The PHENIX experiment has measured the production of neutral pions in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The new data offer a fourfold increase in recorded luminosity, providing higher precision and a larger reach in transverse momentum, p_T, to 20 GeV/c. The production ratio of eta/pi^0 is 0.46+/-0.01(stat)+/-0.05(syst), constant with p_T and collision centrality. The observed ratio is consistent with earlier measurements, as well as with the p+p and d+Au values. The production of pi^0 is suppressed by a factor of 5, as in earlier findings. However, with the improved statistical precision a small but significant rise of the nuclear modification factor, R_AA, vs p_T, with a slope of 0.0106+/-^(0.0034)_(0.0029)[GeV/c]^-1, is discernible in central collisions. A phenomenological extraction of the average fractional parton energy loss shows a decrease with increasing p_T. To study the path length dependence of suppression, the pi^0 yield was measured at different angles with respect to the event plane; a strong azimuthal dependence of the pi^0 R_AA is observed. The data are compared to theoretical models of parton energy loss as a function of the path length, L, in the medium. Models based on pQCD are insufficient to describe the data, while a hybrid model utilizing pQCD for the hard interactions and AdS/CFT for the soft interactions is consistent with the data.
Correlations of charged hadrons of 1 < pT < 10 GeV/c with high pT direct photons and pi^ 0 mesons in the range 5 <pT < 15 GeV/c are used to study jet fragmentation in the photon+jet and di-jet channels, respectively. The magnitude of the partonic transverse momentum, kT, is obtained by comparing to a model incorporating a Gaussian kT smearing. The sensitivity of the associated charged hadron spectra to the underlying fragmentation function is tested and the data are compared to calculations using recent global fit results. The shape of the direct photon-associated hadron spectrum as well as its charge asymmetry are found to be consistent with a sample dominated by quark-gluon Compton scattering. No significant evidence of fragmentation photon correlated production is observed within experimental uncertainties.
The transverse momentum (p_T) spectra and ratios of identified charged hadrons (\pi^+/-, K^+/-, p, p^bar) produced in sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV Au+Au and d+Au collisions are reported in five different centrality classes for each collision species. The measurements of pions and protons are reported up to p_T=6 GeV/c (5 GeV/c), and the measurements of kaons are reported up to p_T=4 GeV/c (3.5 GeV/c) in Au+Au (d+Au) collisions. In the intermediate p_T region, between 2--5 GeV/c, a significant enhancement of baryon to meson ratios compared to those measured in p+p collisions is observed. This enhancement is present in both Au+Au and d+Au collisions, and increases as the collisions become more central. We compare a class of peripheral Au+Au collisions with a class of central d+Au collisions which have a comparable number of participating nucleons and binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The p_T dependent particle ratios for these classes display a remarkable similarity, which is then discussed.
Inclusive transverse momentum distributions of charged hadrons within 0.2<pT<6.0 GeV/c have been measured over a broad range of centrality for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN)=130 GeV. Hadron yields are suppressed at high pT in central collisions relative to peripheral collisions and to a nucleon-nucleon reference scaled for collision geometry. Peripheral collisions are not suppressed relative to the nucleon-nucleon reference. The suppression varies continuously at intermediate centralities. The results indicate significant nuclear medium effects on high pT hadron production in heavy ion collisions at high energy.
A three-dimensional (3D) correlation function obtained from mid-rapidity, low pT pion pairs in central Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV is studied. The extracted model-independent source function indicates a long range tail in the directions of the pion pair transverse momentum (out) and the beam (long). Model comparisons to these distensions indicate a proper breakup time \tau_0 ~ 9 fm/c and a mean proper emission duration \Delta\tau ~ 2 fm/c, leading to sizable emission time differences (<|\Delta \tau_LCM |> ~ 12 fm/c), partly due to resonance decays. They also suggest an outside-in 'burning' of the emission source reminiscent of many hydrodynamical models.
We report a measurement of $e^+e^-$ pairs from semileptonic heavy-flavor decays in $d$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. Exploring the mass and transverse-momentum dependence of the yield, the bottom decay contribution can be isolated from charm, and quantified by comparison to {\sc pythia} and {\sc mc@nlo} simulations. The resulting $b\bar{b}$-production cross section is $\sigma^{d{\rm Au}}_{b\bar{b}}=1.37{\pm}0.28({\rm stat}){\pm}0.46({\rm syst})$~mb, which is equivalent to a nucleon-nucleon cross section of $\sigma^{NN}_{bb}=3.4\pm0.8({\rm stat}){\pm}1.1({\rm syst})\ \mu$b.
We present results for three charmonia states (psi^prime, chi_c and J/psi) in d+Au collisions at |y|<0.35 and sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. We find that the modification of the psi^prime yield relative to that of the J/psi scales approximately with charged-particle multiplicity at midrapidity across p+A, d+Au, and A+A results from the Super Proton Synchrotron and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. In large impact-parameter collisions we observe a similar suppression for the psi^prime and J/psi, while in small impact-parameter collisions the more weakly bound psi^prime is more strongly suppressed. Owing to the short time spent traversing the Au nucleus, the larger psi^prime suppression in central events is not explained by an increase of the nuclear absorption due to meson formation time effects.
It has been postulated that partonic orbital angular momentum can lead to a significant double-helicity dependence in the net transverse momentum of Drell-Yan dileptons produced in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions. Analogous effects are also expected for dijet production. If confirmed by experiment, this hypothesis, which is based on semi-classical arguments, could lead to a new approach for studying the contributions of orbital angular momentum to the proton spin. We report the first measurement of the double-helicity dependence of the dijet transverse momentum in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV from data taken by the PHENIX experiment in 2005 and 2006. The analysis deduces the transverse momentum of the dijet from the widths of the near- and far-side peaks in the azimuthal correlation of the dihadrons. When averaged over the transverse momentum of the triggered particle, the difference of the root-mean-square of the dijet transverse momentum between like- and unlike-helicity collisions is found to be -37 +/- 88(stat) +/- 14(syst) MeV/c.
Correlations in the hadron distributions produced in relativistic Au+Au collisions are studied in the discrete wavelet expansion method. The analysis is performed in the space of pseudorapidity (|eta| < 1) and azimuth (full 2 pi) in bins of transverse momentum (p_t) from 0.14 < p_t < 2.1 GeV/c. In peripheral Au+Au collisions a correlation structure ascribed to mini-jet fragmentation is observed. It evolves with collision centrality and p_t in a way not seen before which suggests strong dissipation of minijet fragmentation in the longitudinally-expanding medium.
The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured the invariant differential cross section for production of K^0_S , \omega, \eta prime, and \phi mesons in p + p collisions at = 200 GeV. Measurements \omega and \phi production in different decay channels give consistent results. New results for the \phi are in agreement with previously published data and extend the measured pT coverage. The spectral shapes of all hadron transverse momentum distributions measured by PHENIX are well described by a Tsallis distribution functional form with only two parameters, n and T, determining the high-pT and characterizing the low-pT regions of the spectra, respectively. The values of these parameters are very similar for all analyzed meson spectra, but with a lower parameter T extracted for protons. The integrated invariant cross sections calculated from the fitted distributions are found to be consistent with existing measurements and with statistical model predictions.
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