We report high statistics measurements of inclusive charged hadron production in Au+Au and p+p collisions at \sqrtsNN=200 GeV. A large, approximately constant hadron suppression is observed in central Au+Au collisions for $5\lt\pT\lt12$ GeV/c. The collision energy dependence of the yields and the centrality and \pT dependence of the suppression provide stringent constraints on theoretical models of suppression. Models incorporating initial-state gluon saturation or partonic energy loss in dense matter are largely consistent with observations. We observe no evidence of \pT-dependent suppression, which may be expected from models incorporating jet attentuation in cold nuclear matter or scattering of fragmentation hadrons.
We present spectra of charged pions and protons in 0-10% central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV at mid-rapidity ($y=0$) and forward pseudorapidity ($\eta=2.2$) measured with the BRAHMS experiment at RHIC. The spectra are compared to spectra from p+p collisions at the same energy scaled by the number of binary collisions. The resulting nuclear modification factors for central Au+Au collisions at both $y=0$ and $\eta=2.2$ exhibit suppression for charged pions but not for (anti-)protons at intermediate $p_T$. The $\bar{p}/\pi^-$ ratios have been measured up to $p_T\sim 3$ GeV/$c$ at the two rapidities and the results indicate that a significant fraction of the charged hadrons produced at intermediate $p_T$ range are (anti-)protons at both mid-rapidity and $\eta = 2.2$.
Elliptic flow ($v_{2}$) values for identified particles at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions, measured by the STAR experiment in the Beam Energy Scan at RHIC at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 7.7--62.4 GeV, are presented. A beam-energy dependent difference of the values of $v_{2}$ between particles and corresponding anti-particles was observed. The difference increases with decreasing beam energy and is larger for baryons compared to mesons. This implies that, at lower energies, particles and anti-particles are not consistent with the universal number-of-constituent-quark (NCQ) scaling of $v_{2}$ that was observed at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 200 GeV.
Values of the ratios in the mid-rapidity yields of anti-Lambda/Lambda = 0.71 +/- 0.01(stat.) +/- 0.04(sys.), anti-Xi+/Xi- = 0.83 +/- 0.04(stat.) +/- 0.05 (sys.), anti-Omega+/Omega- = 0.95 +/- 0.15(stat) +/- 0.05(sys.) and K+/K- 1.092 +/- 0.023(combined) were obtained in central sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV Au+Au collisions using the STAR detector. The ratios indicate that a fraction of the net-baryon number from the initial system is present in the excess of hyperons over anti-hyperons at mid-rapidity. The trend in the progression of the baryon ratios, with increasing strange quark content, is similar to that observed in heavy-ion collisions at lower energies. The value of these ratios may be related to the charged kaon ratio in the framework of simple quark-counting and thermal models.
We report results on rho(770)^0 -> pi+pi- production at midrapidity in p+p and peripheral Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. This is the first direct measurement of rho(770)^0 -> pi+pi- in heavy-ion collisions. The measured rho^0 peak in the invariant mass distribution is shifted by ~40 MeV/c^2 in minimum bias p+p interactions and ~70 MeV/c^2 in peripheral Au+Au collisions. The rho^0 mass shift is dependent on transverse momentum and multiplicity. The modification of the rho^0 meson mass, width, and shape due to phase space and dynamical effects are discussed.
We report results on the ratio of mid-rapidity anti-proton to proton yields in Au+Au collisions at $\rts = 130$ GeV per nucleon pair as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. Within the rapidity and transverse momentum range of $|y|<0.5$ and 0.4 $<p_t<$ 1.0 GeV/$c$, the ratio is essentially independent of either transverse momentum or rapidity, with an average of $0.65\pm 0.01_{\rm (stat.)} \pm 0.07_{\rm (syst.)}$ for minimum bias collisions. Within errors, no strong centrality dependence is observed. The results indicate that at this RHIC energy, although the $p$-$\pb$ pair production becomes important at mid-rapidity, a significant excess of baryons over anti-baryons is still present.
Elliptic flow holds much promise for studying the early-time thermalization attained in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions. Flow measurements also provide a means of distinguishing between hydrodynamic models and calculations which approach the low density (dilute gas) limit. Among the effects that can complicate the interpretation of elliptic flow measurements are azimuthal correlations that are unrelated to the reaction plane (non-flow correlations). Using data for Au + Au collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}} = 130 GeV from the STAR TPC, it is found that four-particle correlation analyses can reliably separate flow and non-flow correlation signals. The latter account for on average about 15% of the observed second-harmonic azimuthal correlation, with the largest relative contribution for the most peripheral and the most central collisions. The results are also corrected for the effect of flow variations within centrality bins. This effect is negligible for all but the most central bin, where the correction to the elliptic flow is about a factor of two. A simple new method for two-particle flow analysis based on scalar products is described. An analysis based on the distribution of the magnitude of the flow vector is also described.
The minimum bias multiplicity distribution and the transverse momentum and pseudorapidity distributions for central collisions have been measured for negative hadrons (h-) in Au+Au interactions at sqrt(s_nn) = 130 GeV. The multiplicity density at midrapidity for the 5% most central interactions is dNh-/deta|_{eta = 0} = 280 +- 1(stat)+- 20(syst), an increase per participant of 38% relative to ppbar collisions at the same energy. The mean transverse momentum is 0.508 +- 0.012 GeV/c and is larger than in central Pb+Pb collisions at lower energies. The scaling of the h- yield per participant is a strong function of pt. The pseudorapidity distribution is almost constant within |eta|<1.
The inclusive $J/\psi$ transverse momentum ($p_{T}$) spectra and nuclear modification factors are reported at midrapidity ($|y|<1.0$) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 39, 62.4 and 200 GeV taken by the STAR experiment. A suppression of $J/\psi$ production, with respect to {\color{black}the production in $p+p$ scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions}, is observed in central Au+Au collisions at these three energies. No significant energy dependence of nuclear modification factors is found within uncertainties. The measured nuclear modification factors can be described by model calculations that take into account both suppression of direct $J/\psi$ production due to the color screening effect and $J/\psi$ regeneration from recombination of uncorrelated charm-anticharm quark pairs.
Transverse momentum spectra for charged hadrons and for neutral pions in the range 1 GeV/c $< p_T <$ 5 GeV/c have been measured by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130$ GeV. At high $p_T$ the spectra from peripheral nuclear collisions are consistent with the naive expectation of scaling the spectra from p+p collisions by the average number of binary nucleon- nucleon collisions. The spectra from central collisions are significantly suppressed when compared to the binary- scaled p+p expectation, and also when compared to similarly binary-scaled peripheral collisions, indicating a novel nuclear effect in central nuclear collisions at RHIC energies.