Heavy quarkonia are observed to be suppressed in relativistic heavy ion collisions relative to their production in p+p collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. In order to determine if this suppression is related to color screening of these states in the produced medium, one needs to account for other nuclear modifications including those in cold nuclear matter. In this paper, we present new measurements from the PHENIX 2007 data set of J/psi yields at forward rapidity (1.2<|y|<2.2) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The data confirm the earlier finding that the suppression of J/psi at forward rapidity is stronger than at midrapidity, while also extending the measurement to finer bins in collision centrality and higher transverse momentum (pT). We compare the experimental data to the most recent theoretical calculations that incorporate a variety of physics mechanisms including gluon saturation, gluon shadowing, initial-state parton energy loss, cold nuclear matter breakup, color screening, and charm recombination. We find J/psi suppression beyond cold-nuclear-matter effects. However, the current level of disagreement between models and d+Au data precludes using these models to quantify the hot-nuclear-matter suppression.

Charmonium is a valuable probe in heavy-ion collisions to study the properties of the quark gluon plasma, and is also an interesting probe in small collision systems to study cold nuclear matter effects, which are also present in large collision systems. With the recent observations of collective behavior of produced particles in small system collisions, measurements of the modification of charmonium in small systems have become increasingly relevant. We present the results of J/ψ measurements at forward and backward rapidity in various small collision systems, p+p, p+Al, p+Au and 3He+Au, at √sNN =200 GeV. The results are presented in the form of the observable RAB, the nuclear modification factor, a measure of the ratio of the J/ψ invariant yield compared to the scaled yield in p+p collisions. We examine the rapidity, transverse momentum, and collision centrality dependence of nuclear effects on J/ψ production with different projectile sizes p and 3He, and different target sizes Al and Au. The modification is found to be strongly dependent on the target size, but to be very similar for p+Au and 3He+Au. However, for 0%–20% central collisions at backward rapidity, the modification for 3He+Au is found to be smaller than that for p+Au, with a mean fit to the ratio of 0.89±0.03(stat)±0.08(syst), possibly indicating final state effects due to the larger projectile size.

The PHENIX experiment has studied nuclear effects in $p$$+$Al and $p$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV on charged hadron production at forward rapidity ($1.4<\eta<2.4$, $p$-going direction) and backward rapidity ($-2.2<\eta<-1.2$, $A$-going direction). Such effects are quantified by measuring nuclear modification factors as a function of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity in various collision multiplicity selections. In central $p$$+$Al and $p$$+$Au collisions, a suppression (enhancement) is observed at forward (backward) rapidity compared to the binary scaled yields in $p$+$p$ collisions. The magnitude of enhancement at backward rapidity is larger in $p$$+$Au collisions than in $p$$+$Al collisions, which have a smaller number of participating nucleons. However, the results at forward rapidity show a similar suppression within uncertainties. The results in the integrated centrality are compared with calculations using nuclear parton distribution functions, which show a reasonable agreement at the forward rapidity but fail to describe the backward rapidity enhancement.

The PHENIX Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured open heavy-flavor production in minimum bias Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV via the yields of electrons from semileptonic decays of charm and bottom hadrons. Previous heavy-flavor electron measurements indicated substantial modification in the momentum distribution of the parent heavy quarks due to the quark-gluon plasma created in these collisions. For the first time, using the PHENIX silicon vertex detector to measure precision displaced tracking, the relative contributions from charm and bottom hadrons to these electrons as a function of transverse momentum are measured in Au$+$Au collisions. We compare the fraction of electrons from bottom hadrons to previously published results extracted from electron-hadron correlations in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV and find the fractions to be similar within the large uncertainties on both measurements for $p_T>4$ GeV/$c$. We use the bottom electron fractions in Au$+$Au and $p$$+$$p$ along with the previously measured heavy flavor electron $R_{AA}$ to calculate the $R_{AA}$ for electrons from charm and bottom hadron decays separately. We find that electrons from bottom hadron decays are less suppressed than those from charm for the region $3<p_T<4$ GeV/$c$.

Measurements of double-helicity asymmetries for inclusive hadron production in polarized p+p collisions are sensitive to helicity--dependent parton distribution functions, in particular to the gluon helicity distribution, Delta(g). This study focuses on the extraction of the double-helicity asymmetry in eta production: polarized p+p --> eta + X, the eta cross section, and the eta/pi^0 cross section ratio. The cross section and ratio measurements provide essential input for the extraction of fragmentation functions that are needed to access the helicity-dependent parton distribution functions.

