Besides the dedicated search for strangelets NA52 measures light (anti)particle and (anti)nuclei production over a wide range of rapidity. Compared to previous runs the statistics has been increased in the 1998 run by more than one order of magnitude for negatively charged objects at different spectrometer rigidities. At a rigidity of −20 GeV/ c we measured 10 6 p , 10 3 d and one 3 He without any centrality requirements. These preliminary results together with previous measurements near central rapidity are discussed in the framework of a thermodynamical and a coalescence model.
The production of eta mesons has been measured in the proton-proton interaction close to the reaction threshold using the COSY-11 internal facility at the cooler synchrotron COSY. Total cross sections were determined for eight different excess energies in the range from 0.5 MeV to 5.4 MeV. The energy dependence of the total cross section is well described by the available phase-space volume weighted by FSI factors for the proton-proton and proton-eta pairs.
Results from the HELIOS External Spectrometer on kaon production in 200 GeV/ A S + W and p + W collisions are presented. The K π ratios are compared with results from a lower beam energy and are found to be remarkably similar. Evidence for secondary production of K + by meson-baryon rescattering is reviewed. Our results at y = 1.0–1.5 are compared with neutral strange particle results at midrapidity.
A sample of Lambda's produced in 2 A*GeV Ni + Cu collisions has been obtained with the EOS Time Projection Chamber at the Bevalac. Low background in the invariant mass distribution allows for the unambiguous demonstration of Lambda directed flow. The transverse mass spectrum at mid-rapidity has the characteristic shoulder-arm shape of particles undergoing radial transverse expansion. A linear dependence of Lambda multiplicity on impact parameter is observed, from which a total Lambda + Sigma^0 production cross section of $112 +/- 24 mb is deduced. Detailed comparisons with the ARC and RVUU models are made.
The STAR collaboration reports the first observation of exclusive rho^0 photo-production, AuAu->AuAu rho^0, and rho^0 production accompanied by mutual nuclear Coulomb excitation, AuAu->Au*Au*rho^0, in ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions. The rho^0 have low transverse momenta, consistent with coherent coupling to both nuclei. The cross sections at sqrt(s_NN)=130GeV agree with theoretical predictions treating rho^0 production and Coulomb excitation as independent processes.
We report transverse momentum ($p_{T} \leq15$ GeV/$c$) spectra of $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $p$, $\bar{p}$, $K_{S}^{0}$, and $\rho^{0}$ at mid-rapidity in p+p and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV. Perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with $\pi^{\pm}$ spectra in p+p collisions but do not reproduce $K$ and $p(\bar{p})$ spectra. The observed decreasing antiparticle-to-particle ratios with increasing $p_T$ provide experimental evidence for varying quark and gluon jet contributions to high-$p_T$ hadron yields. The relative hadron abundances in Au+Au at $p_{T}{}^{>}_{\sim}8$ GeV/$c$ are measured to be similar to the p+p results, despite the expected Casimir effect for parton energy loss.
The invariant yields $d^2N/(2\pi p_T dp_T dy)$ of $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $p$, and $\bar{p}$ from non-singly diffractive p+p collisions ($\sigma_{NSD} = 30.0 \pm 3.5$ mb), and NLO calculations with AKK [9] and DSS [10] FF. The uncertainty of yields due to the scale dependence as evaluated in [10] is about a factor of 2. Bars and boxes (bands) represent statistical and systematic uncertainties, respectively.
The invariant yields $d^2N/(2\pi p_T dp_T dy)$ of $K^0_S$ from non-singly diffractive p+p collisions ($\sigma_{NSD} = 30.0 \pm 3.5$ mb), and NLO calculations with AKK [9] and DSS [10] FF. The uncertainty of yields due to the scale dependence as evaluated in [10] is about a factor of 2. Bars and boxes (bands) represent statistical and systematic uncertainties, respectively.
The invariant yields $d^2N/(2\pi p_T dp_T dy)$ of $\rho^0$ from non-singly diffractive p+p collisions ($\sigma_{NSD} = 30.0 \pm 3.5$ mb), and NLO calculations with AKK [9] and DSS [10] FF. The uncertainty of yields due to the scale dependence as evaluated in [10] is about a factor of 2. Bars and boxes (bands) represent statistical and systematic uncertainties, respectively.
The excitation of theΔ resonance is observed in proton collisions on C, Nb and Pb targets at 0.8 and 1.6 GeV incident energies. The mass E0 and widthΓ of the resonance are determined from the invariant mass spectra of correlated (p, π±)-pairs in the final state of the collision: The mass E0 is smaller than that of the free resonance, however by comparing to intra-nuclear cascade calculations, this reduction is traced back to the effects of Fermi motion, NN scattering and pion reabsorption in nuclear matter.
We report on a sample of Jψ mesons coming from secondary vertices, a characteristic of heavyquark decay, detected in the Fermilab Meson West spectrometer. Based on eight signal events in which a Jψ emerges from a secondary vertex occurring in an air-gap region, we obtain an inclusive bb¯ cross section of 75 ± 31 ± 26 nb/nucleon. This result is compared to recent QCD predictions. We have also observed several events in the exclusive decay modes B±→Jψ+K± and B0→Jψ+K0* in which the B mass is fully reconstructed.
Sigma+ hyperon production was measured at the COSY-11 spectrometer via the p p --> n K+ Sigma+ reaction at excess energies of Q = 13 MeV and Q = 60 MeV. These measurements continue systematic hyperon production studies via the p p --> p K+ Lambda/Sigma0 reactions where a strong decrease of the cross section ratio close-to-threshold was observed. In order to verify models developed for the description of the Lambda and Sigma0 production we have performed the measurement on the Sigma+ hyperon and found unexpectedly that the total cross section is by more than one order of magnitude larger than predicted by all anticipated models. After the reconstruction of the kaon and neutron four momenta, the Sigma+ is identified via the missing mass technique. Details of the method and the measurement will be given and discussed in view of theoretical models.
We searched for long-lived strange quark matter particles, so-called strangelets , and studied particle and antiparticle production in Pb + Pb collisions at 158 GeV/ c per nucleon at zero degree production angle. We give upper limits for the production of strangelets covering a mass to charge ratio up to 120 GeV/ c 2 and lifetimes t lab > 1.2 μ s and plot invariant differential production cross sections as a function of rapidity for a variety of particles.
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