High-energy nuclear collisions create an energy density similar to that of the universe microseconds after the Big Bang, and in both cases, matter and antimatter are formed with comparable abundance. However, the relatively short-lived expansion in nuclear collisions allows antimatter to decouple quickly from matter, and avoid annihilation. Thus, a high energy accelerator of heavy nuclei is an efficient means of producing and studying antimatter. The antimatter helium-4 nucleus ($^4\bar{He}$), also known as the anti-{\alpha} ($\bar{\alpha}$), consists of two antiprotons and two antineutrons (baryon number B=-4). It has not been observed previously, although the {\alpha} particle was identified a century ago by Rutherford and is present in cosmic radiation at the 10% level. Antimatter nuclei with B < -1 have been observed only as rare products of interactions at particle accelerators, where the rate of antinucleus production in high-energy collisions decreases by about 1000 with each additional antinucleon. We present the observation of the antimatter helium-4 nucleus, the heaviest observed antinucleus. In total 18 $^4\bar{He}$ counts were detected at the STAR experiment at RHIC in 10$^9$ recorded Au+Au collisions at center-of-mass energies of 200 GeV and 62 GeV per nucleon-nucleon pair. The yield is consistent with expectations from thermodynamic and coalescent nucleosynthesis models, which has implications beyond nuclear physics.
Differential invariant yields of (anti)baryons evaluated at pT/B =0.875 GeV/c, in central 200 GeV Au+Au collisions.
The production of mesons containing strange quarks (K$^0_s$, $\phi$) and both singly and doubly strange baryons ($\Lambda$, Anti-$\Lambda$, and $\Xi$+Anti-$\Xi$) are measured at central rapidity in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The results are obtained from the analysis of about 250 k minimum bias events recorded in 2009. Measurements of yields (dN/dy) and transverse momentum spectra at central rapidities for inelastic pp collisions are presented. For mesons, we report yields (<dN/dy>) of 0.184 $\pm$ 0.002 stat. $\pm$ 0.006 syst. for K$^0_s$ and 0.021 $\pm$ 0.004 stat. $\pm$ 0.003 syst. for $\phi$. For baryons, we find <dN/dy> = 0.048 $\pm$ 0.001 stat. $\pm$ 0.004 syst. for $\Lambda$, 0.047 $\pm$ 0.002 stat. $\pm$ 0.005 syst. for Anti-$\Lambda$ and 0.0101 $\pm$ 0.0020 stat. $\pm$ 0.0009 syst. for $\Xi$+Anti-$\Xi$. The results are also compared with predictions for identified particle spectra from QCD-inspired models and provide a baseline for comparisons with both future pp measurements at higher energies and heavy-ion collisions.
The measured production spectra for K0s hadrons as a function of pT.
The measured production spectra for Lambda hadrons as a function of pT.
The measured production spectra for Anti-Lambda hadrons as a function of pT.
Identified pi^[+/-] K^[+/-], p and p-bar transverse momentum spectra at mid-rapidity in sqrt(s_NN)=130 GeV Au-Au collisions were measured by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC as a function of collision centrality. Average transverse momenta increase with the number of participating nucleons in a similar way for all particle species. The multiplicity densities scale faster than the number of participating nucleons. Kaon and nucleon yields per participant increase faster than the pion yields. In central collisions at high transverse momenta (p_T greater than 2 GeV/c), anti-proton and proton yields are comparable to the pion yields.
Transverse momentum spectra for PI+ in the midrapidity range for the centrality region 0 to 5 PCT. Errors are combined statistical and systematics.
Transverse momentum spectra for PI- in the midrapidity range for the centrality region 0 to 5 PCT. Errors are combined statistical and systematics.
Transverse momentum spectra for K+ in the midrapidity range for the centrality region 0 to 5 PCT. Errors are combined statistical and systematics.
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