The inclusive production cross sections of the strange vector mesons K*0, K*0bar, and phi have been measured in interactions of 920 GeV protons with C, Ti, and W targets with the HERA-B detector at the HERA storage ring. Differential cross sections as a function of rapidity and transverse momentum have been measured in the central rapidity region and for transverse momenta up to pT=3.5 GeV/c. The atomic number dependence is parametrised as sigma(pA) = sigma(pN)*A**alpha, where sigma(pN) is the proton-nucleon cross section. Within the phase space accessible, alpha(K*0) = 0.86+/-0.03, alpha(K*0bar) = 0.87+/-0.03, and alpha(phi) = 0.96+/-0.02. The total proton-nucleon cross sections, determined by extrapolating the differential measurements to full phase space, are sigma(pN->K*0) = 5.06+/-0.54 mb, sigma(pN->K*0bar) = 4.02+/-0.45 mb, and sigma(pN->phi) = 1.17+/-0.11 mb. The Cronin effect is observed for the first time for vector mesons containing strange quarks/ compared to the measurements of Cronin et al. for K+- mesons, the measured values of alpha for phi mesons coincide with those of K- mesons for all transverse momenta, while the enhancement for K*0 / K*0bar mesons is smaller.
Measured rapidity distribution for K*0 production in the accessible phase space.
Measured rapidity distribution for K*BAR0 production in the accessible phase space.
Measured rapidity distribution for PHI production in the accessible phase space.
The inclusive production of omega and phi mesons is studied in the backward region of the interaction of 12 GeV protons with polyethylene, carbon, and copper targets. The mesons are measured in e^+ e^- decay channels. The production cross sections of the mesons are presented as functions of rapidity y and transverse momentum p_T. The nuclear mass number dependences (A dependences) are found to be A^{0.710 +/- 0.021(stat) +/- 0.037(syst)} for omega mesons and A^{0.937 +/- 0.049(stat) +/- 0.018(syst)} for phi mesons in the region of 0.9 < y < 1.7 and p_T < 0.75 GeV/c.
Differential cross section as a function of rapidity (YRAP) for OMEGA production.
Differential cross section as a function of rapidity (YRAP) for PHI production.
Differential cross section as a function of transverse momentum (PT) for OMEGA production.
Low mass muon pair production at high P T and low X F studied in pU, OU and SU 200 GeV per nucleon react ions. When energy density or projectile mass are increased, φ production is enhanced as compared with the yield of muon pairs in the mass continuum (1.7< M μμ < 2.4 GeV/ c 2 ), whereas the production of ω and ϱ, experimentally unresolved, remains approximately constant. This φ enhancement is in agreement with predictions based on quark-gluon plasma formation and, together with the previously reported J/Ψ suppression, puts severe constraints on a purely hadronic description of nucleus-nucleus collisions.
The cross sections are parametrized as A**POWER.