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.
Measurements of charged pion and kaon production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 40, 80 and 158 AGeV are presented. These are compared with data at lower and higher energies as well as with results from p+p interactions. The mean pion multiplicity per wounded nucleon increases approximately linearly with s_NN^1/4 with a change of slope starting in the region 15-40 AGeV. The change from pion suppression with respect to p+p interactions, as observed at low collision energies, to pion enhancement at high energies occurs at about 40 AGeV. A non-monotonic energy dependence of the ratio of K^+ to pi^+ yields is observed, with a maximum close to 40 AGeV and an indication of a nearly constant value at higher energies.The measured dependences may be related to an increase of the entropy production and a decrease of the strangeness to entropy ratio in central Pb+Pb collisions in the low SPS energy range, which is consistent with the hypothesis that a transient state of deconfined matter is created above these energies. Other interpretations of the data are also discussed.
Mid-rapidity open charm spectra from direct reconstruction of $D^{0}$($\bar{D^0}$)$\to K^{\mp}\pi^{\pm}$ in d+Au collisions and indirect electron/positron measurements via charm semileptonic decays in p+p and d+Au collisions at \srt = 200 GeV are reported. The $D^{0}$($\bar{D^0}$) spectrum covers a transverse momentum ($p_T$) range of 0.1 $<p_T<$ 3 \GeVc whereas the electron spectra cover a range of 1 $<p_T<$ 4 GeV/$c$. The electron spectra show approximate binary collision scaling between p+p and d+Au collisions. From these two independent analyses, the differential cross section per nucleon-nucleon binary interaction at mid-rapidity for open charm production from d+Au collisions at RHIC is $d\sigma^{NN}_{c\bar{c}}/dy$=0.30$\pm$0.04 (stat.)$\pm$0.09(syst.) mb. The results are compared to theoretical calculations. Implications for charmoniumm results in A+A collisions are discussed.
The ALICE experiment has measured low-mass dimuon production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV in the dimuon rapidity region 2.5<y<4. The observed dimuon mass spectrum is described as a superposition of resonance decays ($\eta$, $\rho$, $\omega$, $\eta^{'}$, $\phi$) into muons and semi-leptonic decays of charmed mesons. The measured production cross sections for $\omega$ and $\phi$ are $\sigma_\omega$ (1<$p_{\rm T}$<5 GeV/$c$,2.5<y<4) = 5.28 $\pm$ 0.54 (stat) $\pm$ 0.50 (syst) mb and $\sigma_\phi$(1<$p_{\rm T}$<5 GeV/$c$,2.5<y<4)=0.940 $\pm$ 0.084 (stat) $\pm$ 0.078 (syst) mb. The differential cross sections $d^2\sigma/dy dp_{\rm T}$ are extracted as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ for $\omega$ and $\phi$. The ratio between the $\rho$ and $\omega$ cross section is obtained. Results for the $\phi$ are compared with other measurements at the same energy and with predictions by models.
Transverse momentum distributions and yields for $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $p$ and $\bar{p}$ in $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 and 62.4 GeV at midrapidity are measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). These data provide important baseline spectra for comparisons with identified particle spectra in heavy ion collisions at RHIC. We present the inverse slope parameter $T_{\rm inv}$, mean transverse momentum $<p_T>$ and yield per unit rapidity $dN/dy$ at each energy, and compare them to other measurements at different $\sqrt{s}$ in $p+p$ and $p+\bar{p}$ collisions. We also present the scaling properties such as $m_T$ scaling, $x_T$ scaling on the $p_T$ spectra between different energies. To discuss the mechanism of the particle production in $p+p$ collisions, the measured spectra are compared to next-to-leading-order or next-to-leading-logarithmic perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculations.
We report the STAR measurement of Phi meson production in Au+Au and p+p collisions at sqrt (s)=200 GeV. Using the event mixing technique, the Phi spectra and yields are obtained at mid-rapidity for five centrality bins in Au+Au collisions and for non-singly-diffractive p+p collisions. It is found that the Phi transverse momentum distributions from Au+Au collisions are better fitted with a single-exponential while the p+p spectrum is better described by a double-exponential distribution. The measured nuclear modification factors indicate that Phi production in central Au+Au collisions is suppressed relative to peripheral collisions when scaled by the number of binary collisions. The systematics of <pt> versus centrality and the constant Phi/K- ratio versus beam species, centrality, and collision energy rule out kaon coalescence as the dominant mechanism for Phi production.
We report measurements of single- and double- spin asymmetries for $W^{\pm}$ and $Z/\gamma^*$ boson production in longitudinally polarized $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 510$ GeV by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The asymmetries for $W^{\pm}$ were measured as a function of the decay lepton pseudorapidity, which provides a theoretically clean probe of the proton's polarized quark distributions at the scale of the $W$ mass. The results are compared to theoretical predictions, constrained by recent polarized deep inelastic scattering measurements, and show a preference for a sizable, positive up antiquark polarization in the range $0.05<x<0.2$.
The STAR collaboration at RHIC presents measurements of \Jpsi$\to{e^+e^-}$ at mid-rapidity and high transverse momentum ($p_T>5$ GeV/$c$) in \pp and central \cucu collisions at \sNN = 200 GeV. The inclusive \Jpsi production cross section for \cucu collisions is found to be consistent at high $p_T$ with the binary collision-scaled cross section for \pp collisions, in contrast to previous measurements at lower $p_T$, where a suppression of \Jpsi production is observed relative to the expectation from binary scaling. Azimuthal correlations of $J/\psi$ with charged hadrons in \pp collisions provide an estimate of the contribution of $B$-meson decays to \Jpsi production of $13% \pm 5%$.
The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has measured electrons from heavy flavor (charm and bottom) decays for 0.3 < p_T < 9 GeV/c at midrapidity (|y| < 0.35) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. The nuclear modification factor R_AA relative to p+p collisions shows a strong suppression in central Au+Au collisions, indicating substantial energy loss of heavy quarks in the medium produced at RHIC. A large azimuthal anisotropy, v_2, with respect to the reaction plane is observed for 0.5 < p_T < 5 GeV/c indicating non-zero heavy flavor elliptic flow. Both R_AA and v_2 show a p_T dependence different from those of neutral pions. A comparison to transport models which simultaneously describe R_AA(p_T) and v_2(p_T) suggests that the viscosity to entropy density ratio is close to the conjectured quantum lower bound, i.e., near a perfect fluid.
The production cross section of inclusive J/$\psi$ pairs in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV is measured with ALICE. The measurement is performed for J/$\psi$ in the rapidity interval $2.5 < y < 4.0$ and for transverse momentum $p_{\rm T} > 0$. The production cross section of inclusive J/$\psi$ pairs is reported to be $10.3 \pm 2.3 {\rm (stat.)} \pm 1.3 {\rm (syst.)}$ nb in this kinematic interval. The contribution from non-prompt J/$\psi$ (i.e. originated from beauty-hadron decays) to the inclusive sample is evaluated. The results are discussed and compared with data.
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