We present measurements of $e^+e^-$ production at midrapidity in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV. The invariant yield is studied within the PHENIX detector acceptance over a wide range of mass ($m_{ee} <$ 5 GeV/$c^2$) and pair transverse momentum ($p_T$ $<$ 5 GeV/$c$), for minimum bias and for five centrality classes. The \ee yield is compared to the expectations from known sources. In the low-mass region ($m_{ee}=0.30$--0.76 GeV/$c^2$) there is an enhancement that increases with centrality and is distributed over the entire pair \pt range measured. It is significantly smaller than previously reported by the PHENIX experiment and amounts to $2.3\pm0.4({\rm stat})\pm0.4({\rm syst})\pm0.2^{\rm model}$ or to $1.7\pm0.3({\rm stat})\pm0.3({\rm syst})\pm0.2^{\rm model}$ for minimum bias collisions when the open-heavy-flavor contribution is calculated with {\sc pythia} or {\sc mc@nlo}, respectively. The inclusive mass and $p_T$ distributions as well as the centrality dependence are well reproduced by model calculations where the enhancement mainly originates from the melting of the $\rho$ meson resonance as the system approaches chiral symmetry restoration. In the intermediate-mass region ($m_{ee}$ = 1.2--2.8 GeV/$c^2$), the data hint at a significant contribution in addition to the yield from the semileptonic decays of heavy-flavor mesons.
Cocktail of hadronic sources for the 2010 run using the PYTHIA generator for the open heavy flavor contributions.
Invariant mass spectrum of $e^+e^-$ pairs in MB Au+Au collisions within the PHENIX acceptance compared to the cocktail of expected decays.
We present measurements of the J/psi invariant yields in sqrt(s_NN)=39 and 62.4 GeV Au+Au collisions at forward rapidity (1.2<|y|<2.2). Invariant yields are presented as a function of both collision centrality and transverse momentum. Nuclear modifications are obtained for central relative to peripheral Au+Au collisions (R_CP) and for various centrality selections in Au+Au relative to scaled p+p cross sections obtained from other measurements (R_AA). The observed suppression patterns at 39 and 62.4 GeV are quite similar to those previously measured at 200 GeV. This similar suppression presents a challenge to theoretical models that contain various competing mechanisms with different energy dependencies, some of which cause suppression and others enhancement.
Estimates used for the 39- and 62.4-GeV $J/\psi$ $p$+$p$ cross sections along with their uncertainties.
$J/\psi$ invariant yields are shown for Au+Au collisions at 39 and 62.4 GeV as a function of the number of participating nucleons.
$J/\psi$ invariant yields are shown for Au+Au collisions at 39 and 62.4 GeV as a function of the number of participating nucleons.
The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has performed systematic measurements of phi meson production in the K+K- decay channel at midrapidity in p+p, d+Au, Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(S_NN)=200 GeV. Results are presented on the phi invariant yield and the nuclear modification factor R_AA for Au+Au and Cu+Cu, and R_dA for d+Au collisions, studied as a function of transverse momentum (1<p_T<7 GeV/c) and centrality. In central and mid-central Au+Au collisions, the R_AA of phi exhibits a suppression relative to expectations from binary scaled p+p results. The amount of suppression is smaller than that of the neutral pion and the eta meson in the intermediate p_T range (2--5 GeV/c); whereas at higher p_T the phi, pi^0, and eta show similar suppression. The baryon (protons and anti-protons) excess observed in central Au+Au collisions at intermediate p_T is not observed for the phi meson despite the similar mass of the proton and the phi. This suggests that the excess is linked to the number of constituent quarks rather than the hadron mass. The difference gradually disappears with decreasing centrality and for peripheral collisions the R_AA values for both particles are consistent with binary scaling. Cu+Cu collisions show the same yield and suppression as Au+Au collisions for the same number of N_part. The R_dA of phi shows no evidence for cold nuclear effects within uncertainties.
Invariant $p_T$ spectra of the $\phi$ meson for different centrality bins in Au+Au, Cu+Cu, $d$+Au, and $p$+$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV.
$R_{AA}$ vs. $p_T$ for $\phi$ in central Au+Au collisions, $R_{AA}$ vs. $p_T$ for $\phi$ and $\pi^0$ in 10-20% mid-central Au+Au collisions, and $R_{AA}$ vs. $p_T$ for $\phi$ and $p$+$\bar{p}$ in 60-92% and for $\pi^0$ in 80-92% peripheral Au+Au collisions. The global uncertainty of ~ 10% related to the $p$+$p$ reference normalization is not shown.
