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.
Measurements of inclusive spectra and mean multiplicities of $\pi^\pm$, K$^\pm$, p and $\bar{\textrm{p}}$ produced in inelastic p+p interactions at incident projectile momenta of 20, 31, 40, 80 and 158 GeV/c ($\sqrt{s} = $ 6.3, 7.7, 8.8, 12.3 and 17.3 GeV, respectively) were performed at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron using the large acceptance NA61/SHINE hadron spectrometer. Spectra are presented as function of rapidity and transverse momentum and are compared to predictions of current models. The measurements serve as the baseline in the NA61/SHINE study of the properties of the onset of deconfinement and search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter.
Inclusive and semi-inclusive cross sections for gp0 production in 100, 200, and 360 GeV/c π−p interactions are presented. Differential cross sections for ρ0 production as functions of c.m. rapidity and transverse momentum are compared with the corresponding differential cross sections for pion production. Effects of various methods of estimating background on the values obtained for ρ0 production cross sections are discussed. About 10% of the final-state charged pions appear to come from ρ0 decay. Thus, while ρ0 production and decay is a significant source of final-state pions, other sources must contribute the majority of the produced pions.
The photon total cross section on protons has been measured with high precision in the Fermilab tagged-photon beam for photon energies from 18 to 185 GeV. The cross section decreases to a broad minimum near 40 GeV, and then rises by about 4 μb over the remainder of the range. A ρ+ω+ϕ vector-dominance model (normalized to low-energy data) falls below the high-energy results by 2 to 6 μb, suggesting a contribution from charm-anticharm states.
The diffractive production of ρ0(770 @#@) mesons in muon-proton interactions is studied in the kinematic region 0.15 GeV2< Q2< 20 GeV2 and 20 GeV < ? < 420 GeV. The data were obtained in the Fermilab fixed-target experiment E665 with primary muons of 470 GeV energy. Results are presented on the Q2, x and ? dependence of the cross section, on the shape of the ρ+ρt - mass spectrum, on the slope of the diffraction peak and on the production and decay angular distributions of the ρ0(770). The cross section for diffractive production of ρ0 by virtual photons on protons depends mainly on Q2. At fixed Q2, no significant dependence on x or ? is observed. The extrapolation to Q2 = 0 yields a photoproduction cross section of (10.30 ± 0.33) μb. The slope of the t′ distribution has a value of (7.0 ± 0.2) GeV−2, with a tendency to decrease as Q2 increases. The production and decay angular distributions of the ρ0 depend strongly on Q2 and are consistent with s-channel helicity conservation. The ratio R = σl/σt deduced from the decay angular distributions rises strongly with Q2, passing the value of 1 at Q2≈ 2 GeV2.
Inclusive single-particle spectra for π± production are presented for data from π±p interactions at 100 GeV/c. The spectra for the four reactions π±p→π±+anything are compared as a function of laboratory longitudinal momentum, Feynman x, center-of-mass (c.m.) rapidity, and transverse momentum squared. Comparisons are also made between these data and analogous data from 16 and 18.5 GeV/c π±p interactions and the energy dependence is discussed. Average values of the transverse momentum are given as a function of the longitudinal momentum and charged-particle multiplicity. A comparison of the charge distributions is presented as a function of rapidity and c.m. energy.
The elastic photoproduction cross sections for ρ and ϕ mesons from protons have been measured from 30 to 180 GeV. The energy dependences agree well with predictions made by using vector-meson dominance and an additive quark model. The ρ cross section is approximately constant with energy while the ϕ cross section rises from 0.5 to 0.7 μb with increasing energy.
Elastic ω-meson photoproduction on protons has been measured from 46 to 180 GeV. The cross section is approximately constant with photon energy and averages 1.10 ± 0.08 μb. The t dependence of the differential cross section is consistent with A exp(bt), where b=8.4±0.7 GeV−2. The photon-omega coupling constant, obtained from a normalization of hadron elastic-scattering cross sections to the photoproduction data of this experiment (with use of vector-meson dominance and an additive quark model), is γω24π=5.4±0.4.
Inclusive cross sections for π 0 , K s 0 , Λ 0 and Λ 0 production in 100, 200 and 360 GeV /c π − p interactions are presented and compared with data at other energies. Invariant cross sections for γ, K s 0 , Λ 0 and Λ 0 production are presented in terms of Feynman x , the rapidity y , and transverse momentum squared, p T 2 . A comparison of the observed γ spectrum is made with the spectra computed assuming that the π 0 momentum distribution is identical to that of the observed π + or π − .
The ratio of π+p to pp elastic scattering is found to be smoothly varying over the range −t=0.03 to 0.4 GeV2. It is well fitted by a single exponential, indicating the forward behavior must be quite similar for the two reactions.