at sqrt{s} = 301 GeV and sqrt{s} = 319 GeV are combined. Both the di-lepton sample and the tri-lepton sample agree well with the predictions.
The production of neutrons carrying at least 20% of the proton beam energy ($\xl > 0.2$) in $e^+p$ collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for a wide range of $Q^2$, the photon virtuality, from photoproduction to deep inelastic scattering. The neutron-tagged cross section, $e p\to e' X n$, is measured relative to the inclusive cross section, $e p\to e' X$, thereby reducing the systematic uncertainties. For $\xl >$ 0.3, the rate of neutrons in photoproduction is about half of that measured in hadroproduction, which constitutes a clear breaking of factorisation. There is about a 20% rise in the neutron rate between photoproduction and deep inelastic scattering, which may be attributed to absorptive rescattering in the $\gamma p$ system. For $0.64 < \xl < 0.82$, the rate of neutrons is almost independent of the Bjorken scaling variable $x$ and $Q^2$. However, at lower and higher $\xl$ values, there is a clear but weak dependence on these variables, thus demonstrating the breaking of limiting fragmentation. The neutron-tagged structure function, ${{F}^{\rm\tiny LN(3)}_2}(x,Q^2,\xl)$, rises at low values of $x$ in a way similar to that of the inclusive \ff of the proton. The total $\gamma \pi$ cross section and the structure function of the pion, $F^{\pi}_2(x_\pi,Q^2)$ where $x_\pi = x/(1-\xl)$, have been determined using a one-pion-exchange model, up to uncertainties in the normalisation due to the poorly understood pion flux. At fixed $Q^2$, $F^{\pi}_2$ has approximately the same $x$ dependence as $F_2$ of the proton.
The reaction e+e- -> e+e- gamma* gamma* -> e+e- hadrons for quasi-real photons is studied using data from root(s) = 183 GeV up to 202 GeV. Results on the total cross sections sigma(e+e- -> e+e- hadrons) and sigma(+e- gamma* gamma* -> e+e- hadrons) are given for the two-photon centre-of-mass energies 5 GeV < Wgammagamma < 185 GeV. The total cross section of two real photons is described by a Regge parametrisation. We observe a steeper rise with the two-photon centre-of-mass energy as compared to the hadron-hadron and the photon-proton cross sections. The data are also compared to the expectations of different theoretical models.
Inclusive D^{*+-} production in two-photon collisions is studied with the L3 detector at LEP, using 683 pb^{-1} of data collected at centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 208 GeV. Differential cross sections are determined as functions of the transverse momentum and pseudorapidity of the D^{*+-} mesons in the kinematic region 1 GeV < P_T < 12 GeV and |eta| < 1.4. The cross sections sigma(e^+e^- -> e^+e^-D^{*+-}X) in this kinematical region is measured and the sigma(e^+e^- -> e^+e^- cc{bar}X) cross section is derived. The measurements are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations.
Double-tag events in two-photon collisions are studied using the L3 detector at LEP centre-of-mass energies from root(s)=189 GeV to 209 GeV. The cross sections of the e+e- -> e+e- hadrons and gamma*gamma* -> hadrons processes are measured as a function of the photon virtualities, Q1^2 and Q2^2, of the two-photon mass, W_gammagamma, and of the variable Y=ln(W_gammagamma^2/(Q1 Q2)), for an average photon virtuality <Q2> = 16 GeV2. The results are in agreement with next-to-leading order calculations for the process gamma*gamma* -> q qbar in the interval 2 <= Y <= 5. An excess is observed in the interval 5 < Y <= 7, corresponding to W_gammagamma greater than 40 GeV . This may be interpreted as a sign of resolved photon QCD processes or the onset of BFKL phenomena.
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