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.

We present an analysis of 800-GeV proton-induced Drell-Yan production data from isoscalar targets 2H and C, and from W, which has a large neutron excess. The ratio of cross sections per nucleon, R-σW/σIS, is sensitive to the difference between the d¯(x) and u¯(x) structure functions of the proton. We find that R is close to unity in the range 0.04≤x≤0.27, allowing upper limits to be set on the d¯-u¯ asymmetry. Additionally, the shape of the differential cross section m3 d2σ/dxF dm for 2H at xF≊0 shows no evidence of an asymmetric sea in the proton. We examine the implications of these data for various models of the violation of the Gottfried sum rule in deep-inelastic lepton scattering.

A precise measurement of the atomic-mass dependence of dimuon production induced by 800-GeV protons is reported. Over 450 000 muon pairs with dimuon mass M≥4 GeV were recorded from targets of H2, C, Ca, Fe, and W. The ratio of dimuon yield per nucleon for nuclei versus H2, R=YA/Y2H, is sensitive to modifications of the antiquark sea in nuclei. No nuclear dependence of this ratio is observed over the range of target-quark momentum fraction 0.1<xt<0.3. For xt<0.1 the ratio is slightly less than unity for the heavy nuclei. These results are compared with predictions of models of the European Muon Collaboration effect.

The yields of the 1S and the sum of the 2S and 3S Υ resonances have been measured for 800-GeV protons incident on targets of H2, C, Ca, Fe, and W. A significant nuclear dependence is seen in the yield per nucleon which, within errors, is the same for the Υ(1S) and Υ(2S+3D) states. A large decrease in the relative yield from heavy nuclei is found for the range xF<0. Significant nuclear dependence is also observed in the pt distribution. Differential cross sections for the Υ(1S) for H2 are presented over the ranges 0.24≤pt≤3.4 GeV/c and -0.15≤xF≤0.5.

The yield of J/ψ and ψ’ vector-meson states has been measured for 800-GeV protons incident on deuterium, carbon, calcium, iron, and tungsten targets. A depletion of the yield per nucleon from heavy nuclei is observed for both J/ψ and ψ’ production. This depletion exhibits a strong dependence on xF and pt. Within experimental errors the depletion is the same for the J/ψ and the ψ’.

Inelastic scattering of 490 GeV μ + from deuterium and xenon nuclei has been studied for x Bj > s .001. The ratio of the xenon/deuterium cross section per nucleon is observed to vary with x Bj , with a depletion in the kinematic range 0.001 < x Bj < 0.025 which exhibits no significant Q 2 dependence. An electromagnetic calorimeter was used to verify the radiative corrections.

We detected 1–10 MeV neutrons at laboratory angles from 80° to 140° in coincidence with 470 GeV muons deep inelastically scattered from H, D, C, Ca, and Pb targets. The neutron energy spectrum for Pb can be fitted with two components with temperature parameters of 0.7 and 5.0 MeV. The average neutron multiplicity for 40<ν<400 GeV is about 5 for Pb, and less than 2 for Ca and C. These data are consistent with a process in which the emitted hadrons do not interact with the rest of the nucleus within distances smaller than the radius of Ca, but do interact within distances on the order of the radius of Pb in the measured kinematic range. For all targets the lack of high nuclear excitation is surprising.

The path-length dependent parton energy loss within the dense partonic medium created in lead-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV is studied by determining the azimuthal anisotropies for dijets with high transverse momentum. The data were collected by the CMS experiment in 2018 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.69 nb$^{-1}$. For events containing back-to-back jets, correlations in relative azimuthal angle and pseudorapidity ($\eta$) between jets and hadrons, and between two hadrons, are constructed. The anisotropies are expressed as the Fourier expansion coefficients $v_n$, $n = $ 2-4 of these azimuthal distributions. The dijet $v_n$ values are extracted from long-range (1.5 $\lt$$\vert\Delta\eta\vert$$\lt$ 2.5) components of these correlations, which suppresses the background contributions from jet fragmentation processes. Positive dijet $v_2$ values are observed which increase from central to more peripheral events, while the $v_3$ and $v_4$ values are consistent with zero within experimental uncertainties.

The CMS experiment at the LHC has measured the differential cross sections of Z bosons decaying to pairs of leptons, as functions of transverse momentum and rapidity, in lead-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The measured Z boson elliptic azimuthal anisotropy coefficient is compatible with zero, showing that Z bosons do not experience significant final-state interactions in the medium produced in the collision. Yields of Z bosons are compared to Glauber model predictions and are found to deviate from these expectations in peripheral collisions, indicating the presence of initial collision geometry and centrality selection effects. The precision of the measurement allows, for the first time, for a data-driven determination of the nucleon-nucleon integrated luminosity as a function of lead-lead centrality, thereby eliminating the need for its estimation based on a Glauber model.

The first measurement of the dependence of $\gamma\gamma$$\to$$\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ production on the multiplicity of neutrons emitted very close to the beam direction in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions is reported. Data for lead-lead interactions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} =$ 5.02 TeV, with an integrated luminosity of approximately 1.5 nb$^{-1}$, were collected using the CMS detector at the LHC. The azimuthal correlations between the two muons in the invariant mass region 8 $\lt$$m_{\mu\mu}$$\lt$ 60 GeV are extracted for events including 0, 1, or at least 2 neutrons detected in the forward pseudorapidity range $|\eta|$$\gt$ 8.3. The back-to-back correlation structure from leading-order photon-photon scattering is found to be significantly broader for events with a larger number of emitted neutrons from each nucleus, corresponding to interactions with a smaller impact parameter. This observation provides a data-driven demonstration that the average transverse momentum of photons emitted from relativistic heavy ions has an impact parameter dependence. These results provide new constraints on models of photon-induced interactions in ultraperipheral collisions. They also provide a baseline to search for possible final-state effects on lepton pairs caused by traversing a quark-gluon plasma produced in hadronic heavy ion collisions.