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.
Dihadron and isolated direct photon-hadron angular correlations are measured in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV. The correlations are sensitive to nonperturbative initial-state and final-state transverse momentum $k_T$ and $j_T$ in the azimuthal nearly back-to-back region $\Delta\phi\sim\pi$. In this region, transverse-momentum-dependent evolution can be studied when several different hard scales are measured. To have sensitivity to small transverse momentum scales, nonperturbative momentum widths of $p_{\rm out}$, the out-of-plane transverse momentum component perpendicular to the trigger particle, are measured. These widths are used to investigate possible effects from transverse-momentum-dependent factorization breaking. When accounting for the longitudinal momentum fraction of the away-side hadron with respect to the near-side trigger particle, the widths are found to increase with the hard scale; this is qualitatively similar to the observed behavior in Drell-Yan and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering interactions. The momentum widths are also studied as a function of center-of-mass energy by comparing to previous measurements at $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV. The nonperturbative jet widths also appear to increase with $\sqrt{s}$ at a similar $x_T$, which is qualitatively consistent to similar measurements in Drell-Yan interactions. To quantify the magnitude of any transverse-momentum-dependent factorization breaking effects, calculations will need to be performed to compare to these measurements.
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.
A measurement of direct photons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV is presented. A photon excess above background from pi^0 --> gamma+gamma, eta --> gamma+gamma, and other decays is observed in the transverse momentum range 5.5 < p_T < 7 GeV/c. The result is compared to a next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculation. Within errors, good agreement is found between the QCD calculation and the measured result.
Production of $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons has been measured at midrapidity in Cu$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=200 GeV. Measurements were performed in $\pi^0(\eta)\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$ decay channel in the 1(2)-20 GeV/$c$ transverse momentum range. A strong suppression is observed for $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ meson production at high transverse momentum in central Cu$+$Au collisions relative to the $p$$+$$p$ results scaled by the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. In central collisions the suppression is similar to Au$+$Au with comparable nuclear overlap. The $\eta/\pi^0$ ratio measured as a function of transverse momentum is consistent with $m_T$-scaling parameterization down to $p_T=$2 GeV/$c$, its asymptotic value is constant and consistent with Au$+$Au and $p$$+$$p$ and does not show any significant dependence on collision centrality. Similar results were obtained in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions as well as in $e^+e^-$ collisions in a range of collision energies $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=$3--1800 GeV. This suggests that the quark-gluon-plasma medium produced in Cu$+$Cu collisions either does not affect the jet fragmentation into light mesons or it affects the $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ the same way.
Two-pion correlations in sqrt(s_NN)=130 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC have been measured over a broad range of pair transverse momentum k_T by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. The k_T dependent transverse radii are similar to results from heavy ion collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 4.1, 4.9, and 17.3 GeV, whereas the longitudinal radius increases monotonically with beam energy. The ratio of the outwards to sidewards transverse radii (R_out/R_side) is consistent with unity and independent of k_T.
Two particle azimuthal correlation functions are presented for charged hadrons produced in Au + Au collisions at RHIC sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV. The measurements permit determination of elliptic flow without event-by-event estimation of the reaction plane. The extracted elliptic flow values v_2 show significant sensitivity to both the collision centrality and the transverse momenta of emitted hadrons, suggesting rapid thermalization and relatively strong velocity fields. When scaled by the eccentricity of the collision zone, epsilon, the scaled elliptic flow shows little or no dependence on centrality for charged hadrons with relatively low p_T. A breakdown of this epsilon scaling is observed for charged hadrons with p_T > 1.0 GeV/c for the most central collisions.
The PHENIX experiment at RHIC has measured charged hadron yields at mid-rapidity over a wide range of transverse momentum (0.5 < p_T < 10 GeV/c) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The data are compared to pi^zero measurements from the same experiment. For both charged hadrons and neutral pions, the yields per nucleon-nucleon collision are significantly suppressed in central compared to peripheral and nucleon-nucleon collisions. The suppression sets in gradually and increases with increasing centrality of the collisions. Above 4-5 GeV/c in p_T, a constant and almost identical suppression of charged hadrons and pi^zeroes is observed. The p_T spectra are compared to published spectra from Au+Au at sqrt(s_NN)=130 in terms of x_t scaling. Central and peripheral pi^zero as well as peripheral charged spectra exhibit the same x_t scaling as observed in p+p data.
The properties of jets produced in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV are measured using the method of two particle correlations. The trigger particle is a leading particle from a large transverse momentum jet while the associated particle comes from either the same jet or the away-side jet. Analysis of the angular width of the near-side peak in the correlation function determines the jet fragmentation transverse momentum j_T . The extracted value, sqrt(<j_T^2>)= 585 +/- 6(stat) +/- 15(sys) MeV/c, is constant with respect to the trigger particle transverse momentum, and comparable to the previous lower sqrt(s) measurements. The width of the away-side peak is shown to be a convolution of j_T with the fragmentation variable, z, and the partonic transverse momentum, k_T . The <z> is determined through a combined analysis of the measured pi^0 inclusive and associated spectra using jet fragmentation functions measured in e^+e^-. collisions. The final extracted values of k_T are then determined to also be independent of the trigger particle transverse momentum, over the range measured, with value of sqrt(<k_T^2>) = 2.68 +/- 0.07(stat) +/- 0.34(sys) GeV/c.
Transverse momentum spectra for charged hadrons and for neutral pions in the range 1 GeV/c $< p_T <$ 5 GeV/c have been measured by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130$ GeV. At high $p_T$ the spectra from peripheral nuclear collisions are consistent with the naive expectation of scaling the spectra from p+p collisions by the average number of binary nucleon- nucleon collisions. The spectra from central collisions are significantly suppressed when compared to the binary- scaled p+p expectation, and also when compared to similarly binary-scaled peripheral collisions, indicating a novel nuclear effect in central nuclear collisions at RHIC energies.
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