The experimental study of the collisions of heavy nuclei at relativistic energies has established the properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a state of hot, dense nuclear matter in which quarks and gluons are not bound into hadrons. In this state, matter behaves as a nearly inviscid fluid that efficiently translates initial spatial anisotropies into correlated momentum anisotropies among the produced particles, producing a common velocity field pattern known as collective flow. In recent years, comparable momentum anisotropies have been measured in small-system proton-proton ($p$$+$$p$) and proton-nucleus ($p$$+$$A$) collisions, despite expectations that the volume and lifetime of the medium produced would be too small to form a QGP. Here, we report on the observation of elliptic and triangular flow patterns of charged particles produced in proton-gold ($p$$+$Au), deuteron-gold ($d$$+$Au), and helium-gold ($^3$He$+$Au) collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$~=~200 GeV. The unique combination of three distinct initial geometries and two flow patterns provides unprecedented model discrimination. Hydrodynamical models, which include the formation of a short-lived QGP droplet, provide a simultaneous description of these measurements.
$v_2$for 0-5% central p+Au collisions
$v_2$for 0-5% central d+Au collisions
$v_2$for 0-5% central $^3$He+Au collisions
We report on the interactions of an incident 200 GeV / c beam composed of 33% protons, 16% kaons, and 48% pions on targets of silver and gold mounted in the Fermilab 30″ bubble chamber. Within our limited statistics, we find the total cross sections and average multiplicities to agree with previously published data. We find the KNO scaling distribution curve to be broader for heavy nuclei than for hydrogen. We present the first data for V 0 production on gold and silver. We also present, for the first time, evidence for a positive charge excess among the sample of relativistic tracks from interactions on gold and silver. We observe a trend where the positive charge excess increases with target atomic number and with increasing charged particle multiplicity. We find the charge excess to exist among the sample of particles having greater than 2 GeV / c momentum and to persist in the sample with momentum greater than 4 GeV / c .
SIG REFERS PRODUCTION OF 2 OR MORE CHARGED PARTICLES EXCLUDING ELASTICS BUT INCLUDING COHERENT PRODUCTION. MULT REFERS TO RELATIVISTIC SECONDARIES (BETA > 0.7).
NO CORRECTION FOR GAMMA CONVERSIONS IN THE TARGET IN THIS TABLE BUT DIFFERENCE DOES NOT NEED CORRECTION.
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