We report the first multi-differential measurements of strange hadrons of $K^{-}$, $\phi$ and $\Xi^{-}$ yields as well as the ratios of $\phi/K^-$ and $\phi/\Xi^-$ in Au+Au collisions at ${\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = \rm{3\,GeV}}$ with the STAR experiment fixed target configuration at RHIC. The $\phi$ mesons and $\Xi^{-}$ hyperons are measured through hadronic decay channels, $\phi\rightarrow K^+K^-$ and $\Xi^-\rightarrow \Lambda\pi^-$. Collision centrality and rapidity dependence of the transverse momentum spectra for these strange hadrons are presented. The $4\pi$ yields and ratios are compared to thermal model and hadronic transport model predictions. At this collision energy, thermal model with grand canonical ensemble (GCE) under-predicts the $\phi/K^-$ and $\phi/\Xi^-$ ratios while the result of canonical ensemble (CE) calculations reproduce $\phi/K^-$, with the correlation length $r_c \sim 2.7$ fm, and $\phi/\Xi^-$, $r_c \sim 4.2$ fm, for the 0-10% central collisions. Hadronic transport models including high mass resonance decays could also describe the ratios. While thermal calculations with GCE work well for strangeness production in high energy collisions, the change to CE at $\rm{3\,GeV}$ implies a rather different medium property at high baryon density.

We report cumulants of the proton multiplicity distribution from dedicated fixed-target Au+Au collisions at 3.0 GeV, measured by the STAR experiment in the kinematic acceptance of rapidity ($y$) and transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) within $-0.5 < y<0$ and $0.4 < p_{\rm T} <2.0 $ GeV/$c$. In the most central 0--5% collisions, a proton cumulant ratio is measured to be $C_4/C_2=-0.85 \pm 0.09 ~(\rm stat.) \pm 0.82 ~(\rm syst.)$, which is less than unity, the Poisson baseline. The hadronic transport UrQMD model reproduces our $C_4/C_2$ in the measured acceptance. Compared to higher energy results and the transport model calculations, the suppression in $C_4/C_2$ is consistent with fluctuations driven by baryon number conservation and indicates an energy regime dominated by hadronic interactions. These data imply that the QCD critical region, if created in heavy-ion collisions, could only exist at energies higher than 3 GeV.

A search for exclusive two-photon production via photon exchange in proton-proton collisions, pp $\to$ p$\gamma\gamma$p with intact protons, is presented. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 9.4 fb$^{-1}$ collected in 2016 using the CMS and TOTEM detectors at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC. Events are selected with a diphoton invariant mass above 350 GeV and with both protons intact in the final state, to reduce backgrounds from strong interactions. The events of interest are those where the invariant mass and rapidity calculated from the momentum losses of the forward-moving protons matches the mass and rapidity of the central, two-photon system. No events are found that satisfy this condition. Interpreting this result in an effective dimension-8 extension of the standard model, the first limits are set on the two anomalous four-photon coupling parameters. If the other parameter is constrained to its standard model value, the limits at 95% CL are $\lvert\zeta_1\rvert$ $\lt$ 2.9 $\times$ 10$^{-13}$ GeV$^{-4}$ and $\lvert\zeta_2\rvert$ $\lt$ 6.0 $\times$ 10$^{-13}$ GeV$^{-4}$.

We report measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, $A_{LL}$, for inclusive jet and dijet production in polarized proton-proton collisions at midrapidity and center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 510 GeV, using the high luminosity data sample collected by the STAR experiment in 2013. These measurements complement and improve the precision of previous STAR measurements at the same center-of-mass energy that probe the polarized gluon distribution function at partonic momentum fraction 0.015 $\lesssim x \lesssim$ 0.25. The dijet asymmetries are separated into four jet-pair topologies, which provide further constraints on the $x$ dependence of the polarized gluon distribution function. These measurements are in agreement with previous STAR measurements and with predictions from current next-to-leading order global analyses. They provide more precise data at low dijet invariant mass that will better constraint the shape of the polarized gluon distribution function of the proton.

Small nuclear collisions are mainly sensitive to cold-nuclear-matter effects; however, the collective behavior observed in these collisions shows a hint of hot-nuclear-matter effects. The identified-particle spectra, especially the $\phi$ mesons which contain strange and antistrange quarks and have a relatively small hadronic-interaction cross section, are a good tool to study these effects. The PHENIX experiment has measured $\phi$ mesons in a specific set of small collision systems $p$$+$Al, $p$$+$Au, and $^3$He$+$Au, as well as $d$$+$Au [Phys. Rev. C {\bf 83}, 024909 (2011)], at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. The transverse-momentum spectra and nuclear-modification factors are presented and compared to theoretical-model predictions. The comparisons with different calculations suggest that quark-gluon plasma may be formed in these small collision systems at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. However, the volume and the lifetime of the produced medium may be insufficient for observing strangeness-enhancement and jet-quenching effects. Comparison with calculations suggests that the main production mechanisms of $\phi$ mesons at midrapidity may be different in $p$$+$Al versus $p/d/$$^3$He$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. While thermal quark recombination seems to dominate in $p/d/$$^3$He$+$Au collisions, fragmentation seems to be the main production mechanism in $p$$+$Al collisions.

