The system created in non-central relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions possesses large orbital angular momentum. Due to spin-orbit coupling, particles produced in such a system could become globally polarized along the direction of the system angular momentum. We present the results of Lambda and anti-Lambda hyperon global polarization measurements in Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN}=62.4 GeV and 200 GeV performed with the STAR detector at RHIC. The observed global polarization of Lambda and anti-Lambda hyperons in the STAR acceptance is consistent with zero within the precision of the measurements. The obtained upper limit, |P_{Lambda,anti-Lambda}| <= 0.02, is compared to the theoretical values discussed recently in the literature.
The STAR Collaboration at RHIC presents a systematic study of high transverse momentum charged di-hadron correlations at small azimuthal pair separation \dphino, in d+Au and central Au+Au collisions at $\rts = 200$ GeV. Significant correlated yield for pairs with large longitudinal separation \deta is observed in central Au+Au, in contrast to d+Au collisions. The associated yield distribution in \detano$\times$\dphi can be decomposed into a narrow jet-like peak at small angular separation which has a similar shape to that found in d+Au collisions, and a component which is narrow in \dphi and \textcolor{black}{depends only weakly on} $\deta$, the 'ridge'. Using two systematically independent analyses, \textcolor{black}{finite ridge yield} is found to persist for trigger $\pt > 6$ \GeVc, indicating that it is correlated with jet production. The transverse momentum spectrum of hadrons comprising the ridge is found to be similar to that of bulk particle production in the measured range ($2 < \pt < 4 \GeVc$).
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.
We present the scaling properties of Lambda, Xi, Omega and their anti-particles produced at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at RHIC at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. The yield of multi-strange baryons per participant nucleon increases from peripheral to central collisions more rapidly than the Lambda yield, which appears to correspond to an increasing strange quark density of matter produced. The value of the strange phase space occupancy factor gamma_s, obtained from a thermal model fit to the data, approaches unity for the most central collisions. We also show that the nuclear modification factors, R_CP, of Lambda and Xi are consistent with each other and with that of protons in the transverse momentum range 2.0 < p_T < 5.0 GeV/c. This scaling behaviour is consistent with a scenario of hadron formation from constituent quark degrees of freedom through quark recombination or coalescence.
We present a measurement of pi^+pi^-pi^+pi^- photonuclear production in ultra-peripheral Au-Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 200 GeV from the STAR experiment. The pi^+pi^-pi^+pi^- final states are observed at low transverse momentum and are accompanied by mutual nuclear excitation of the beam particles. The strong enhancement of the production cross section at low transverse momentum is consistent with coherent photoproduction. The pi^+pi^-pi^+pi^- invariant mass spectrum of the coherent events exhibits a broad peak around 1540 pm 40 MeV/c^2 with a width of 570 pm 60 MeV/c^2, in agreement with the photoproduction data for the rho^0(1700). We do not observe a corresponding peak in the pi^+pi^- final state and measure an upper limit for the ratio of the branching fractions of the rho^0(1700) to pi^+pi^- and pi^+pi^-pi^+pi^- of 2.5 % at 90 % confidence level. The ratio of rho^0(1700) and rho^0(770) coherent production cross sections is measured to be 13.4 pm 0.8 (stat.) pm 4.4 (syst.) %.
We report about the properties of the underlying event measured with ALICE at the LHC in pp and p$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV. The event activity, quantified by charged-particle number and summed-$p_{\rm T}$ densities, is measured as a function of the leading-particle transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}^{\rm trig}$). These quantities are studied in three azimuthal-angle regions relative to the leading particle in the event: toward, away, and transverse. Results are presented for three different $p_{\rm T}$ thresholds (0.15, 0.5, and 1 GeV/$c$) at mid-pseudorapidity ($|\eta|<0.8$). The event activity in the transverse region, which is the most sensitive to the underlying event, exhibits similar behaviour in both pp and p$-$Pb collisions, namely, a steep increase with $p_{\rm T}^{\rm trig}$ for low $p_{\rm T}^{\rm trig}$, followed by a saturation at $p_{\rm T}^{\rm trig} \approx 5$ GeV/$c$. The results from pp collisions are compared with existing measurements at other centre-of-mass energies. The quantities in the toward and away regions are also analyzed after the subtraction of the contribution measured in the transverse region. The remaining jet-like particle densities are consistent in pp and p$-$Pb collisions for $p_{\rm T}^{\rm trig}>10$ GeV/$c$, whereas for lower $p_{\rm T}^{\rm trig}$ values the event activity is slightly higher in p$-$Pb than in pp collisions. The measurements are compared with predictions from the PYTHIA 8 and EPOS LHC Monte Carlo event generators.
We report measurements of transverse momentum $p_t$ spectra for ten event multiplicity classes of p-p collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV. By analyzing the multiplicity dependence we find that the spectrum shape can be decomposed into a part with amplitude proportional to multiplicity and described by a L\'evy distribution on transverse mass $m_t$, and a part with amplitude proportional to multiplicity squared and described by a gaussian distribution on transverse rapidity $y_t$. The functional forms of the two parts are nearly independent of event multiplicity. The two parts can be identified with the soft and hard components of a two-component model of p-p collisions. This analysis then provides the first isolation of the hard component of the $p_t$ spectrum as a distribution of simple form on $y_t$.
Dihadron correlations are analyzed in $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = 200$ GeV $d$+Au collisions classified by forward charged particle multiplicity and zero-degree neutral energy in the Au-beam direction. It is found that the jetlike correlated yield increases with the event multiplicity. After taking into account this dependence, the non-jet contribution on the away side is minimal, leaving little room for a back-to-back ridge in these collisions.
We report $J/\psi$ spectra for transverse momenta $p_T$> 5 GeV/$c$ at mid-rapidity in p+p and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 200 GeV.The inclusive $J/\psi$ spectrum and the extracted $B$-hadron feed-down are compared to models incorporating different production mechanisms. We observe significant suppression of the $J/\psi$ yields for $p_T$> 5 GeV/$c$ in 0-30% Au+Au collisions relative to the p+p yield scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions in Au+Au collisions. In 30-60% collisions, no such suppression is observed.The level of suppression is consistently less than that of high-$p_T$ $\pi^{\pm}$ and low-$p_T$ $J/\psi$.
We report on the measurement of $\rm{J}/\psi$ production in the dielectron channel at mid-rapidity (|y|<1) in p+p and d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV from the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The transverse momentum $p_{T}$ spectra in p+p for $p_{T}$ < 4 GeV/c and d+Au collisions for $p_{T}$ < 3 GeV/c are presented. These measurements extend the STAR coverage for $\rm{J}/\psi$ production in p+p collisions to low $p_{T}$. The $<p_{T}^{2}>$ from the measured $\rm{J}/\psi$ invariant cross section in p+p and d+Au collisions are evaluated and compared to similar measurements at other collision energies. The nuclear modification factor for $\rm{J}/\psi$ is extracted as a function of $p_{T}$ and collision centrality in d+Au and compared to model calculations using the modified nuclear Parton Distribution Function and a final-state $\rm{J}/\psi$ nuclear absorption cross section.
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