Hadronic charm production was investigated with a two-arm magnetic spectrometer. The experiment was triggered on muons from the semileptonic decay of charm particles in one arm while reconstructing the mass of the associatively produced partners in the other arm. An excess of 153±46 combinations above background for the neutral D→Kπ mode was observed. This corresponds to a model-dependent DD¯ production cross section of 41±12+15−11 μb per nucleon, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.
The inclusive cross section for charged-D* production by 205-GeV/c π− mesons incident on a beryllium target was measured with a two-arm spectrometer triggered by prompt muons. Using the mass-difference technique often employed in D* studies, a signal of 31±11 charged D*’s was isolated; it includes contributions from both the D*+ and D*− charged modes in correlation with triggering muons of the proper charge. This corresponds to an inclusive charged-D* production cross section of 220±77−57+77 μb per Be nucleus or 24±9−6+9 μb per nucleon when the cross section is scaled linearly with atomic mass number. The first error is statistical and the second is systematic.
The hadronic production of charmed states was studied in a two-arm spectrometer using a 205-GeV/c negative-pion beam incident upon a beryllium target. One arm, filled with dense absorber, triggered the detectors upon the passage of a muon with a moderate transverse momentum and a total momentum of at least 4 GeV/c. The other arm was an open-geometry magnetic spectrometer which had both neutral- and charged-particle identification capabilities. The apparatus, the data, and an invariant-mass-plot search for evidence of charmed-meson production through several charged-particle decay modes are described. The Kπ, Kππ, and Kπππ mass plots fail to reveal significant D-meson signals. Based upon the Kπ mass plots, the 95%-confidence upper limit on the DD¯ production cross section is found to be less than 51 μb per nucleon for the production models tested. A search for evidence of charged-D* production yields 30±16 combinations above background in association with the expected trigger muon charge. Interpreted as a D* signal, this excess corresponds to a model-dependent inclusive DD¯ production cross section of 34±18−9+14 μb per nucleon. Model-dependent upper limits on the ratio of the F to D cross sections are also presented.
Measurements of the $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, and proton double differential yields emitted from the surface of the 90-cm-long carbon target (T2K replica) were performed for the incoming 31 GeV/c protons with the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS using data collected during 2010 run. The double differential $\pi^{\pm}$ yields were measured with increased precision compared to the previously published NA61/SHINE results, while the $K^{\pm}$ and proton yields were obtained for the first time. A strategy for dealing with the dependence of the results on the incoming proton beam profile is proposed. The purpose of these measurements is to reduce significantly the (anti)neutrino flux uncertainty in the T2K long-baseline neutrino experiment by constraining the production of (anti)neutrino ancestors coming from the T2K target.
The NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS is performing a uniqe study of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter by varying collision energy and nuclear mass number of colliding nuclei. In central Pb+Pb collisions the NA49 experiment found structures in the energy dependence of several observables in the CERN SPS energy range that had been predicted for the transition to a deconfined phase. New measurements of NA61/SHINE find intriguing similarities in p+p interactions for which no deconfinement transition is expected at SPS energies. Possible implications will be discussed.
A combination of measurements of the inclusive top-quark pair production cross-section performed by ATLAS and CMS in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV at the LHC is presented. The cross-sections are obtained using top-quark pair decays with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair in the final state and with data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 5 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and about 20 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV for each experiment. The combined cross-sections are determined to be $178.5 \pm 4.7$ pb at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $243.3^{+6.0}_{-5.9}$ pb at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV with a correlation of 0.41, using a reference top-quark mass value of 172.5 GeV. The ratio of the combined cross-sections is determined to be $R_{8/7}= 1.363\pm 0.032$. The combined measured cross-sections and their ratio agree well with theory calculations using several parton distribution function (PDF) sets. The values of the top-quark pole mass (with the strong coupling fixed at 0.118) and the strong coupling (with the top-quark pole mass fixed at 172.5 GeV) are extracted from the combined results by fitting a next-to-next-to-leading-order plus next-to-next-to-leading-log QCD prediction to the measurements. Using a version of the NNPDF3.1 PDF set containing no top-quark measurements, the results obtained are $m_t^\text{pole} = 173.4^{+1.8}_{-2.0}$ GeV and $\alpha_\text{s}(m_Z)= 0.1170^{+ 0.0021}_{-0.0018}$.
The physics goal of the strong interaction program of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is to study the phase diagram of hadronic matter by a scan of particle production in collisions of nuclei with various sizes at a set of energies covering the SPS energy range. This paper presents differential inclusive spectra of transverse momentum, transverse mass and rapidity of $\pi^{-}$ mesons produced in $central$ ${}^{40}$Ar+${}^{45}$Sc collisions at beam momenta of 13$A$, 19$A$, 30$A$, 40$A$, 75$A$ and 150$A$ GeV/$c$. Energy and system size dependence of parameters of these distributions -- mean transverse mass, the inverse slope parameter of transverse mass spectra, width of the rapidity distribution and mean multiplicity -- are presented and discussed. Furthermore, the dependence of the ratio of the mean number of produced pions to the mean number of wounded nucleons on the collision energy was derived. The results are compared to predictions of several models.
The NA61/SHINE collaboration studies at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) the onset of deconfinement in hadronic matter by the measurement of particle production in collisions of nuclei with various sizes at a set of energies covering the SPS energy range. This paper presents results on inclusive double-differential spectra and mean multiplicities of $\pi^{-}$ mesons produced in the 5\% most \textit{central} $^7$Be+$^9$Be collisions at beam momenta of 19$A$, 30$A$, 40$A$, 75$A$ and 150$A$ GeV/$c$ obtained by the so-called $h^-$ method which does not require any particle identification. The shape of the transverse mass spectra differs from the shapes measured in central Pb+Pb collisions and inelastic p+p interactions. The normalized width of the rapidity distribution decreases with increasing collision energy and is in between the results for inelastic nucleon-nucleon and central Pb+Pb collisions. The mean multiplicity of pions per wounded nucleon in \textit{central} $^7$Be+$^9$Be collisions is close to that in central Pb+Pb collisions up to 75$A$GeV/$c$. However, at the top SPS energy the result is close to the one for inelastic nucleon-nucleon interactions. The results are discussed in the context of predictions for the onset of deconfinement at the CERN SPS collision energies.
This paper presents several measurements of total production cross sections and total inelastic cross sections for the following reactions: $\pi^{+}$+C, $\pi^{+}$+Al, $K^{+}$+C, $K^{+}$+Al at 60 GeV/c, $\pi^{+}$+C and $\pi^{+}$+Al at 31 GeV/c . The measurements were made using the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS. Comparisons with previous measurements are given and good agreement is seen. These interaction cross sections measurements are a key ingredient for neutrino flux prediction from the reinteractions of secondary hadrons in current and future accelerator-based long-baseline neutrino experiments.
We have found 122 charmed-particle decays among 3855 neutrino interactions located in the fiducial volume of a hybrid emulsion spectrometer installed in the Fermilab wide-band neutrino beam. We obtain an average relative charmed-particle production cross section of σ(ν μ → c μ − ) σ(ν μ →μ − ) =4.9 −0.6 +0.7 % , at an average neutrino energy of 22 GeV. We also obtain a production rate of σ(ν μ → c c ν μ ) σ(ν μ →ν μ ) =0.13 −0.11 +0.31 % , if we assume that there was an undetected muon, a limit of σ(ν μ → c c μ − ) σ(ν μ → c μ − )<3% (90% CL ) can be obtained. Other cross section ratios and limits are also presented.
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