Observation of an energy-dependent difference in elliptic flow between particles and anti-particles in relativistic heavy ion collisions

The STAR collaboration Adamczyk, L. ; Adkins, J.K. ; Agakishiev, G. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 110 (2013) 142301, 2013.
Inspire Record 1210463 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.102939

Elliptic flow ($v_{2}$) values for identified particles at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions, measured by the STAR experiment in the Beam Energy Scan at RHIC at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 7.7--62.4 GeV, are presented. A beam-energy dependent difference of the values of $v_{2}$ between particles and corresponding anti-particles was observed. The difference increases with decreasing beam energy and is larger for baryons compared to mesons. This implies that, at lower energies, particles and anti-particles are not consistent with the universal number-of-constituent-quark (NCQ) scaling of $v_{2}$ that was observed at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 200 GeV.

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The upper panels depict the elliptic flow, $v_{2}$, as a function of reduced transverse mass, $(m_{T} − m_{0})$, for particles, frames a) and b), and anti-particles, frames c) and d), in 0-80$\%$ central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 11.5 and 62.4 GeV. Simultaneous fits to the mesons except the pions are shown as the dashed lines. The difference of the baryon $v_{2}$ and the meson fits are shown in the lower panels.


Energy and system size dependence of \phi meson production in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions

The STAR collaboration Abelev, B.I. ; Aggarwal, M.M. ; Ahammed, Z. ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 673 (2009) 183-191, 2009.
Inspire Record 800796 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.101351

We study the beam-energy and system-size dependence of \phi meson production (using the hadronic decay mode \phi -- K+K-) by comparing the new results from Cu+Cu collisions and previously reported Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 and 200 GeV measured in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Data presented are from mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) for 0.4 < pT < 5 GeV/c. At a given beam energy, the transverse momentum distributions for \phi mesons are observed to be similar in yield and shape for Cu+Cu and Au+Au colliding systems with similar average numbers of participating nucleons. The \phi meson yields in nucleus-nucleus collisions, normalised by the average number of participating nucleons, are found to be enhanced relative to those from p+p collisions with a different trend compared to strange baryons. The enhancement for \phi mesons is observed to be higher at \sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV compared to 62.4 GeV. These observations for the produced \phi(s\bar{s}) mesons clearly suggest that, at these collision energies, the source of enhancement of strange hadrons is related to the formation of a dense partonic medium in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions and cannot be alone due to canonical suppression of their production in smaller systems.

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Upper panel. The ratio of the yields of $K^{−}$, $\phi$, $\bar{\Lambda}$ and $\Xi+\bar{\Xi}$ normalized to $N_{\scriptsize{\mbox{part}}}$ in nucleus-nucleus collisions to corresponding yields in inelastic $p+p$ collisions as a function of $N_{\scriptsize{\mbox{part}}}$ at 200 GeV. Lower panel. Same as above for $\phi$ mesons in $Cu+Cu$ collisions at 200 and 62.4 GeV. The $p+p$ collision data at 200 GeV are from STAR [5] and at 62.4 GeV from ISR [29]. The error bars shown represent the statistical and systematic errors added in quadrature.


Rapidity and species dependence of particle production at large transverse momentum for d + Au collisions at s(NN)**(1/2) = 200-GeV.

The STAR collaboration Abelev, B.I. ; Adams, J. ; Aggarwal, M.M. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.C 76 (2007) 054903, 2007.
Inspire Record 726101 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.101349

