The transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of net protons and negatively charged hadrons have been measured for minimum bias proton-nucleus and deuteron-gold interactions, as well as central oxygen-gold and sulphur-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon. The rapidity density of net protons at midrapidity in central nucleus-nucleus collisions increases both with target mass for sulphur projectiles and with the projectile mass for a gold target. The shape of the rapidity distributions of net protons forward of midrapidity for d+Au and central S+Au collisions is similar. The average rapidity loss is larger than 2 units of rapidity for reactions with the gold target. The transverse momentum spectra of net protons for all reactions can be described by a thermal distribution with `temperatures' between 145 +- 11 MeV (p+S interactions) and 244 +- 43 MeV (central S+Au collisions). The multiplicity of negatively charged hadrons increases with the mass of the colliding system. The shape of the transverse momentum spectra of negatively charged hadrons changes from minimum bias p+p and p+S interactions to p+Au and central nucleus-nucleus collisions. The mean transverse momentum is almost constant in the vicinity of midrapidity and shows little variation with the target and projectile masses. The average number of produced negatively charged hadrons per participant baryon increases slightly from p+p, p+A to central S+S,Ag collisions.
A measurement of elastic deeply virtual Compton scattering gamma* p -> gamma p using e^+ p and e^- p collision data recorded with the H1 detector at HERA is presented. The analysed data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 306 pb^-1, almost equally shared between both beam charges. The cross section is measured as a function of the virtuality Q^2 of the exchanged photon and the centre-of-mass energy W of the gamma* p system in the kinematic domain 6.5 < Q^2 < 80 GeV^2, 30 < W < 140 GeV and |t| < 1 GeV^2, where t denotes the squared momentum transfer at the proton vertex. The cross section is determined differentially in t for different Q^2 and W values and exponential t-slope parameters are derived. Using e^+ p and e^- p data samples, a beam charge asymmetry is extracted for the first time in the low Bjorken x kinematic domain. The observed asymmetry is attributed to the interference between Bethe-Heitler and deeply virtual Compton scattering processes. Experimental results are discussed in the context of two different models, one based on generalised parton distributions and one based on the dipole approach.
We measured the elastic scattering of αα at s = 126 GeV and of α p at s = 89 GeV . For αα , the differential cross section d σ /d t has a diffractive pattern minima at | t | = 0.10 and 0.38 GeV 2 . At small | t | = 0.05−0.07 GeV 2 , this cross section behaves like exp[(100 ± 10) t ]. Extrapolating a fit to the data to the optical point, we obtained for the total cross section α tot ( αα ) = 250 ± 50 mb and an integrated elastic cross section σ e1 ( αα ) = 45 ± mb. Another method of estimating σ tot ( αα ), based on measuring the interaction rate, yielded 295 ± 40 mb. For α p, d σ /d t has aminimum at | t | = 0.20 GeV 2 , and for 0.05 < | t | < 0.18 GeV 2 behaves like exp[(41 ± 2) t ]. Extrapolating this slope to | t | = 0, we found σ tot ( α p) = 130 ± 20 and σ e1 ( α p) = 20 ± 4mb. Results on pp elastic scattering at s = 63 GeV agree with previous ISR experiments.
Results on charged pion and kaon production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 20A and 30A GeV are presented and compared to data at lower and higher energies. A rapid change of the energy dependence is observed around 30A GeV for the yields of pions and kaons as well as for the shape of the transverse mass spectra. The change is compatible with the prediction that the threshold for production of a state of deconfined matter at the early stage of the collisions is located at low SPS energies.
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