Transverse mass and rapidity distributions for charged pions, charged kaons, protons and antiprotons are reported for sqrt{s_NN}=200 GeV pp and Au+Au collisions at RHIC. The transverse mass distributions are rapidity independent within |y|<0.5, consistent with a boost-invariant system in this rapidity interval. Spectral shapes and relative particle yields are similar in pp and peripheral Au+Au collisions and change smoothly to central Au+Au collisions. No centrality dependence was observed in the kaon and antiproton production rates relative to the pion production rate from medium-central to central collisions. Chemical and kinetic equilibrium model fits to our data reveal strong radial flow and relatively long duration from chemical to kinetic freeze-out in central Au+Au collisions. The chemical freeze-out temperature appears to be independent of initial conditions at RHIC energies.
We report first results on elliptic flow of identified particles at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130$ GeV using the STAR TPC at RHIC. The elliptic flow as a function of transverse momentum and centrality differs significantly for particles of different masses. This dependence can be accounted for in hydrodynamic models, indicating that the system created shows a behavior consistent with collective hydrodynamical flow. The fit to the data with a simple model gives information on the temperature and flow velocities at freeze-out.
We present the first measurements of identified hadron production, azimuthal anisotropy, and pion interferometry from Au+Au collisions below the nominal injection energy at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) facility. The data were collected using the large acceptance STAR detector at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 9.2 GeV from a test run of the collider in the year 2008. Midrapidity results on multiplicity density (dN/dy) in rapidity (y), average transverse momentum (<pT>), particle ratios, elliptic flow, and HBT radii are consistent with the corresponding results at similar $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ from fixed target experiments. Directed flow measurements are presented for both midrapidity and forward rapidity regions. Furthermore the collision centrality dependence of identified particle dN/dy, <pT>, and particle ratios are discussed. These results also demonstrate the readiness of the STAR detector to undertake the proposed QCD critical point search and the exploration of the QCD phase diagram at RHIC.
We present an improved measurement of the double helicity asymmetry for pi^0 production in polarized proton-proton scattering at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV employing the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The improvements to our previous measurement come from two main factors: Inclusion of a new data set from the 2004 RHIC run with higher beam polarizations than the earlier run and a recalibration of the beam polarization measurements, which resulted in reduced uncertainties and increased beam polarizations. The results are compared to a Next to Leading Order (NLO) perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) calculation with a range of polarized gluon distributions.
A new measurement of the b-bbar production cross section in 920 GeV proton-nucleus collisions is presented by the HERA-B collaboration. The b-bbar production is tagged via inclusive bottom quark decays into J/psi mesons, by exploiting the longitudinal separation of J/psi->ll decay vertices from the primary proton-nucleus interaction point. Both e+e- and mu+mu- channels are reconstructed, for a total of 83 +- 12 inclusive b->J/psi X events found. The combined analysis yields a b-bbar to prompt J/psi cross section ratio of ${\frac{{\Delta\sigma(bbbar)}}{{\Delta\sigma_{\jpsi}}}} = 0.032\pm 0.005 \stat \pm 0.004 \sys$ measured in the x_f acceptance (-0.35 <x_f <0.15), extrapolated to $\sigma(bbbar) = 14.9 \pm 2.2 \stat \pm 2.4 \sys $ nb/nucleon in the total phase space.
The longitudinal spin transfer $D_{LL}$ to $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda}$ hyperons produced in high-energy polarized proton--proton collisions is expected to be sensitive to the helicity distribution functions of strange quarks and anti-quarks of the proton, and to longitudinally polarized fragmentation functions. We report an improved measurement of $D_{LL}$ from data obtained at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC. The data have an approximately twelve times larger figure-of-merit than prior results and cover $|\eta|<$ 1.2 in pseudo-rapidity with transverse momenta $p_T$ up to 6 GeV/c. In the forward scattering hemisphere at largest $p_T$, the longitudinal spin transfer is found to be $D_{LL}$ = -0.036 $\pm$ 0.048 (stat) $\pm$ 0.013(sys) for $\Lambda$ hyperons and $D_{LL}$ = 0.032 $\pm$ 0.043\,(stat) $\pm$ 0.013\,(sys) for $\bar{\Lambda}$ anti-hyperons. The dependences on $\eta$ and $p_T$ are presented and compared with model evaluations.
Polarized proton-proton collisions provide leading-order access to gluons, presenting an opportunity to constrain gluon spin-momentum correlations within transversely polarized protons and enhance our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the proton. Midrapidity open-heavy-flavor production at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV is dominated by gluon-gluon fusion, providing heightened sensitivity to gluon dynamics relative to other production channels. Transverse single-spin asymmetries of positrons and electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays are measured at midrapidity using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These charge-separated measurements are sensitive to gluon correlators that can in principle be related to gluon orbital angular momentum via model calculations. Explicit constraints on gluon correlators are extracted for two separate models, one of which had not been constrained previously.
Modifications to the distribution of charged particles with respect to high transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) jets passing through a quark-gluon plasma are explored using the CMS detector. Back-to-back dijets are analyzed in lead-lead and proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} =$ 5.02 TeV via correlations of charged particles in bins of relative pseudorapidity and angular distance from the leading and subleading jet axes. In comparing the lead-lead and proton-proton collision results, modifications to the charged-particle relative distance distribution and to the momentum distributions around the jet axis are found to depend on the dijet momentum balance $x_j$, which is the ratio between the subleading and leading jet $p_\mathrm{T}$. For events with $x_j$$\approx$ 1, these modifications are observed for both the leading and subleading jets. However, while subleading jets show significant modifications for events with a larger dijet momentum imbalance, much smaller modifications are found for the leading jets in these events.
The polarization of Λ0 hyperons in inclusive production by 12-GeV protons on nuclei has been measured for beryllium, copper, and tungsten targets. Data are obtained at five production angles, 3.5°, 5.0°, 6.5°, 8.0°, and 9.5°, covering the kinematic range 0.26≤xF≤0.77 and 0.4≤pT≤1.5 GeV/c. The dependence of the polarization on target nuclei is investigated by statistical analyses of the data. The polarization at fixed pT increases roughly linearly with xF. The present results are compared with other work at higher energies in terms of the A dependence and the (xF,pT) dependence.
$\Upsilon$ production in p-Pb interactions is studied at the centre-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 8.16 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. The measurement is performed reconstructing bottomonium resonances via their dimuon decay channel, in the centre-of-mass rapidity intervals $2.03 < y_{\rm{cms}} < 3.53$ and $-4.46 < y_{\rm{cms}} < -2.96$, down to zero transverse momentum. In this work, results on the inclusive $\Upsilon(1\rm{S})$ production cross section as a function of rapidity and transverse momentum are presented. The corresponding nuclear modification factor shows a suppression of the $\Upsilon(1\rm{S})$ yields with respect to pp collisions, both at forward and backward rapidity. This suppression is stronger in the low transverse momentum region and shows no significant dependence on the centrality of the interactions. Furthermore, the $\Upsilon(2\rm{S})$ nuclear modification factor is also evaluated, suggesting a suppression similar to that of the $\Upsilon(1\rm{S})$. A first measurement of the $\Upsilon(3\rm{S})$ has also been performed. Finally, results are compared with previous measurements performed by ALICE in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV and with theoretical calculations.
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