Heavy quarkonia are observed to be suppressed in relativistic heavy ion collisions relative to their production in p+p collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. In order to determine if this suppression is related to color screening of these states in the produced medium, one needs to account for other nuclear modifications including those in cold nuclear matter. In this paper, we present new measurements from the PHENIX 2007 data set of J/psi yields at forward rapidity (1.2<|y|<2.2) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The data confirm the earlier finding that the suppression of J/psi at forward rapidity is stronger than at midrapidity, while also extending the measurement to finer bins in collision centrality and higher transverse momentum (pT). We compare the experimental data to the most recent theoretical calculations that incorporate a variety of physics mechanisms including gluon saturation, gluon shadowing, initial-state parton energy loss, cold nuclear matter breakup, color screening, and charm recombination. We find J/psi suppression beyond cold-nuclear-matter effects. However, the current level of disagreement between models and d+Au data precludes using these models to quantify the hot-nuclear-matter suppression.
A novel search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into pairs of long-lived neutral particles, each decaying into a bottom quark pair, is performed using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events consistent with the production of a Higgs boson in association with a leptonically decaying $Z$ boson are analysed. Long-lived particle (LLP) decays are reconstructed from inner-detector tracks as displaced vertices with high mass and track multiplicity relative to Standard Model processes. The analysis selection requires the presence of at least two displaced vertices, effectively suppressing Standard Model backgrounds. The residual background contribution is estimated using a data-driven technique. No excess over Standard Model predictions is observed, and upper limits are set on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to LLPs. Branching ratios above 10% are excluded at 95% confidence level for LLP mean proper lifetimes $c\tau$ as small as 4 mm and as large as 100 mm. For LLP masses below 40 GeV, these results represent the most stringent constraint in this lifetime regime.
Double-parton scattering is investigated using events with a Z boson and jets. The Z boson is reconstructed using only the dimuon channel. The measurements are performed with proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ collected in the year 2016. Differential cross sections of Z + $\geq$ 1 jet and Z + $\geq$ 2 jets are measured with transverse momentum of the jets above 20 GeV and pseudorapidity $|\eta|$$\lt$ 2.4. Several distributions with sensitivity to double-parton scattering effects are measured as functions of the angle and the transverse momentum imbalance between the Z boson and the jets. The measured distributions are compared with predictions from several event generators with different hadronization models and different parameter settings for multiparton interactions. The measured distributions show a dependence on the hadronization and multiparton interaction simulation parameters, and are important input for future improvements of the simulations.
We present a measurement of the transverse single-spin asymmetry for $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons in $p^\uparrow$ $+$ $p$ collisions in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.35$ and at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. In comparison with previous measurements in this kinematic region, these results have a factor of 3 smaller uncertainties. As hadrons, $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons are sensitive to both initial- and final-state nonperturbative effects for a mix of parton flavors. Comparisons of the differences in their transverse single-spin asymmetries have the potential to disentangle the possible effects of strangeness, isospin, or mass. These results can constrain the twist-3 trigluon collinear correlation function as well as the gluon Sivers function.
We report on K*0 production at mid-rapidity in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 62.4 and 200 GeV collected by the Solenoid Tracker at RHIC (STAR) detector. The K*0 is reconstructed via the hadronic decays K*0 \to K+ pi- and \bar{K*0} \to K-pi+. Transverse momentum, pT, spectra are measured over a range of pT extending from 0.2 GeV/c to 5 GeV/c. The center of mass energy and system size dependence of the rapidity density, dN/dy, and the average transverse momentum, <pT>, are presented. The measured N(K*0)/N(K) and N(\phi)/N(K*0) ratios favor the dominance of re-scattering of decay daughters of K*0 over the hadronic regeneration for the K*0 production. In the intermediate pT region (2.0 < pT < 4.0 GeV/c), the elliptic flow parameter, v2, and the nuclear modification factor, RCP, agree with the expectations from the quark coalescence model of particle production.
