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.
An experiment using the Fermilab Single Arm Spectrometer (SAS) facility and an associated nonmagnetic vertex detector studied the reactions a+p→c+X, where a and c were π±, K±, p, or p¯. Extensive measurements were made at 100 and 175 GeV/c beam momenta with the outgoing hadrons detected in the SAS covering a kinematic range 0.12<x<1.0 and pT<1.25 GeV/c. Additional data covering a more restricted range in x were also gathered at 70 GeV/c incident momentum. In this high-statistics experiment, the identification of both the incoming and outgoing charged hadrons were made with a total of eight Čerenkov counters. New and extensive single-particle inclusive data for charged-particle production in low-pT hadronic fragmentation are presented. The average associated charged-particle multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions are also given.
We present new data on charged particle production in p p interactions at 100 GeV/ c . Comparisons are made between p p annihilations (estimated by differences) between corresponding p p and pp data samples) and e + e − annihilation into hadrons. A technique for separating the inclusive proton and pion spectra is described and the resulting pion spectra are studied in terms of Feynman x , rapidity and p T . Comparison with pp data allows us to estimate the pion spectra in p p annihilations and we find agreement with predictions of Mueller-Regge theory. We also present results on semi-inclusive π ± and proton production, give updated topological cross sections and describe further attempts to isolate effects due to annihilations. Finally we investigate the diffractive excitation of the antiproton into low-mass states by studying events with a slow recoil proton.
We have measured the single-particle inclusive cross sections for p+p→π±+X, K±+X, p+X, p¯+X in the low-p⊥ region (≲ 1.5 GeV/c) as a function of the radial scaling variable XR in p−p collisions at 100, 200, and 400 GeV at Fermilab. The measured π+π− and K+K− ratios are shown to be remarkably similar to the same ratios which have recently been measured at large p⊥ at 90° in the center-of-mass system.
We present high-statistics results on the reactions a+p→c+X where a and c can be any of π±, K±, p, or p¯. The data were taken at 100 and 175 GeV/c incident momenta using the Fermilab Single-Arm Spectrometer operated over the kinematic range 0.2<x<1.0 and pt<~1.0 GeV/c. Investigating the x dependence of the data, we find agreement with a quark-parton picture, namely the cross sections have a power-law behavior in 1−x independent of pbeam and pt.