$R_{AA}$ vs. $p_T$ for $\phi$ for 30-40% centrality Au+Au and 0-10% centrality Cu+Cu collisions, and $R_{AA}$ vs. $p_T$ for $\phi$ and $\pi^0$ for 40-50% centrality Au+Au and 10-20% centrality Cu+Cu collisions. The global uncertainty of ~ 10% related to the $p$+$p$ reference normalization is not shown.
Differential measurements of the elliptic (v_2) and hexadecapole (v_4) Fourier flow coefficients are reported for charged hadrons as a function of transverse momentum (p_T) and collision centrality or the number of participant nucleons (N_part) for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The v_{2,4} measurements at pseudorapidity |\eta|<=0.35 obtained with four separate reaction plane detectors positioned in the range 1.0<|\eta|<3.9 show good agreement, indicating the absence of significant \eta-dependent nonflow perturbations. Sizable values for v_4(p_T) are observed with a ratio v_4(p_T,N_part)/v_2^2(p_T,N_part)~0.8 for 50<N_part<200, which is compatible with the combined effects of a finite viscosity and initial eccentricity fluctuations. For N_part>200 this ratio increases up to 1.7 in the most central collisions.
Glauber quantities ($N_{part}$, $N_{coll}$, $b$) for Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV (PHENIX Run 2007)
Event-plane resolution factors vs. $N_{part}$ for $v_2$ and $v_4$ measurements for the indicated event planes.
Comparison of $v_2$ vs. $N_{part}$ and $v_4$ vs. $N_{part}$ for charged hadrons obtained with several reaction plane detectors for the $p_T$ selections indicated.
We present inclusive charged hadron elliptic flow v_2 measured over the pseudorapidity range |\eta| < 0.35 in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. Results for v_2 are presented over a broad range of transverse momentum (p_T = 0.2-8.0 GeV/c) and centrality (0-60%). In order to study non-flow effects that are not correlated with the reaction plane, as well as the fluctuations of v_2, we compare two different analysis methods: (1) event plane method from two independent sub-detectors at forward (|\eta| = 3.1-3.9) and beam (|\eta| > 6.5) pseudorapidities and (2) two-particle cumulant method extracted using correlations between particles detected at midrapidity. The two event-plane results are consistent within systematic uncertainties over the measured p_T and in centrality 0-40%. There is at most 20% difference of the v_2 between the two event plane methods in peripheral (40-60%) collisions. The comparisons between the two-particle cumulant results and the standard event plane measurements are discussed.
Centrality classes and average number of participant nucleons $\langle N_{part} \rangle$ obtained from a Glauber Monte Carlo simulation of the BBC and ZDC responses for Au+Au collision at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV.
Comparison of Res{$\Psi_n$;X} and Res{$\Psi_n$;Y} with Res{$\Psi_n$} for the BBC event plane and ZDC-SMD event plane as a function of centrality.
Charged hadron $v_2$($p_T$) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV from the two-particle cumulant method, the BBC event plane, and the ZDC-SMD event plane for the indicated centralities.
A comprehensive survey of event-by-event fluctuations of charged hadron multiplicity in relativistic heavy ions is presented. The survey covers Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 62.4 and 200 GeV, and Cu+Cu collisions sqrt(s_NN) = 22.5, 62.4, and 200 GeV. Fluctuations are measured as a function of collision centrality, transverse momentum range, and charge sign. After correcting for non-dynamical fluctuations due to fluctuations in the collision geometry within a centrality bin, the remaining dynamical fluctuations expressed as the variance normalized by the mean tend to decrease with increasing centrality. The dynamical fluctuations are consistent with or below the expectation from a superposition of participant nucleon-nucleon collisions based upon p+p data, indicating that this dataset does not exhibit evidence of critical behavior in terms of the compressibility of the system. An analysis of Negative Binomial Distribution fits to the multiplicity distributions demonstrates that the heavy ion data exhibit weak clustering properties.
Additional information containing number of events which were used to reconstruct the numvers matching to Figure 1 and 2.
Additional information containing number of events which were used to reconstruct the numvers matching to Figure 1 and 2.
Additional information containing number of events which were used to reconstruct the numvers matching to Figure 1 and 2.