Rapidity-odd directed flow($v_1$) measurements for charged pions, protons and antiprotons near mid-rapidity ($y=0$) are reported in $\sqrt{s_{NN}} =$ 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4 and 200 GeV Au + Au collisions as recorded by the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). At intermediate impact parameters, the proton and net-proton slope parameter $dv_1/dy|_{y=0}$ shows a minimum between 11.5 and 19.6 GeV. In addition, the net-proton $dv_1/dy|_{y=0}$ changes sign twice between 7.7 and 39 GeV. The proton and net-proton results qualitatively resemble predictions of a hydrodynamic model with a first-order phase transition from hadronic matter to deconfined matter, and differ from hadronic transport calculations.
The transversity distribution, which describes transversely polarized quarks in transversely polarized nucleons, is a fundamental component of the spin structure of the nucleon, and is only loosely constrained by global fits to existing semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) data. In transversely polarized $p^\uparrow+p$ collisions it can be accessed using transverse polarization dependent fragmentation functions which give rise to azimuthal correlations between the polarization of the struck parton and the final state scalar mesons. This letter reports on spin dependent di-hadron correlations measured by the STAR experiment. The new dataset corresponds to 25 pb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity of $p^\uparrow+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=500$ GeV, an increase of more than a factor of ten compared to our previous measurement at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV. Non-zero asymmetries sensitive to transversity are observed at a $Q^2$ of several hundred GeV and are found to be consistent with the former measurement and a model calculation. %we observe consistent with the former measurement are observed.} We expect that these data will enable an extraction of transversity with comparable precision to current SIDIS datasets but at much higher momentum transfers where subleading effects are suppressed.
We report on the observed differences in production rates of strange and multi-strange baryons in Au+Au collisions at sqrts = 200 GeV compared to pp interactions at the same energy. The strange baryon yields in Au+Au collisions, then scaled down by the number of participating nucleons, are enhanced relative to those measured in pp reactions. The enhancement observed increases with the strangeness content of the baryon, and increases for all strange baryons with collision centrality. The enhancement is qualitatively similar to that observed at lower collision energy sqrts =17.3 GeV. The previous observations are for the bulk production, while at intermediate pT, 1 < pT< 4 GeV/c, the strange baryons even exceed binary scaling from pp yields.
We report the measurement of direct photons at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV. The direct photon signal was extracted for the transverse-momentum range of 4 GeV/c < p_T < 22 GeV/c, using a statistical method to subtract decay photons from the inclusive-photon sample. The direct-photon nuclear-modification factor R_AA was calculated as a function of p_T for different Au+Au collision centralities using the measured p+p direct-photon spectrum and compared to theoretical predictions. R_AA was found to be consistent with unity for all centralities over the entire measured p_T range. Theoretical models that account for modifications of initial-direct-photon production due to modified-parton-distribution functions in Au and the different isospin composition of the nuclei, predict a modest change of R_AA from unity and are consistent with the data. Models with compensating effects of the quark-gluon plasma on high-energy photons, such as suppression of jet-fragmentation photons and induced-photon bremsstrahlung from partons traversing the medium, are also consistent with this measurement.
Production of $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons has been measured at midrapidity in Cu$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=200 GeV. Measurements were performed in $\pi^0(\eta)\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$ decay channel in the 1(2)-20 GeV/$c$ transverse momentum range. A strong suppression is observed for $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ meson production at high transverse momentum in central Cu$+$Au collisions relative to the $p$$+$$p$ results scaled by the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. In central collisions the suppression is similar to Au$+$Au with comparable nuclear overlap. The $\eta/\pi^0$ ratio measured as a function of transverse momentum is consistent with $m_T$-scaling parameterization down to $p_T=$2 GeV/$c$, its asymptotic value is constant and consistent with Au$+$Au and $p$$+$$p$ and does not show any significant dependence on collision centrality. Similar results were obtained in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions as well as in $e^+e^-$ collisions in a range of collision energies $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=$3--1800 GeV. This suggests that the quark-gluon-plasma medium produced in Cu$+$Cu collisions either does not affect the jet fragmentation into light mesons or it affects the $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ the same way.
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