Results are presented from data recorded in 2009 by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider for the double-longitudinal spin asymmetry, $A_{LL}$, for $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ production in $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions. Comparison of the $\pi^0$ results with different theory expectations based on fits of other published data showed a preference for small positive values of gluon polarization, $\Delta G$, in the proton in the probed Bjorken $x$ range. The effect of adding the new 2009 \pz data to a recent global analysis of polarized scattering data is also shown, resulting in a best fit value $\Delta G^{[0.05,0.2]}_{\mbox{DSSV}} = 0.06^{+0.11}_{-0.15}$ in the range $0.05<x<0.2$, with the uncertainty at $\Delta \chi^2 = 9$ when considering only statistical experimental uncertainties. Shifting the PHENIX data points by their systematic uncertainty leads to a variation of the best-fit value of $\Delta G^{[0.05,0.2]}_{\mbox{DSSV}}$ between $0.02$ and $0.12$, demonstrating the need for full treatment of the experimental systematic uncertainties in future global analyses.

We have reconstructed the radiative decays $\chi_{b}(1P) \to \Upsilon(1S) \gamma $ and $\chi_{b}(2P) \to \Upsilon(1S) \gamma $ in $p \bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.8$ TeV, and measured the fraction of $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons that originate from these decays. For $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons with $p^{\Upsilon}_{T}>8.0$ GeV/$c$, the fractions that come from $\chi_{b}(1P)$ and $\chi_{b}(2P)$ decays are $(27.1\pm6.9(stat)\pm4.4(sys))%$ and $(10.5\pm4.4(stat)\pm1.4(sys))%$, respectively. We have derived the fraction of directly produced $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons to be $(50.9\pm8.2(stat)\pm9.0(sys))%$.

We present a measurement of the forward-backward charge asymmetry of the process pp¯→Z0/γ+X,Z0/γ→e+e− at Mee>MZ, using 110pb−1 of data at s=1.8TeV collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The measured charge asymmetries are 0.43±0.10 in the invariant mass region Mee>105GeV/c2, and 0.070±0.016 in the region 75<Mee<105GeV/c2. These results are consistent with the standard model values of 0.528±0.009 and 0.052±0.002, respectively.

We present a measurement of the cross section and transverse single-spin asymmetry ($A_N$) for $\eta$ mesons at large pseudorapidity from $\sqrt{s}=200$~GeV $p^{\uparrow}+p$ collisions. The measured cross section for $0.5<p_T<5.0$~GeV/$c$ and $3.0<|\eta|<3.8$ is well described by a next-to-leading-order perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculation. The asymmetries $A_N$ have been measured as a function of Feynman-$x$ ($x_F$) from $0.2<|x_{F}|<0.7$, as well as transverse momentum ($p_T$) from $1.0<p_T<4.5$~GeV/$c$. The asymmetry averaged over positive $x_F$ is $\langle{A_{N}}\rangle=0.061{\pm}0.014$. The results are consistent with prior transverse single-spin measurements of forward $\eta$ and $\pi^{0}$ mesons at various energies in overlapping $x_F$ ranges. Comparison of different particle species can help to determine the origin of the large observed asymmetries in $p^{\uparrow}+p$ collisions.

The PHENIX collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) reports measurements of azimuthal dihadron correlations near midrapidity in $d$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=200 GeV. These measurements complement recent analyses by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) involving central $p$$+$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=5.02 TeV, which have indicated strong anisotropic long-range correlations in angular distributions of hadron pairs. The origin of these anisotropies is currently unknown. Various competing explanations include parton saturation and hydrodynamic flow. We observe qualitatively similar, but larger, anisotropies in $d$$+$Au collisions compared to those seen in $p$$+$Pb collisions at the LHC. The larger extracted $v_2$ values in $d$$+$Au collisions at RHIC are consistent with expectations from hydrodynamic calculations owing to the larger expected initial-state eccentricity compared with that from $p$$+$Pb collisions. When both are divided by an estimate of the initial-state eccentricity the scaled anisotropies follow a common trend with multiplicity that may extend to heavy ion data at RHIC and the LHC, where the anisotropies are widely thought to arise from hydrodynamic flow.

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured low mass vector meson, $\omega$, $\rho$, and $\phi$, production through the dimuon decay channel at forward rapidity ($1.2<|y|<2.2$) in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV. The differential cross sections for these mesons are measured as a function of both $p_T$ and rapidity. We also report the integrated differential cross sections over $1<p_T<7$ GeV/$c$ and $1.2<|y|<2.2$: $d\sigma/dy(\omega+\rho\rightarrow\mu\mu) = 80 \pm 6 \mbox{(stat)} \pm 12 \mbox{(syst)}$ nb and $d\sigma/dy(\phi\rightarrow\mu\mu) = 27 \pm 3 \mbox{(stat)} \pm 4 \mbox{(syst)}$ nb. These results are compared with midrapidity measurements and calculations.

We present the midrapidity charged pion invariant cross sections and the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production ($5<p_T<13$ GeV/$c$), together with the double-helicity asymmetries ($5<p_T<12$ GeV/$c$) in polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV. The cross section measurements are consistent with perturbative calculations in quantum chromodynamics within large uncertainties in the calculation due to the choice of factorization, renormalization, and fragmentation scales. However, the theoretical calculation of the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production when considering these scale uncertainties overestimates the measured value, suggesting further investigation of the uncertainties on the charge-separated pion fragmentation functions is needed. Due to cancellations of uncertainties in the charge ratio, direct inclusion of these ratio data in future parameterizations should improve constraints on the flavor dependence of quark fragmentation functions to pions. By measuring charge-separated pion asymmetries, one can gain sensitivity to the sign of $\Delta G$ through the opposite sign of the up and down quark helicity distributions in conjunction with preferential fragmentation of positive pions from up quarks and negative pions from down quarks. The double-helicity asymmetries presented are sensitive to the gluon helicity distribution over an $x$ range of $\sim$0.03--0.16.

Measurements of inclusive transverse-momentum spectra for KS0 mesons produced in proton-antiproton collisions at s of 630 and 1800 GeV are presented and compared with data taken at lower energies. The ratio, as a function of pT, of the cross section for KS0 to that for charged hadrons is very similar to what is observed at lower energies. At 1800 GeV, we calculate the strangeness-suppression factor λ=0.40±0.05.

We search for Higgs bosons produced in association with a massive vector boson in 91±7pb−1 of pp¯ collisions at s=1.8TeV recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We assume the Higgs scalar H0 decays to a bb¯ pair with branching ratio β, and we consider the hadronic decays of the vector boson V ( W or Z). Observations are consistent with background expectations. We place 95% confidence level upper limits on σ(pp¯→H0V)β as a function of the scalar mass (MH0) over the range 70<MH0<140GeV/c2. When combined with an analysis of the case where V is a leptonically decaying W, these limits vary from 23 pb at MH0=70GeV/c2 to 17 pb at MH0=140GeV/c2.

The ratio of the W+≥1 jet cross section to the inclusive W cross section is measured using W±→e±ν events from p¯p collisions at s=1.8TeV. The data are from 108pb−1 of integrated luminosity collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Measurements of the cross section ratio for jet transverse energy thresholds (ETmin) ranging from 15 to 95 GeV are compared to theoretical predictions using next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. Data and theory agree well for ETmin>25GeV, where the predictions lie within 1 standard deviation of the measured values.