J/psi production in Indium-Indium collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon

The NA60 collaboration Arnaldi, R. ; Banicz, K. ; Castor, J. ; et al.
Conf.Proc.C 060726 (2006) 430-434, 2006.
Inspire Record 754305 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.57244

The NA60 experiment studies muon pair production at the CERN SPS. In this letter we report on a precision measurement of J/psi in In-In collisions. We have studied the J/psi centrality distribution, and we have compared it with the one expected if absorption in cold nuclear matter were the only active suppression mechanism. For collisions involving more than ~80 participant nucleons, we find that an extra suppression is present. This result is in qualitative agreement with previous Pb-Pb measurements by the NA50 experiment, but no theoretical explanation is presently able to coherently describe both results.

1 data table

Values of the J/PSI production cross section, divided by the Drell-Yann cross section, as a function of centrality. Centrality is determined by the amount of energy collectedby the zero degree calorimeter (ZDC), and the average nuber of participants, obtained from E(ZDC) is also given. (High E(ZDC) corresponds to peripheral events and low number of participants, and vice-versa) The values are uncorrected for the J/PSI decay branching ratio.


Evidence for the production of thermal-like muon pairs with masses above 1 GeV/$c^2$ in 158A GeV Indium-Indium Collisions

The NA60 collaboration Arnaldi, R ; Banicz, K ; Borer, K ; et al.
Eur.Phys.J.C 59 (2009) 607-623, 2009.
Inspire Record 799832 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.57245

The yield of muon pairs in the invariant mass region 1<M<2.5 GeV/c^2 produced in heavy-ion collisions significantly exceeds the sum of the two expected contributions, Drell-Yan dimuons and muon pairs from the decays of D meson pairs. These sources properly account for the dimuons produced in proton-nucleus collisions. In this paper, we show that dimuons are also produced in excess in 158 A GeV In-In collisions. We furthermore observe, by tagging the dimuon vertices, that this excess is not due to enhanced D meson production, but made of {\em prompt} muon pairs, as expected from a source of thermal dimuons specific to high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The yield of this excess increases significantly from peripheral to central collisions, both with respect to the Drell-Yan yield and to the number of nucleons participating in the collisions. Furthermore, the transverse mass distributions of the excess dimuons are well described by an exponential function, with inverse slope values around 190 MeV. The values are independent of mass and significantly lower than those found at masses below 1 GeV/c^2, rising there up to 250 MeV due to radial flow. This suggests the emission source of thermal dimuons above 1 GeV/c^2 to be of largely partonic origin, when radial flow has not yet built up.

1 data table

Charm production cross section, calculated from the yield of muons pairs coming from D meson decays.