A measurement of continuum dimuon production in proton-copper collisions at 800-GeV incident energy is presented. The dimuons observed in this experiment cover the mass range from 6.5 to 18 GeV near y=0 in the proton-nucleon center-of-momentum frame. Scaling forms of the cross section for the continuum are compared with the results of other experiments in the context of the parton model and quantum chromodynamics. The present limitations of such scaling comparisons are discussed.
Results on $\phi$ meson production in inelastic p+p collisions at CERN SPS energies are presented. They are derived from data collected by the NA61/SHINE fixed target experiment, by means of invariant mass spectra fits in the $\phi \to K^+K^-$ decay channel. They include the first ever measured double differential spectra of $\phi$ mesons as a function of rapidity $y$ and transverse momentum $p_T$ for proton beam momenta of 80 GeV/c and 158 GeV/c, as well as single differential spectra of $y$ or $p_T$ for beam momentum of 40 GeV/c. The corresponding total $\phi$ yields per inelastic p+p event are obtained. These results are compared with existing data on $\phi$ meson production in p+p collisions. The comparison shows consistency but superior accuracy of the present measurements. The emission of $\phi$ mesons in p+p reactions is confronted with that occurring in Pb+Pb collisions, and the experimental results are compared with model predictions. It appears that none of the considered models can properly describe all the experimental observables.
Differential cross sections for the Drell-Yan process, including Z boson production, using the dimuon decay channel are measured in proton-lead (pPb) collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV. A data sample recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 173 nb$^{-1}$. The differential cross section as a function of the dimuon mass is measured in the range 15-600 GeV, for the first time in proton-nucleus collisions. It is also reported as a function of dimuon rapidity over the mass ranges 15-60 GeV and 60-120 GeV, and ratios for the p-going over the Pb-going beam directions are built. In both mass ranges, the differential cross sections as functions of the dimuon transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}$ and of a geometric variable $\phi^*$ are measured, where $\phi^*$ highly correlates with $p_\mathrm{T}$ but is determined with higher precision. In the Z mass region, the rapidity dependence of the data indicate a modification of the distribution of partons within a lead nucleus as compared to the proton case. The data are more precise than predictions based upon current models of parton distributions.
A search for Z bosons in the mu^+mu^- decay channel has been performed in PbPb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre of mass energy = 2.76 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, in a 7.2 inverse microbarn data sample. The number of opposite-sign muon pairs observed in the 60--120 GeV/c2 invariant mass range is 39, corresponding to a yield per unit of rapidity (y) and per minimum bias event of (33.8 ± 5.5 (stat) ± 4.4 (syst)) 10^{-8}, in the |y|<2.0 range. Rapidity, transverse momentum, and centrality dependencies are also measured. The results agree with next-to-leading order QCD calculations, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions.
The production of Z bosons is studied in the dimuon and dielectron decay channels in PbPb and pp collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV, using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The PbPb data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 150 inverse microbarns, while the pp data sample collected in 2013 at the same nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy has an integrated luminosity of 5.4 inverse picobarns. The Z boson yield is measured as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum, and collision centrality. The ratio of PbPb to pp yields, scaled by the number of inelastic nucleon-nucleon collisions, is found to be 1.06 +/- 0.05 (stat) +/- 0.08 (syst) in the dimuon channel and 1.02 +/- 0.08 (stat) +/- 0.15 (syst) in the dielectron channel, for centrality-integrated Z boson production. This binary collision scaling is seen to hold in the entire kinematic region studied, as expected for a colourless probe that is unaffected by the hot and dense QCD medium produced in heavy ion collisions.
The production cross sections of the B+, B0, and B0s mesons, and of their charge conjugates, are measured via exclusive hadronic decays in pPb collisions at the center-of-mass energy sqrt(s_NN) = 5.02 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The data set used for this analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 34.6 inverse nanobarns. The production cross sections are measured in the transverse momentum range between 10 and 60 GeV/c. No significant modification is observed compared to proton-proton perturbative QCD calculations scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions. These results provide a baseline for the study of in-medium b quark energy loss in PbPb collisions.
Spectra of identified charged hadrons are measured in pPb collisions with the CMS detector at the LHC at sqrt(sNN) = 5.02 TeV. Charged pions, kaons, and protons in the transverse-momentum range pt approximately 0.1-1.7 GeV and laboratory rapidity abs(y) < 1 are identified via their energy loss in the silicon tracker. The average pt increases with particle mass and the charged multiplicity of the event. The increase of the average pt with charged multiplicity is greater for heavier hadrons. Comparisons to Monte Carlo event generators reveal that EPOS LHC, which incorporates additional hydrodynamic evolution of the created system, is able to reproduce most of the data features, unlike HIJING and AMPT. The pt spectra and integrated yields are also compared to those measured in pp and PbPb collisions at various energies. The average transverse momentum and particle ratio measurements indicate that particle production at LHC energies is strongly correlated with event particle multiplicity.
The ATLAS experiment has observed 1995 Z boson candidates in data corresponding to 0.15 inverse nb of integrated luminosity obtained in the 2011 LHC Pb+Pb run at sqrt(s_NN)=2.76 TeV. The Z bosons are reconstructed via di-electron and di-muon decay channels, with a background contamination of less than 3%. Results from the two channels are consistent and are combined. Within the statistical and systematic uncertainties, the per-event Z boson yield is proportional to the number of binary collisions estimated by the Glauber model. The elliptic anisotropy of the azimuthal distribution of the Z boson with respect to the event plane is found to be consistent with zero.
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