We present results for the charged-particle multiplicity distribution at mid-rapidity in Au - Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=130 GeV measured with the PHENIX detector at RHIC. For the 5% most central collisions we find $dN_{ch}/d\eta_{|\eta=0} = 622 \pm 1 (stat) \pm 41 (syst)$. The results, analyzed as a function of centrality, show a steady rise of the particle density per participating nucleon with centrality.
During the recent commissioning of Au beams at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron facility, experiment 886 measured production cross sections for π±, K±, p, and p¯ in minimum bias Au+Pt collisions at 11.5A GeV/c. Invariant differential cross sections, Ed3σ/dp3, were measured at several rigidities (p/Z≤1.8 GeV/c) using a 5.7° (fixed-angle) focusing spectrometer. For comparison, particle production was measured in minimum bias Si+Pt collisions at 14.6A GeV/c using the same apparatus and in p+Pt collisions at 12.9 GeV/c using a similar spectrometer at KEK. When normalized to projectile mass, Aproj, the measured π± and K± cross sections are nearly equal for the p+Pt and Si+Pt reactions. In contrast to this behavior, the π− cross section measured in Au+Pt shows a significant excess beyond Aproj scaling of the p+Pt measurement. This enhancement suggests collective phenomena contribute significantly to π− production in the larger Au+Pt colliding system. For the Au+Pt reaction, the π+ and K+ yields also exceed Aproj scaling of p+Pt collisions. However, little significance can be attributed to these excesses due to larger experimental uncertainties for the positive rigidity Au beam measurements. For antiprotons, the Si+Pt and Au+Pt cross sections fall well below Aproj scaling of the p+Pt yields indicating a substantial fraction of the nuclear projectile is ineffective for p¯ production. Comparing with p+Pt multiplicities, the Si+Pt and Au+Pt antiproton yields agree with that expected solely from ‘‘first’’ nucleon-nucleon collisions (i.e., collisions between previously unstruck nucleons). In light of expected p¯ annihilation in the colliding system, such projectile independence is unexpected without additional (projectile dependent) sources of p¯ production. In this case, the data indicate an approximate balance exists between absorption and additional sources of antiprotons. This balance is remarkable given the wide range of projectile mass spanned by these measurements.
We report on the first measurement of the triangular $v_3$, quadrangular $v_4$, and pentagonal $v_5$ charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow $v_2$ and $v_3$ have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients.
The STAR collaboration presents for the first time two-dimensional di-hadron correlations with identified leading hadrons in 200 GeV central Au+Au and minimum-bias d+Au collisions to explore hadronization mechanisms in the quark gluon plasma. The enhancement of the jet-like yield for leading pions in Au+Au data with respect to the d+Au reference and the absence of such an enhancement for leading non-pions (protons and kaons) are discussed within the context of a quark recombination scenario. The correlated yield at large angles, specifically in the \emph{ridge region}, is found to be significantly higher for leading non-pions than pions. The consistencies of the constituent quark scaling, azimuthal harmonic model and a mini-jet modification model description of the data are tested, providing further constraints on hadronization.
The Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment is designed to use the LHC to verify the hadronic-interaction models used in cosmic-ray physics. Forward baryon production is one of the crucial points to understand the development of cosmic-ray showers. We report the neutron-energy spectra for LHC $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV proton--proton collisions with the pseudo-rapidity $\eta$ ranging from 8.81 to 8.99, from 8.99 to 9.22, and from 10.76 to infinity. The measured energy spectra obtained from the two independent calorimeters of Arm1 and Arm2 show the same characteristic feature before unfolding the difference in the detector responses. We unfolded the measured spectra by using the multidimensional unfolding method based on Bayesian theory, and the unfolded spectra were compared with current hadronic-interaction models. The QGSJET II-03 model predicts a high neutron production rate at the highest pseudo-rapidity range similar to our results and the DPMJET 3.04 model describes our results well at the lower pseudo-rapidity ranges. However no model perfectly explains the experimental results in the whole pseudo-rapidity range. The experimental data indicate the most abundant neutron production rate relative to the photon production, which does not agree with predictions of the models.
Muon pair production is studied in p - W and S U collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon, as a function of transverse momentum P Tμμ . The inclusive ϱ + ω and Φ differential cross-sections dσ dP T are measured in the dimuon decay channel, for P T ≥ 0.6 GeV/c, in the central rapidity region, 3.0≤ y ≤ 4.0. Assuming the power law A-dependence σ = σ 0 ( A beam · A target ) α , the study of the integrated cross-sections for p - W and S U collisions leads to α ϱ + ω = 1.00±0.02±0.07 and α Φ = 1.23±0.03±0.05, showing clear evidence of Φ enhancement in S U interactions as compared to p - W collisions.
The inclusive production of omega and phi mesons is studied in the backward region of the interaction of 12 GeV protons with polyethylene, carbon, and copper targets. The mesons are measured in e^+ e^- decay channels. The production cross sections of the mesons are presented as functions of rapidity y and transverse momentum p_T. The nuclear mass number dependences (A dependences) are found to be A^{0.710 +/- 0.021(stat) +/- 0.037(syst)} for omega mesons and A^{0.937 +/- 0.049(stat) +/- 0.018(syst)} for phi mesons in the region of 0.9 < y < 1.7 and p_T < 0.75 GeV/c.
Light-particle emission from Au+Au collisions has been studied in the bombarding-energy range 100-250 A·MeV, using DeltaE- ER telescopes in coincidence with the FOPI detector in its phase I configuration. Center-of-mass energy spectra have been measured for Z = 1,2 isotopes emitted in central collisions at CM polar angles between 60° and 90°. Evidence for a collective expansion is reported, on the basis of the mean kinetic energies of hydrogen isotopes. Comparison is presented with statistical calculations (WIX code). For CM kinetic energy spectra, fair agreement is found between data and a recently developed transport model.
Dimuon production m p-U, O-U and S-U collisions has been studied at 200 GeV/N. It is observed that 〈 p T 〉 and 〈 p 2 T 〉 of the J / Ψ transverse momentum distributions increase with the transverse energy of the ion induced reactions. Such a marked behaviour is not seen for muon pairs of the continuum.
We report a systematic study of mid-rapidityET production and forward energy flow in the interaction of16O projectiles on Al, Cu, Ag and Au at 60 and 200 GeV/nucleon. First results onET production with32S projectiles are presented.
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