The cross section for inclusive multipion production in the pp->ppX reaction was measured at COSY-ANKE at four beam energies, 0.8, 1.1, 1.4, and 2.0 GeV, for low excitation energy in the final pp system, such that the diproton quasi-particle is in the 1S0 state. At the three higher energies the missing mass Mx spectra show a strong enhancement at low Mx, corresponding to an ABC effect that moves steadily to larger values as the energy is increased. Despite the missing-mass structure looking very different at 0.8 GeV, the variation with Mx and beam energy are consistent with two-pion production being mediated through the excitation of two Delta(1232) isobars, coupled to S-- and D-- states of the initial pp system.
Data on multiplicities of charged particles produced in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon are presented. It is shown that the mean multiplicity of negative particles is proportional to the mean number of nucleons participating in the collision both for nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions. The apparent consistency of pion multiplicity data with the assumption of an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions is critically discussed.
Threshold measurements of the associated strangeness production reactions pp --> p K(+) Lambda and pp --> p K(+) Sigma(0) are presented. Although slight differences in the shapes of the excitation functions are observed, the most remarkable feature of the data is that at the same excess energy the total cross section for the Sigma(0) production appears to be about a factor of 28 smaller than the one for the Lambda particle. It is concluded that strong Sigma(0)-p final state interactions, and in particular the Sigma-N --> Lambda-p conversion reaction, are the likely cause of the depletion for the yield in the Sigma signal. This hypothesis is in line with other experimental evidence in the literature.
The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than those measured at RHIC.
In high-energy heavy-ion collisions, partonic collectivity is evidenced by the constituent quark number scaling of elliptic flow anisotropy for identified hadrons. A breaking of this scaling and dominance of baryonic interactions is found for identified hadron collective flow measurements in $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 3 GeV Au+Au collisions. In this paper, we report measurements of the first- and second-order azimuthal anisotropic parameters, $v_1$ and $v_2$, of light nuclei ($d$, $t$, $^{3}$He, $^{4}$He) produced in $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 3 GeV Au+Au collisions at the STAR experiment. An atomic mass number scaling is found in the measured $v_1$ slopes of light nuclei at mid-rapidity. For the measured $v_2$ magnitude, a strong rapidity dependence is observed. Unlike $v_2$ at higher collision energies, the $v_2$ values at mid-rapidity for all light nuclei are negative and no scaling is observed with the atomic mass number. Calculations by the Jet AA Microscopic Transport Model (JAM), with baryonic mean-field plus nucleon coalescence, are in good agreement with our observations, implying baryonic interactions dominate the collective dynamics in 3 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC.
The Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) was extended to energies below $\sqrt{\textit{s}_{NN}}$ = 7.7 GeV in 2015 by successful implementation of the fixed-target mode of operation in the STAR (Solenoidal Track At RHIC) experiment. In the fixed-target mode, ions circulate in one ring of the collider and interact with a stationary target at the entrance of the STAR Time Projection Chamber. The first results for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{\textit{s}_{NN}}$ = 4.5 GeV are presented, including directed and elliptic flow of identified hadrons, and radii from pion femtoscopy. The proton flow and pion femtoscopy results agree quantitatively with earlier measurements by Alternating Gradient Synchrotron experiments at similar energies. This validates running the STAR experiment in the fixed-target configuration. Pion directed and elliptic flow are presented for the first time at this beam energy. Pion and proton elliptic flow show behavior which hints at constituent quark scaling, but large error bars preclude reliable conclusions. The ongoing second phase of BES (BES-II) will provide fixed-target data sets with 100 times more events at each of several energies down to $\sqrt{\textit{s}_{NN}}$ = 3.0 GeV.
We report on the measurements of directed flow $v_1$ and elliptic flow $v_2$ for hadrons ($\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $K_{S}^0$, $p$, $\phi$, $\Lambda$ and $\Xi^{-}$) from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 3 GeV and $v_{2}$ for ($\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $p$ and $\overline{p}$) at 27 and 54.4 GeV with the STAR experiment. While at the two higher energy midcentral collisions the number-of-constituent-quark (NCQ) scaling holds, at 3 GeV the $v_{2}$ at midrapidity is negative for all hadrons and the NCQ scaling is absent. In addition, the $v_1$ slopes at midrapidity for almost all observed hadrons are found to be positive, implying dominant repulsive baryonic interactions. The features of negative $v_2$ and positive $v_1$ slope at 3 GeV can be reproduced with a baryonic mean-field in transport model calculations. These results imply that the medium in such collisions is likely characterized by baryonic interactions.
Global hyperon polarization, $\overline{P}_\mathrm{H}$, in Au+Au collisions over a large range of collision energy, $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$, was recently measured and successfully reproduced by hydrodynamic and transport models with intense fluid vorticity of the quark-gluon plasma. While naïve extrapolation of data trends suggests a large $\overline{P}_\mathrm{H}$ as the collision energy is reduced, the behavior of $\overline{P}_\mathrm{H}$ at small $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}<7.7$ GeV is unknown. Operating the STAR experiment in fixed-target mode, we measured the polarization of $\Lambda$ hyperons along the direction of global angular momentum in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}=3$ GeV. The observation of substantial polarization of $4.91\pm0.81(\rm stat.)\pm0.15(\rm syst.)$% in these collisions may require a reexamination of the viscosity of any fluid created in the collision, of the thermalization timescale of rotational modes, and of hadronic mechanisms to produce global polarization.
The two-pion production in pp-collisions has been investigated at CELSIUS in exclusive measurements from threshold up to $T_p$ = 1.36 GeV. Total and differential cross sections have been obtained for the channels $pn\pi^+\pi^0$, $pp\pi^+\pi^-$, $pp\pi^0\pi^0$ and also $nn\pi^+\pi^+$. For intermediate incident energies $T_p >$ 1 GeV, i.e. in the region which is beyond the Roper excitation but at the onset of $\Delta\Delta$ excitation, the total $pp\pi^0\pi^0$ cross section falls behind theoretical predictions by as much as an order of magnitude near 1.2 GeV, whereas the $nn\pi^+\pi^+$ cross section is a factor of five larger than predicted. An isospin decompostion of the total cross sections exhibits a s-channel-like energy dependence in the region of the Roper excitation as well as a significant contribution of an isospin 3/2 resonance other than the $\Delta(1232)$. As possible candidates the $\Delta(1600)$ and the $\Delta(1700)$ are discussed.
We present high-statistic data on charged pion emission from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 2.4 GeV (corresponding to $E_{beam}$ = 1.23 A GeV) in four centrality classes in the range 0 - 40$\%$ of the most central collisions. The data are analyzed as a function of transverse momentum, transverse mass, rapidity, and polar angle. Pion multiplicity per participating nucleon decreases moderately with increasing centrality. The polar angular distributions are found to be non-isotropic even for the most central event class. Our results on pion multiplicity fit well into the general trend of the world data, but undershoot by $2.5 \sigma$ data from the FOPI experiment measured at slightly lower beam energy. We compare our data to state-of-the-art transport model calculations (PHSD, IQMD, PHQMD, GiBUU and SMASH) and find substantial differences between the measurement and the results of these calculations.
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