Direct photons have been measured in sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV d+Au collisions at midrapidity. A wide p_T range is covered by measurements of nearly-real virtual photons (1<p_T<6 GeV/c) and real photons (5<p_T<16 GeV/c). The invariant yield of the direct photons in d+Au collisions over the scaled p+p cross section is consistent with unity. Theoretical calculations assuming standard cold nuclear matter effects describe the data well for the entire p_T range. This indicates that the large enhancement of direct photons observed in Au+Au collisions for 1.0<p_T<2.5 GeV/c is due to a source other than the initial-state nuclear effects.

The energy dependence of the single-transverse-spin asymmetry, A_N, and the cross section for neutron production at very forward angles were measured in the PHENIX experiment at RHIC for polarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. The neutrons were observed in forward detectors covering an angular range of up to 2.2 mrad. We report results for neutrons with momentum fraction of x_F=0.45 to 1.0. The energy dependence of the measured cross sections were consistent with x_F scaling, compared to measurements by an ISR experiment which measured neutron production in unpolarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=30.6--62.7 GeV. The cross sections for large x_F neutron production for p+p collisions, as well as those in e+p collisions measured at HERA, are described by a pion exchange mechanism. The observed forward neutron asymmetries were large, reaching A_N=-0.08+/-0.02 for x_F=0.8; the measured backward asymmetries, for negative x_F, were consistent with zero. The observed asymmetry for forward neutron production is discussed within the pion exchange framework, with interference between the spin-flip amplitude due to the pion exchange and nonflip amplitudes from all Reggeon exchanges. Within the pion exchange description, the measured neutron asymmetry is sensitive to the contribution of other Reggeon exchanges even for small amplitudes.

During 2015 the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided collisions of transversely polarized protons with Au and Al nuclei for the first time, enabling the exploration of transverse-single-spin asymmetries with heavy nuclei. Large single-spin asymmetries in very forward neutron production have been previously observed in transversely polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at RHIC, and the existing theoretical framework that was successful in describing the single-spin asymmetry in $p$$+$$p$ collisions predicts only a moderate atomic-mass-number ($A$) dependence. In contrast, the asymmetries observed at RHIC in $p$$+$$A$ collisions showed a surprisingly strong $A$ dependence in inclusive forward neutron production. The observed asymmetry in $p$$+$Al collisions is much smaller, while the asymmetry in $p$$+$Au collisions is a factor of three larger in absolute value and of opposite sign. The interplay of different neutron production mechanisms is discussed as a possible explanation of the observed $A$ dependence.

We report the first measurement of transverse single-spin asymmetries in $J/\psi$ production from transversely polarized $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV with data taken by the PHENIX experiment in 2006 and 2008. The measurement was performed over the rapidity ranges $1.2 &lt; |y| &lt; 2.2$ and $ |y| &lt; 0.35$ for transverse momenta up to 6 GeV/$c$. $J/\psi$ production at RHIC is dominated by processes involving initial-state gluons, and transverse single-spin asymmetries of the $J/\psi$ can provide access to gluon dynamics within the nucleon. Such asymmetries may also shed light on the long-standing question in QCD of the $J/\psi$ production mechanism. Asymmetries were obtained as a function of $J/\psi$ transverse momentum and Feynman-$x$, with a value of $-0.086 \pm 0.026^{\rm stat} \pm 0.003^{\rm syst}$ in the forward region. This result suggests possible nonzero trigluon correlation functions in transversely polarized protons and, if well defined in this reaction, a nonzero gluon Sivers distribution function.

The PHENIX experiment has measured $\phi$ meson production in $d$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV using the dimuon and dielectron decay channels. The $\phi$ meson is measured in the forward (backward) $d$-going (Au-going) direction, $1.2<y<2.2$ ($-2.2<y<-1.2$) in the transverse-momentum ($p_T$) range from 1--7 GeV/$c$, and at midrapidity $|y|<0.35$ in the $p_T$ range below 7 GeV/$c$. The $\phi$ meson invariant yields and nuclear-modification factors as a function of $p_T$, rapidity, and centrality are reported. An enhancement of $\phi$ meson production is observed in the Au-going direction, while suppression is seen in the $d$-going direction, and no modification is observed at midrapidity relative to the yield in $p$$+$$p$ collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. Similar behavior was previously observed for inclusive charged hadrons and open heavy flavor indicating similar cold-nuclear-matter effects.