We present charged particle densities as a function of pseudorapidity and collision centrality for the 197Au+197Au reaction at sqrt{s_{NN}}=130 GeV. An integral charged particle multiplicity of 3860+/-300 is found for the 5% most central events within the pseudorapidity range -4.7 <= eta <= 4.7. At mid-rapidity an enhancement in the particle yields per participant nucleon pair is observed for central events. Near to the beam rapidity, a scaling of the particle yields consistent with the ``limiting fragmentation'' picture is observed. Our results are compared to other recent experimental and theoretical discussions of charged particle densities in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

In particle collider experiments, elementary particle interactions with large momentum transfer produce quarks and gluons (known as partons) whose evolution is governed by the strong force, as described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). These partons subsequently emit further partons in a process that can be described as a parton shower which culminates in the formation of detectable hadrons. Studying the pattern of the parton shower is one of the key experimental tools for testing QCD. This pattern is expected to depend on the mass of the initiating parton, through a phenomenon known as the dead-cone effect, which predicts a suppression of the gluon spectrum emitted by a heavy quark of mass $m_{\rm{Q}}$ and energy $E$, within a cone of angular size $m_{\rm{Q}}$/$E$ around the emitter. Previously, a direct observation of the dead-cone effect in QCD had not been possible, owing to the challenge of reconstructing the cascading quarks and gluons from the experimentally accessible hadrons. We report the direct observation of the QCD dead cone by using new iterative declustering techniques to reconstruct the parton shower of charm quarks. This result confirms a fundamental feature of QCD. Furthermore, the measurement of a dead-cone angle constitutes a direct experimental observation of the non-zero mass of the charm quark, which is a fundamental constant in the standard model of particle physics.

π±p elastic differential cross sections in the momentum range 1.72-2.80 GeV/c have been measured at the proton synchrotron "NIMROD" of the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory. The results are tabulated, and analyses of the differential cross sections employing optical models and Legendre polynomial expansions are advanced. A critical discussion of a recent interpretation of differential-cross-section structure in terms of interference between resonant and background amplitudes is presented.

Measurements, with the BRAHMS detector, of the antiproton to proton ratio at central and forward rapidities are presented for Au+Au reactions at sqrt{s_{NN}}=130 GeV, and for three different collision centralities. For collisions in the 0-40% centrality range we find $N(\bar{{\rm p}})/N({\rm p}) = 0.64 +- 0.04 (stat.) +- 0.06 (syst.) at y ~0, 0.66 +- 0.03 +- 0.06 at y ~ 0.7, and 0.41 +- 0.04 +- 0.06 at y ~ 2. The ratios are found to be nearly independent of collision centrality and transverse momentum. The measurements demonstrate that the antiproton and proton rapidity densities vary differently with rapidity, and indicate that a net-baryon free midrapidity plateau (Bjorken limit) is not reached at this RHIC energy.

Measurements of the suppression and correlations of dijets is performed using 3 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ of Xe+Xe data at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.44$ TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Dijets with jets reconstructed using the $R=0.4$ anti-$k_t$ algorithm are measured differentially in jet $p_{\text{T}}$ over the range of 32 GeV to 398 GeV and the centrality of the collisions. Significant dijet momentum imbalance is found in the most central Xe+Xe collisions, which decreases in more peripheral collisions. Results from the measurement of per-pair normalized and absolutely normalized dijet $p_{\text{T}}$ balance are compared with previous Pb+Pb measurements at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} =5.02$ TeV. The differences between the dijet suppression in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb are further quantified by the ratio of pair nuclear-modification factors. The results are found to be consistent with those measured in Pb+Pb data when compared in classes of the same event activity and when taking into account the difference between the center-of-mass energies of the initial parton scattering process in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb collisions. These results should provide input for a better understanding of the role of energy density, system size, path length, and fluctuations in the parton energy loss.

