The NA50 Collaboration has measured heavy-quarkonium production in p-A collisions at 450 GeV incident energy (sqrt(s) = 29.1 GeV). We report here results on the production of the Upsilon states and of high-mass Drell-Yan muon pairs (m > 6 GeV). The cross-section at midrapidity and the A-dependence of the measured yields are determined and compared with the results of other fixed-target experiments and with the available theoretical estimates. Finally, we also address some issues concerning the transverse momentum distributions of the measured dimuons.

Cross sections for J ψ,ψ′ and Drell-Yan production in Pb+Pb collisions at 158×A GeV/c are presented and compared with results obtained by the NA38 and NA51 collaborations. The Pb+Pb data have been collected by the NA50 collaboration using the NA38 dimuon spectrometer. The Drell-Yan mechanism is found to scale as (A projectile · B target ) in p+B target and A projectile + B target collisions including Pb+Pb collisions. Regarding J ψ , an anomalous suppression is observed in Pb+Pb collisions with respect to the suppression observed in p+B target , O+B target and S+U collisions. The cross section ratios ψ′ ( J ψ ) are similar in Pb+Pb and S+U collisions.

We present a new measurement of J/psi production in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon, from the data sample collected in year 2000 by the NA50 Collaboration, under improved experimental conditions with respect to previous years. With the target system placed in vacuum, the setup was better adapted to study, in particular, the most peripheral nuclear collisions with unprecedented accuracy. The analysis of this data sample shows that the (J/psi)/Drell-Yan cross-sections ratio measured in the most peripheral Pb-Pb interactions is in good agreement with the nuclear absorption pattern extrapolated from the studies of proton-nucleus collisions. Furthermore, this new measurement confirms our previous observation that the (J/psi)/Drell-Yan cross-sections ratio departs from the normal nuclear absorption pattern for semi-central Pb-Pb collisions and that this ratio persistently decreases up to the most central collisions.

Muon pair production in p-A, S-U and Pb-Pb collisions has been studied by the NA38 and NA50 collaborations at the CERN SPS. In this paper we present an analysis of the dimuon invariant mass region bet

Charmonium production in p – A collisions is a unique tool for the study of the interaction of bound c c states in nuclear matter. It can provide details on the basic features of the resonance formation mechanism and, in particular, on its non-perturbative aspects. In this Letter, we present an experimental study of charmonia and Drell–Yan production in proton–nucleus collisions at 450 GeV/ c . The results are analyzed in the framework of the Glauber model and lead to the values of the nuclear absorption cross-section σ abs pA for J / ψ and ψ ′. Then, we compare the J / ψ absorption in proton–nucleus and sulphur–uranium interactions, using NA38 data. We obtain that, for the J / ψ , σ abs pA and σ abs SU are compatible, showing that no sizeable additional suppression mechanism is present in S–U collisions, and confirming that the anomalous J / ψ suppression only sets in for Pb–Pb interactions.

The analysis of the data collected by the NA50 experiment in 1998, reported in this paper, extends and clarifies the pattern of the previously observed J/ ψ anomalous suppression. This new measurement, besides providing a deeper understanding of the previous observations, reveals a steady significative decrease in the J/ ψ production rate up to the most central Pb-Pb collisions. It clearly rules out the presently available conventional (hadronic) models of J/ ψ suppression, which unanimously predict a saturation of the J/ ψ rate for central Pb-Pb collisions. On the contrary and together with the sharp onset of the anomalous suppression previously reported, the new observation leads to a global production rate pattern which finds its natural explanation in the framework of the formation of a deconfined state of quarks and gluons.

A measurement of continuum dimuon production in proton-copper collisions at 800-GeV incident energy is presented. The dimuons observed in this experiment cover the mass range from 6.5 to 18 GeV near y=0 in the proton-nucleon center-of-momentum frame. Scaling forms of the cross section for the continuum are compared with the results of other experiments in the context of the parton model and quantum chromodynamics. The present limitations of such scaling comparisons are discussed.

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.

Data on multiplicities of charged particles produced in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon are presented. It is shown that the mean multiplicity of negative particles is proportional to the mean number of nucleons participating in the collision both for nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions. The apparent consistency of pion multiplicity data with the assumption of an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions is critically discussed.

Experimental results on the production of dimuons by 800-GeV protons incident on a copper target are presented. The results include measurements of both the continuum of dimuons and the dimuon decays of the three lowest-mass ϒ S states. A description of the apparatus, data acquisition, and analysis techniques is included. A comparison of the results with data taken at lower incident energies indicates a scaling behavior of the continuum dimuon yields.

Cross sections for the production of two isolated muons up to high di-muon masses are measured in ep collisions at HERA with the H1 detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 71 pb^-1 at a centre of mass energy of sqrt{s} = 319 GeV. The results are in good agreement with Standard Model predictions, the dominant process being photon-photon interactions. Additional muons or electrons are searched for in events with two high transverse momentum muons using the full data sample corresponding to 114 pb^-1, where data at sqrt{s} = 301 GeV and sqrt{s} = 319 GeV are combined. Both the di-lepton sample and the tri-lepton sample agree well with the predictions.

psi' production is studied in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon incident momentum. Absolute cross-sections are measured and production rates are investigated as a function of the centrality of the collision. The results are compared with those obtained for lighter colliding systems and also for the J/psi meson produced under identical conditions.

