The extreme temperatures and energy densities generated by ultra-relativistic collisions between heavy nuclei produce a state of matter with surprising fluid properties. Non-central collisions have angular momentum on the order of 1000$\hbar$, and the resulting fluid may have a strong vortical structure that must be understood to properly describe the fluid. It is also of particular interest because the restoration of fundamental symmetries of quantum chromodynamics is expected to produce novel physical effects in the presence of strong vorticity. However, no experimental indications of fluid vorticity in heavy ion collisions have so far been found. Here we present the first measurement of an alignment between the angular momentum of a non-central collision and the spin of emitted particles, revealing that the fluid produced in heavy ion collisions is by far the most vortical system ever observed. We find that $\Lambda$ and $\overline{\Lambda}$ hyperons show a positive polarization of the order of a few percent, consistent with some hydrodynamic predictions. A previous measurement that reported a null result at higher collision energies is seen to be consistent with the trend of our new observations, though with larger statistical uncertainties. These data provide the first experimental access to the vortical structure of the "perfect fluid" created in a heavy ion collision. They should prove valuable in the development of hydrodynamic models that quantitatively connect observations to the theory of the Strong Force. Our results extend the recent discovery of hydrodynamic spin alignment to the subatomic realm.
We present a search for new particles whose decays produce two jets (dijets) using proton-antiproton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.13 fb-1 collected with the CDF II detector. The measured dijet mass spectrum is found to be consistent with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions, and no significant evidence of new particles is found. We set upper limits at the 95% confidence level on cross sections times the branching fraction for the production of new particles decaying into dijets with both jets having a rapidity magnitude |y| < 1. These limits are used to determine the mass exclusions for the excited quark, axigluon, flavor-universal coloron, E6 diquark, color-octet technirho, W', and Z'.
Exclusive production of π and K meson pairs in two photon collisions is measured with ALEPH data collected between 1992 and 2000. Cross-sections are presented as a function of cos θ ∗ and invariant mass, for | cos θ ∗ |<0.6 and invariant masses between 2.0 and 6.0 GeV/ c 2 (2.25 and 4.0 GeV/ c 2 ) for pions (kaons). The shape of the distributions are found to be well described by QCD predictions but the data have a significantly higher normalization.
K^+K^- production in two-photon collisions has been studied using a large data sample of 67 fb^{-1} accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric e^+e^- collider. We have measured the cross section for the process gamma gamma -> K^+ K^- for center-of-mass energies between 1.4 and 2.4 GeV, and found three new resonant structures in the energy region between 1.6 and 2.4 GeV. The angular differential cross sections have also been measured.
A strangelet search in Si+Pt and Au+Pt collisions at alternating-gradient synchrotron (AGS) energies, using a focusing spectrometer, sensitive to mass per charge of 3-14 GeV/c2 was conducted during the 1992 and 1993 heavy ion runs at the AGS. The null results thereof are presented as upper limits on the invariant production cross section, in the range of 10−5-10−4 mb c3/GeV2, and model dependent sensitivity limits in the range of 10−7-10−5 per collision. Measurements of the production cross sections of several nonstrange nuclear systems, from p to Be7 and Li8, the background of the strangelet search, are also presented.
Enhanced production of strange baryons and anti-baryons at central rapidity in S-W and S-z.sbnd;S with respect to p-A reactions has been reported by the CERN experiments WA85 and WA94. The WA97 experiment is extending such a study to Pb Pb collisions making use of the newly developed silicon pixel detectors. Results on Λ, Ξ − and Ω − production in Pb Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/ c at central rapidity are presented. Transverse mass spectra and particle ratios are presented. Hyperon yields are given as a function of the collision centrality and compared with those obtained from p-Pb collisions using the same experimental setup.
Vector meson production is studied in the reaction γγ→K+K−π+π−. A clear Φ(1020) signal is seen in theK+K− mass distribution and aK*0 (890) signal is visible in theK±π∓ one. Both do not seem to be strongly correlated with quasi two body final states. Cross sections for the processes γγ→K+K−π+π−, γγ→Φπ+π−, γγ→K+0K±π∓ and upper limits for the production of Φp, ΦΦ andK*0\(\overline {K^{ * 0} } \) are given as function of the invariant γγ mass.
Momenta of charged particles produced in inelastic αα, αp, andpp collisions were measured using the Split-Field-Magnet detector at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings. Inclusive and semi-in-clusive spectra are presented as a function of rapidityy, Feynman-x, and transverse momentumpT. The inclusivey distributions agree well with predictions of the dual parton model; the highest particle densities are reached aty≃0 and the momenta of leading protons decrease significantly for increasing total multiplicity. ‘Temperatures’ are equal in αα, αp, andpp interactions. ThepT distributions depend weakly on the multiplicity.
We have measured dijet angular distributions at √s =1.8 TeV with the Collider Detector at Fermilab and the Tevatron p¯p Collider and find agreement with leading-order QCD. By comparing the distribution for the highest dijet invariant masses with the prediction of a model of quark compositeness, we set a lower limit on the associated scale parameter Λc at 330 GeV (95% C.L.).
We searched for possible signatures of top-quark production in 508 e+e− hadronic annihilation events collected at s=52 GeV by the TOPAZ detector at the KEK e+e− collider TRISTAN. The observed hadronic cross section and shape of hadronic events are consistent with the standard-model predictions without top quarks. A lower limit (95% confidence level) on the mass of the lightest top meson is set at 25.8 GeV.
Forum