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.

Using a silicon-microstrip detector array to identify secondary vertices occurring downstream of a short platinum target, we have searched for the decay D0→μ+μ−. Normalized relative to the J/ψ→μ+μ− signal observed in the same data sample, for a 3.25-mm minimum decay distance our branching-ratio sensitivity is (4.8±1.4)×10−6 per event, and after background subtraction we observe -4.1±4.8 events. Using the statistical approach advocated by the Particle Data Group, we obtain a limit B(D0→μ+μ−)<3.1×10−5 at 90% confidence, confirming with a different technique the limit previously obtained by Louis et al. The interpretation of the upper limit involves complex statistical issues; we present another approach which is more suitable for combining the results of different experiments.

We report a high statistics measurement of Upsilon production with an 800 GeV/c proton beam on hydrogen and deuterium targets. The dominance of the gluon-gluon fusion process for Upsilon production at this energy implies that the cross section ratio, $\sigma (p + d \to \Upsilon) / 2\sigma (p + p\to \Upsilon)$, is sensitive to the gluon content in the neutron relative to that in the proton. Over the kinematic region 0 < x_F < 0.6, this ratio is found to be consistent with unity, in striking contrast to the behavior of the Drell-Yan cross section ratio $\sigma(p+d)_{DY}/2\sigma(p+p)_{DY}$. This result shows that the gluon distributions in the proton and neutron are very similar. The Upsilon production cross sections are also compared with the p+d and p+Cu cross sections from earlier measurements.

We report results from a study of Λ0 polarization in the exclusive reaction pp→pf(Λ0K+) at 800−GeV/c. We observe a dependence of the polarization on the Λ0K+ invariant mass with large (+71%) positive polarization at small mass (1.63−GeV/c2) and large (−43%) negative polarization at large mass (2.75−GeV/c2). This observation confirms the result of the CERN ISR R608 experiment and extends the range over which the effect is observed. The strong dependence of the polarization on the Λ0K+ invariant mass suggests that the origin of the polarization is closely related to the production dynamics of the diffractively produced Λ0K+ system.

Evidence of anomalous WW and WZ production was sought in pbar{p} collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV. The final states $WW (WZ) to mu-nu-jet-jet + X, WZ to mu-nu-e-e + X and WZ to e-nu-e-e + X were studied using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 90 pb-1. No evidence of anomalous diboson production was found. Limits were set on anomalous WWgamma and WWZ couplings and were combined with our previous results. The combined 95% confidence level anomalous coupling limits for Lambda=2 TeV are -0.25 LE Delta-kappa LE 0.39 (lambda=0) and -0.18 LE lambda LE 0.19 (Delta \kappa = 0), assuming the WWgamma couplings are equal to the WWZ couplings.

Measurements of the production of high transverse momentum direct photons by a 515 GeV/c piminus beam and 530 and 800 GeV/c proton beams in interactions with beryllium and hydrogen targets are presented. The data span the kinematic ranges of 3.5 < p_T < 12 GeV/c in transverse momentum and 1.5 units in rapidity. The inclusive direct-photon cross sections are compared with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations and expectations based on a phenomenological parton-k_T model.

We report on the first observation of open charm production in neutral current deep inelastic neutrino scattering as seen in the NuTeV detector at Fermilab. The production rate is shown to be consistent with a pure gluon-$% Z^{0}$ boson production model, and the observed level of charm production is used to determine the effective charm mass. As part of our analysis, we also obtain a new measurement for the proton-nucleon charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s}=38.8$ GeV.

We present results of searches for diphoton resonances produced both inclusively and also in association with a vector boson (W or Z) using 100 $pb^{-1}$ of $p\bar{p}$ collisions using the CDF detector. We set upper limits on the product of cross section times branching ratio for both $p\bar{p} \to \gamma \gamma + X$ and $p \bar{p} \to \gamma \gamma + W/Z$. Comparing the inclusive production to the expectations from heavy sgoldstinos we derive limits on the supersymmetry-breaking scale $\sqrt{F}$ in the TeV range, depending on the sgoldstino mass and the choice of other parameters. Also, using a NLO prediction for the associated production of a Higgs boson with a W or Z boson, we set an upper limit on the branching ratio for $H \to \gamma \gamma$. Finally, we set a lower limit on the mass of a 'bosophilic' Higgs boson (e.g. one which couples only to $\gamma, W,$ and $Z$ bosons with standard model couplings) of 82 GeV/$c^2$ at 95% confidence level.

We present a search for new heavy particles, $X$, which decay via $X \to WZ \to e\nu +jj$ in $p{\bar p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.8 TeV. No evidence is found for production of $X$ in 110 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Limits are set at the 95% C.L. on the mass and the production of new heavy charged vector bosons which decay via $W'\to WZ$ in extended gauge models as a function of the width, $\Gamma (W')$, and mixing factor between the $W'$ and the Standard Model $W$ bosons.

We describe a search for the pair production of first-generation scalar and vector leptoquarks in the eejj and enujj channels by the D0 Collaboration. The data are from the 1992--1996 ppbar run at sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. We find no evidence for leptoquark production; in addition, no kinematically interesting events are observed using relaxed selection criteria. The results from the eejj and enujj channels are combined with those from a previous D0 analysis of the nunujj channel to obtain 95% confidence level (C.L.) upper limits on the leptoquark pair-production cross section as a function of mass and of beta, the branching fraction to a charged lepton. These limits are compared to next-to-leading-order theory to set 95% C.L. lower limits on the mass of a first-generation scalar leptoquark of 225, 204, and 79 GeV/c^2 for beta=1, 1/2, and 0, respectively. For vector leptoquarks with gauge (Yang-Mills) couplings, 95% C.L. lower limits of 345, 337, and 206 GeV/c^2 are set on the mass for beta=1, 1/2, and 0, respectively. Mass limits for vector leptoquarks are also set for anomalous vector couplings.