We determine rapidity asymmetry in the production of charged pions, protons and anti-protons for large transverse momentum (pT) for d+Au collisions at \sqrt s_NN = 200 GeV. The identified hadrons are measured in the rapidity regions |y| < 0.5 and 0.5 < |y| < 1.0 for the pT range 2.5 < pT < 10 GeV/c. We observe significant rapidity asymmetry for charged pion and proton+anti-proton production in both rapidity regions. The asymmetry is larger for 0.5 < |y| < 1.0 than for |y|< 0.5 and is almost independent of particle type. The measurements are compared to various model predictions employing multiple scattering, energy loss, nuclear shadowing, saturation effects, and recombination, and also to a phenomenological parton model. We find that asymmetries are sensitive to model parameters and show model-preference. The rapidity dependence of \pi^{-}/\pi^{+} and \bar{p}/p ratios in peripheral d+Au and forward neutron-tagged events are used to study the contributions of valence quarks and gluons to particle production at high pT. The results are compared to calculations based on NLO pQCD and other measurements of quark fragmentation functions.

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Centrality dependence of high transverse-momentum rapidity asymmetry factor ($Y_{\scriptsize{\mbox{Asym}}}$) for $\pi^{+}+\pi^{-}$ and $p+\bar{p}$ for $|y| < 0.5$ (left panels) and $0.5 < |y| < 1.0$ (right panels) for $d+Au$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV.


Observation of an Antimatter Hypernucleus

The STAR collaboration Abelev, B.I. ; Aggarwal, M.M. ; Ahammed, Z. ; et al.
Science 328 (2010) 58-62, 2010.
Inspire Record 848409 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.104929

Nuclear collisions recreate conditions in the universe microseconds after the Big Bang. Only a very small fraction of the emitted fragments are light nuclei, but these states are of fundamental interest. We report the observation of antihypertritons - composed of an antiproton, antineutron, and antilambda hyperon - produced by colliding gold nuclei at high energy. Our analysis yields 70 +- 17 antihypertritons and 157 +- 30 hypertritons. The measured yields of hypertriton (antihypertriton) and helium3 (antihelium3) are similar, suggesting an equilibrium in coordinate and momentum space populations of up, down, and strange quarks and antiquarks, unlike the pattern observed at lower collision energies. The production and properties of antinuclei, and nuclei containing strange quarks, have implications spanning nuclear/particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.

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(A, B) show the invariant mass distribution of the daughter 3He + π. The open circles represent the signal candidate distributions, while the solid black lines are background distributions. The blue dashed lines are signal (Gaussian) plus background (double exponential) combined fit.


Elliptic flow of identified hadrons in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 7.7--62.4 GeV

The STAR collaboration Adamczyk, L. ; Adkins, J.K. ; Agakishiev, G. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.C 88 (2013) 014902, 2013.
Inspire Record 1210464 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.102408

Measurements of the elliptic flow, $v_{2}$, of identified hadrons ($\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $K_{s}^{0}$, $p$, $\bar{p}$, $\phi$, $\Lambda$, $\bar{\Lambda}$, $\Xi^{-}$, $\bar{\Xi}^{+}$, $\Omega^{-}$, $\bar{\Omega}^{+}$) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39 and 62.4 GeV are presented. The measurements were done at mid-rapidity using the Time Projection Chamber and the Time-of-Flight detectors of the STAR experiment during the Beam Energy Scan program at RHIC. A significant difference in the $v_{2}$ values for particles and the corresponding anti-particles was observed at all transverse momenta for the first time. The difference increases with decreasing center-of-mass energy, $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ (or increasing baryon chemical potential, $\mu_{B}$) and is larger for the baryons as compared to the mesons. This implies that particles and anti-particles are no longer consistent with the universal number-of-constituent quark (NCQ) scaling of $v_{2}$ that was observed at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 200 GeV. However, for the group of particles NCQ scaling at $(m_{T}-m_{0})/n_{q}>$ 0.4 GeV/$c^{2}$ is not violated within $\pm$10%. The $v_{2}$ values for $\phi$ mesons at 7.7 and 11.5 GeV are approximately two standard deviations from the trend defined by the other hadrons at the highest measured $p_{T}$ values.

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The elliptic flow,v_2, as a function of the transverse momentum,p_T, from 0–80% central Au+Au collisions for various particle species and energies.