Central collisions of 800-GeV protons with the heavy components of nuclear emulsion, Ag107 and Br80, have been investigated to determine the characteristics of small-impact-parameter collisions and, by comparison with the analysis of inclusive proton-emulsion inelastic interactions and inelastic proton-nucleon collisions, to study the dependence of the interaction process on the mean number of intranuclear collisions 〈ν〉. The data are also compared with the results obtained in proton-emulsion collisions, both central and inclusive, at 200 GeV. The variations in the secondary-particle multiplicities and the normalized pseudorapidity density correlate with 〈ν〉 and demonstrate that proton-nucleus interactions, both central and inclusive, can be described adequately by the incoherent superposition of proton-nucleon collisions.

We report on the production ofe± μ∓ pairs in 450 GeV/c pBe collisions at the CERN SPS. Theeμ signal, which has average missing energy of 21 GeV, is shown to be consistent with expectations from charm decay, and implies a σ ×B for\(c\bar c\) production in p-nucleon collisions of 0.63 ± 0.35μb. Alternatively, using an estimate of charm production from other experiments, the data imply a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.16μb on any new physics process which producese±μ∓.

The transverse-momentum spectra of lambdas (Λ0, Λ¯0) produced in the central region has been measured in p¯p collisions at s=1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Collider. We find that the average transverse momentum of the lambdas increases more rapidly with center-of-mass energy than that of charged particles, and the ratio of lambdas to charged particles increases as a function of center-of-mass energy.

The charge asymmetry of leptons from W-boson decay has been measured using p¯p data from the Collider Detector at Fermilab at √s =1.8 TeV. The observed asymmetry is well described by most of the available parton distributions.

The Fermilab E866/NuSea Collaboration has measured the Drell-Yan dimuon cross sections in 800 GeV/$c$ $pp$ and $pd$ collisions. This represents the first measurement of the Drell-Yan cross section in $pp$ collisions over a broad kinematic region and the most extensive study to date of the Drell-Yan cross section in $pd$ collisions. The results indicate that recent global parton distribution fits provide a good description of the light antiquark sea in the nucleon over the Bjorken-$x$ range $0.03 \lesssim x < 0.15$, but overestimate the valence quark distributions as $x \to 1$.

We carried out the energy scan between E CM = 58 and 60 GeV at the TRISTAN e + e − collider to search for the possible narrow resonance suggested by the L3 experiment at LEP. The total cross sections are measured for γγ, multihadron, e + e − and μ + μ − production at ten energy points covering this energy range almost uniformly. The results are in good agreement with the Standard Model predictions, and 95% confidence level upper limits are set to Γ ee × BR of the hypothetical scalar and tensor resonances.

We present first data on event-by-event fluctuations in the average transverse momentum of charged particles produced in Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS. This measurement provides previously unavailable information allowing sensitive tests of microscopic and thermodynamic collision models and to search for fluctuations expected to occur in the vicinity of the predicted QCD phase transition. We find that the observed variance of the event-by-event average transverse momentum is consistent with independent particle production modified by the known two-particle correlations due to quantum statistics and final state interactions and folded with the resolution of the NA49 apparatus. For two specific models of non-statistical fluctuations in transverse momentum limits are derived in terms of fluctuation amplitude. We show that a significant part of the parameter space for a model of isospin fluctuations predicted as a consequence of chiral symmetry restoration in a non-equilibrium scenario is excluded by our measurement.

The first observation of $Z$ boson production in proton-lead collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per proton-nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5~\text{TeV}$ is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $1.6~\text{nb}^{-1}$ collected with the LHCb detector. The $Z$ candidates are reconstructed from pairs of oppositely charged muons with pseudorapidities between 2.0 and 4.5 and transverse momenta above $20~\text{GeV}/c$. The invariant dimuon mass is restricted to the range $60-120~\text{GeV}/c^2$. The $Z$ production cross-section is measured to be \begin{eqnarray*} \sigma_{Z\to\mu^+\mu^-}(\text{fwd})&=&13.5^{+5.4}_{-4.0}\text{(stat.)}\pm1.2\text{(syst.)}~\text{nb} \end{eqnarray*} in the direction of the proton beam and \begin{eqnarray*} \sigma_{Z\to\mu^+\mu^-}(\text{bwd}) & =&10.7^{+8.4}_{-5.1}\text{(stat.)}\pm1.0\text{(syst.)}~\text{nb} \end{eqnarray*} in the direction of the lead beam, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.

We report on measurements of the ϒ(1S), ϒ(2S), and ϒ(3S) differential, (d2σdPtdy)y=0, and integrated cross sections in pp¯ collisions at s=1.8 TeV using a sample of 16.6 ± 0.6 pb−1 collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The three resonances were reconstructed through the decay ϒ→μ+μ−. Comparison is made to a leading order QCD prediction.

J/psi production has been measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)= 200 GeV over a wide rapidity and transverse momentum range by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Distributions of the rapidity and transverse momentum, along with measurements of the mean transverse momentum and total production cross section are presented and compared to available theoretical calculations. The total J/psi cross section is 3.99 +/- 0.61(stat) +/- 0.58(sys) +/- 0.40(abs) micro barns. The mean transverse momentum is 1.80 +/- 0.23(stat) +/- 0.16(sys) GeV/c.

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This paper presents the first measurement of the inclusive J/Psi production cross section in the forward pseudorapidity region 2.5<|eta|<3.7 in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8TeV. The results are based on 9.8 pb-1 of data collected using the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The inclusive J/Psi cross section for transverse momenta between 1 and 16 GeV/c is compared with theoretical models of charmonium production.

The cross sections for single vector boson production in the We ν and Zee channels are measured from the data collected by the ALEPH detector at LEP for centre-of-mass energies between 183 and 209  GeV. These data correspond to a total integratedluminosity of 683 pb −1 . Single-W production is studied in both hadronic and leptonic decay channels. Hadronic and dimuon decays are used for single-Z production. The measured cross sections agree with the Standard Model predictions.