A measurement of inclusive, prompt, and non-prompt ${\rm J}/\psi$ production in p$-$Pb collisions at a nucleon$-$nucleon centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.02$ TeV is presented. The inclusive ${\rm J}/\psi$ mesons are reconstructed in the dielectron decay channel at midrapidity down to a transverse momentum $p_{\rm T} = 0$. The inclusive ${\rm J}/\psi$ nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm pPb}$ is calculated by comparing the new results in p$-$Pb collisions to a recently measured proton$-$proton reference at the same centre-of-mass energy. Non-prompt ${\rm J}/\psi$ mesons, which originate from the decay of beauty hadrons, are separated from promptly produced ${\rm J}/\psi$ on a statistical basis for $p_{\rm T}$ larger than 1.0 GeV/$c$. These results are based on the data sample collected by the ALICE detector during the 2016 LHC p$-$Pb run, corresponding to an integrated luminosity ${\cal L}_{\rm int} = 292 \pm 11 \; {\rm \mu b}^{-1}$, which is six times larger than the previous publications. The total uncertainty on the $p_{\rm T}$-integrated inclusive ${\rm J}/\psi$ and non-prompt ${\rm J}/\psi$ cross section are reduced by a factor 1.7 and 2.2, respectively. The measured cross sections and $R_{\rm pPb}$ are compared with theoretical models that include various combinations of cold nuclear matter effects. From the non-prompt ${\rm J}/\psi$ production cross section, the ${\rm b\overline{b}}$ production cross section at midrapidity, $\mathrm{d}\sigma_{\rm b\overline{b}}/\mathrm{d}y$, and the total cross section extrapolated over full phase space, $\sigma_{\rm b\overline{b}}$, are derived.

An observation is reported of the electroweak production of a W$^+$W$^-$ pair in association with two jets, with both W bosons decaying leptonically. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, collected by the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. Events are selected by requiring exactly two opposite-sign leptons (electrons or muons) and two jets with large pseudorapidity separation and high dijet invariant mass. Events are categorized based on the flavor of the final-state leptons. A signal is observed with a significance of 5.6 standard deviations (5.2 expected) with respect to the background-only hypothesis. The measured fiducial cross section is 10.2 $\pm$ 2.0 fb and this value is consistent with the standard model prediction of 9.1 $\pm$ 0.6 fb.

The multiplicity dependence of jet production in pp collisions at the centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13\ \mathrm{TeV}$ is studied for the first time. Jets are reconstructed from charged particles using the anti-$k_\mathrm{T}$ algorithm with resolution parameters $R$ varying from $0.2$ to $0.7$. The jets are measured in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta_{\rm jet}|< 0.9-R$ and in the transverse momentum range $5<p_\mathrm{T,jet}^{\rm ch}<140\ \mathrm{GeV}/c$. The multiplicity intervals are categorised by the ALICE forward detector V0. The $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ differential cross section of charged-particle jets are compared to leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations. It is found that the data are better described by the NLO calculation, although the NLO prediction overestimates the jet cross section below $20\ \mathrm{GeV}/c$. The cross section ratios for different $R$ are also measured and compared to model calculations. These measurements provide insights into the angular dependence of jet fragmentation. The jet yield increases with increasing self-normalised charged-particle multiplicity. This increase shows only a weak dependence on jet transverse momentum and resolution parameter at the highest multiplicity. While such behaviour is qualitatively described by the present version of PYTHIA, quantitative description may require implementing new mechanisms for multi-particle production in hadronic collisions.

The first measurements of the Fourier coefficients ($V_{n\Delta}$) of the azimuthal distributions of charged hadrons emitted from photon-proton ($\gamma$p) interactions at the LHC are presented. The data are extracted from 68.8 nb$^{-1}$ of ultra-peripheral proton-lead (pPb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 8.16 TeV using the CMS detector. The high energy lead ions produce a flux of photons that can interact with the oncoming proton. This $\gamma$p system provides a set of unique initial conditions with multiplicity lower than in photon-lead collisions but comparable to recent electron-positron and electron-proton data. The $V_{n\Delta}$ coefficients are presented in ranges of event multiplicity and transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) and are compared to corresponding hadronic minimum bias pPb results. For a given multiplicity range, the mean $p_\mathrm{T}$ of charged particles is smaller in $\gamma$p than in pPb collisions. For both the $\gamma$p and pPb samples, $V_{1\Delta}$ is negative, $V_{2\Delta}$ is positive, and $V_{3\Delta}$ consistent with 0. For each multiplicity and $p_\mathrm{T}$ range, $V_{2\Delta}$ is larger for $\gamma$p events. The $\gamma$p data are consistent with model predictions that have no collective effects.

The collective behavior of K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ and $\Lambda/\bar{\Lambda}$ strange hadrons is studied by measuring the elliptic azimuthal anisotropy ($v_2$) using the scalar-product and multiparticle correlation methods. Proton-lead (pPb) collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 8.16 TeV and lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC are investigated. Nonflow effects in the pPb collisions are studied by using a subevent cumulant analysis and by excluding events where a jet with transverse momentum greater than 20\GeV is present. The strange hadron $v_2$ values extracted in \pPb collisions via the four- and six-particle correlation method are found to be nearly identical, suggesting the collective behavior. Comparisons of the pPb and PbPb results for both strange hadrons and charged particles illustrate how event-by-event flow fluctuations depend on the system size.