The production of low mass e+e- pairs for m_{e+e-} < 300 MeV/c^2 and 1 < p_T <5 GeV/c is measured in p+p and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. Enhanced yield above hadronic sources is observed. Treating the excess as internal conversions, the invariant yield of direct photons is deduced. In central Au+Au collisions, the excess of direct photon yield over p+p is exponential in transverse momentum, with inverse slope T = 221 +/- 19 (stat) +/- 19 (syst) MeV. Hydrodynamical models with initial temperatures ranging from 300--600 MeV at times of ~ 0.6 - 0.15 fm/c after the collision are in qualitative agreement with the data. Lattice QCD predicts a phase transition to quark gluon plasma at ~ 170 MeV.
Electron pair mass distribution for Au+Au events for 1.0 < $p_T$ < 1.5 GeV/$c$.
Electron pair mass distribution for Au+Au events for 1.0 < $p_T$ < 1.5 GeV/$c$.
Electron pair mass distribution for Au+Au events for 1.0 < $p_T$ < 1.5 GeV/$c$.
For Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV we measure neutral pion production with good statistics for transverse momentum, p_T, up to 20 GeV/c. A fivefold suppression is found, which is essentially constant for 5 < p_T < 20 GeV/c. Experimental uncertainties are small enough to constrain any model-dependent parameterization for the transport coefficient of the medium, e.g. \mean(q^hat) in the parton quenching model. The spectral shape is similar for all collision classes, and the suppression does not saturate in Au+Au collisions/ instead, it increases proportional to the number of participating nucleons, as N_part^2/3.
$\pi^0$ invariant yields for different centralities. The bin range is not an uncertainty in the x-axis because the actual uncertainty by having the finite bin width is corrected for by the bin-shift correction. These bins were constructed using the corrected finite values as centers.
$\pi^0$ invariant yields for different centralities. The bin range is not an uncertainty in the x-axis because the actual uncertainty by having the finite bin width is corrected for by the bin-shift correction. These bins were constructed using the corrected finite values as centers.
$\pi^0$ invariant yields for different centralities. The bin range is not an uncertainty in the x-axis because the actual uncertainty by having the finite bin width is corrected for by the bin-shift correction. These bins were constructed using the corrected finite values as centers.
A three-dimensional (3D) correlation function obtained from mid-rapidity, low pT pion pairs in central Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV is studied. The extracted model-independent source function indicates a long range tail in the directions of the pion pair transverse momentum (out) and the beam (long). Model comparisons to these distensions indicate a proper breakup time \tau_0 ~ 9 fm/c and a mean proper emission duration \Delta\tau ~ 2 fm/c, leading to sizable emission time differences (<|\Delta \tau_LCM |> ~ 12 fm/c), partly due to resonance decays. They also suggest an outside-in 'burning' of the emission source reminiscent of many hydrodynamical models.
1D correlation function. Systematic errors are less than the statistical errors.
Experimental correlation moments $R^0(q)$ Data. Systematic errors are less than the statistical errors.
Experimental correlation moments $R^0(q)$ Fit. Systematic errors are less than the statistical errors.
Correlations between p and pbar's at transverse momenta typical of enhanced baryon production in Au+Au collisions are reported. The PHENIX experiment measures same and opposite sign baryon pairs in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. Correlated production of p and p^bar with the trigger particle from the range 2.5 < p_T < 4.0 GeV/c and the associated particle with 1.8 < p_T < 2.5 GeV/c is observed to be nearly independent of the centrality of the collisions. Same sign pairs show no correlation at any centrality. The conditional yield of mesons triggered by baryons (and anti-baryons) and mesons in the same pT range rises with increasing centrality, except for the most central collisions, where baryons show a significantly smaller number of associated mesons. These data are consistent with a picture in which hard scattered partons produce correlated p and p^bar in the p_T region of the baryon excess.
$1/{N_{trig}}$ ${dN}/{d\Delta\phi}$ distributions for charge-inclusive baryon triggers and associated particles for six centrality bins. Triggers have 2.5 < $p_T$ < 4.0 GeV/$c$ and associated particles have 1.8 < $p_T$ < 2.5 GeV/$c$.
$1/{N_{trig}}$ ${dN}/{d\Delta\phi}$ distributions for charge selected $\bar{p}$ and $p$ triggers both with associated $p$ for six centrality bins. Triggers have 2.5 < $p_T$ < 4.0 GeV/$c$ and associated particles have 1.8 < $p_T$ < 2.5 GeV/$c$.
$1/{N_{trig}}$ ${dN}/{d\Delta\phi}$ distributions for charge selected $\bar{p}$ and $p$ triggers both with associated $p$ for six centrality bins. Triggers have 2.5 < $p_T$ < 4.0 GeV/$c$ and associated particles have 1.8 < $p_T$ < 2.5 GeV/$c$.
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