The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider measured $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons at midrapidity in U$+$U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=192$ GeV in a wide transverse momentum range. Measurements were performed in the $\pi^0(\eta)\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$ decay modes. A strong suppression of $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ meson production at high transverse momentum was observed in central U$+$U collisions relative to binary scaled $p$$+$$p$ results. Yields of $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons measured in U$+$U collisions show similar suppression pattern to the ones measured in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV for similar numbers of participant nucleons. The $\eta$/$\pi^0$ ratios do not show dependence on centrality or transverse momentum, and are consistent with previously measured values in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus, nucleus-nucleus, and $e^+e^-$ collisions.
The PHENIX experiment has measured the suppression of semi-inclusive single high transverse momentum pi^0's in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. The present understanding of this suppression is in terms of energy-loss of the parent (fragmenting) parton in a dense color-charge medium. We have performed a quantitative comparison between various parton energy-loss models and our experimental data. The statistical point-to-point uncorrelated as well as correlated systematic uncertainties are taken into account in the comparison. We detail this methodology and the resulting constraint on the model parameters, such as the initial color-charge density dN^g/dy, the medium transport coefficient <q^hat>, or the initial energy-loss parameter epsilon_0. We find that high transverse momentum pi^0 suppression in Au+Au collisions has sufficient precision to constrain these model dependent parameters at the +/1 20%-25% (one standard deviation) level. These constraints include only the experimental uncertainties, and further studies are needed to compute the corresponding theoretical uncertainties.
Values of the ratios in the mid-rapidity yields of anti-Lambda/Lambda = 0.71 +/- 0.01(stat.) +/- 0.04(sys.), anti-Xi+/Xi- = 0.83 +/- 0.04(stat.) +/- 0.05 (sys.), anti-Omega+/Omega- = 0.95 +/- 0.15(stat) +/- 0.05(sys.) and K+/K- 1.092 +/- 0.023(combined) were obtained in central sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV Au+Au collisions using the STAR detector. The ratios indicate that a fraction of the net-baryon number from the initial system is present in the excess of hyperons over anti-hyperons at mid-rapidity. The trend in the progression of the baryon ratios, with increasing strange quark content, is similar to that observed in heavy-ion collisions at lower energies. The value of these ratios may be related to the charged kaon ratio in the framework of simple quark-counting and thermal models.
We report results on the ratio of mid-rapidity anti-proton to proton yields in Au+Au collisions at $\rts = 130$ GeV per nucleon pair as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. Within the rapidity and transverse momentum range of $|y|<0.5$ and 0.4 $<p_t<$ 1.0 GeV/$c$, the ratio is essentially independent of either transverse momentum or rapidity, with an average of $0.65\pm 0.01_{\rm (stat.)} \pm 0.07_{\rm (syst.)}$ for minimum bias collisions. Within errors, no strong centrality dependence is observed. The results indicate that at this RHIC energy, although the $p$-$\pb$ pair production becomes important at mid-rapidity, a significant excess of baryons over anti-baryons is still present.
The short-lived $K(892)^{*}$ resonance provides an efficient tool to probe properties of the hot and dense medium produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We report measurements of $K^{*}$ in $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV Au+Au and $p+p$ collisions reconstructed via its hadronic decay channels $K(892)^{*0} \to K\pi$ and $K(892)^{*\pm} \to K_S^0\pi^{\pm}$ using the STAR detector at RHIC. The $K^{*0}$ mass has been studied as a function of $p_T$ in minimum bias $p+p$ and central Au+Au collisions. The $K^{*}$ $p_T$ spectra for minimum bias $p+p$ interactions and for Au+Au collisions in different centralities are presented. The $K^{*}/K$ yield ratios for all centralities in Au+Au collisions are found to be significantly lower than the ratio in minimum bias $p+p$ collisions, indicating the importance of hadronic interactions between chemical and kinetic freeze-outs. A significant non-zero $K^{*0}$ elliptic flow ($v_2$) is observed in Au+Au collisions and compared to the $K_S^0$ and $\Lambda$ $v_2$. The nuclear modification factor of $K^{*}$ at intermediate $p_{T}$ is similar to that of $K_{S}^{0}$, but different from $\Lambda$. This establishes a baryon-meson effect over a mass effect in the particle production at intermediate $p_T$ ($2 < p_T \leq 4$ GeV/$c$).
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