Collisions between prolate uranium nuclei are used to study how particle production and azimuthal anisotropies depend on initial geometry in heavy-ion collisions. We report the two- and four-particle cumulants, $v_2\{2\}$ and $v_2\{4\}$, for charged hadrons from U+U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 193 GeV and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 200 GeV. Nearly fully overlapping collisions are selected based on the amount of energy deposited by spectators in the STAR Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs). Within this sample, the observed dependence of $v_2\{2\}$ on multiplicity demonstrates that ZDC information combined with multiplicity can preferentially select different overlap configurations in U+U collisions. An initial-state model with gluon saturation describes the slope of $v_2\{2\}$ as a function of multiplicity in central collisions better than one based on Glauber with a two-component multiplicity model.

Dihadron angular correlations in $d$+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=200$ GeV are reported as a function of the measured zero-degree calorimeter neutral energy and the forward charged hadron multiplicity in the Au-beam direction. A finite correlated yield is observed at large relative pseudorapidity ($\Delta\eta$) on the near side (i.e. relative azimuth $\Delta\phi\sim0$). This correlated yield as a function of $\Delta\eta$ appears to scale with the dominant, primarily jet-related, away-side ($\Delta\phi\sim\pi$) yield. The Fourier coefficients of the $\Delta\phi$ correlation, $V_{n}=\langle\cos n\Delta\phi\rangle$, have a strong $\Delta\eta$ dependence. In addition, it is found that $V_{1}$ is approximately inversely proportional to the mid-rapidity event multiplicity, while $V_{2}$ is independent of it with similar magnitude in the forward ($d$-going) and backward (Au-going) directions.

A data-driven method was applied to measurements of Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} =$ 200 GeV made with the STAR detector at RHIC to isolate pseudorapidity distance $\Delta\eta$-dependent and $\Delta\eta$-independent correlations by using two- and four-particle azimuthal cumulant measurements. We identified a component of the correlation that is $\Delta\eta$-independent, which is likely dominated by anisotropic flow and flow fluctuations. It was also found to be independent of $\eta$ within the measured range of pseudorapidity $|\eta|<1$. The relative flow fluctuation was found to be $34\% \pm 2\% (stat.) \pm 3\% (sys.)$ for particles of transverse momentum $p_{T}$ less than $2$ GeV/$c$. The $\Delta\eta$-dependent part may be attributed to nonflow correlations, and is found to be $5\% \pm 2\% (sys.)$ relative to the flow of the measured second harmonic cumulant at $|\Delta\eta| > 0.7$.

Azimuthal angular correlations of charged hadrons with respect to the axis of a reconstructed (trigger) jet in Au+Au and p+p collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}} = 200 \text{GeV}$ in STAR are presented. The trigger jet population in Au+Au collisions is biased towards jets that have not interacted with the medium, allowing easier matching of jet energies between Au+Au and p+p collisions while enhancing medium effects on the recoil jet. The associated hadron yield of the recoil jet is significantly suppressed at high transverse momentum ($p_{\text{T}}^{\text{assoc}}$) and enhanced at low $p_{\text{T}}^{\text{assoc}}$ in 0-20% central Au+Au collisions compared to p+p collisions, which is indicative of medium-induced parton energy loss in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions.

We report on a polarization measurement of inclusive $J/\psi$ mesons in the di-electron decay channel at mid-rapidity at 2 $<p_{T}<$ 6 GeV/$c$ in $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV. Data were taken with the STAR detector at RHIC. The $J/\psi$ polarization measurement should help to distinguish between different models of the $J/\psi$ production mechanism since they predict different $p_{T}$ dependences of the $J/\psi$ polarization. In this analysis, $J/\psi$ polarization is studied in the helicity frame. The polarization parameter $\lambda_{\theta}$ measured at RHIC becomes smaller towards high $p_{T}$, indicating more longitudinal $J/\psi$ polarization as $p_{T}$ increases. The result is compared with predictions of presently available models.