We study the beam-energy and system-size dependence of \phi meson production (using the hadronic decay mode \phi -- K+K-) by comparing the new results from Cu+Cu collisions and previously reported Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 and 200 GeV measured in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Data presented are from mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) for 0.4 < pT < 5 GeV/c. At a given beam energy, the transverse momentum distributions for \phi mesons are observed to be similar in yield and shape for Cu+Cu and Au+Au colliding systems with similar average numbers of participating nucleons. The \phi meson yields in nucleus-nucleus collisions, normalised by the average number of participating nucleons, are found to be enhanced relative to those from p+p collisions with a different trend compared to strange baryons. The enhancement for \phi mesons is observed to be higher at \sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV compared to 62.4 GeV. These observations for the produced \phi(s\bar{s}) mesons clearly suggest that, at these collision energies, the source of enhancement of strange hadrons is related to the formation of a dense partonic medium in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions and cannot be alone due to canonical suppression of their production in smaller systems.
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 present measurements of three-dimensional correlation functions of like-sign low transverse momentum kaon pairs from sqrt(sNN)=200 GeV Au+Au collisions. A Cartesian surface-spherical harmonic decomposition technique was used to extract the kaon source function. The latter was found to have a three-dimensional Gaussian shape and can be adequately reproduced by Therminator event generator simulations with resonance contributions taken into account. Compared to the pion one, the kaon source function is generally narrower and does not have the long tail along the pair transverse momentum direction. The kaon Gaussian radii display a monotonic decrease with increasing transverse mass m_T over the interval of 0.55<=m_T<=1.15 GeV/c^2. While the kaon radii are adequately described by the m_T-scaling in the outward and sideward directions, in the longitudinal direction the lowest m_T value exceeds the expectations from a pure hydrodynamical model prediction.
We report the first inclusive photon measurements about mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 130 GeV at RHIC. Photon pair conversions were reconstructed from electron and positron tracks measured with the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) of the STAR experiment. With this method, an energy resolution of Delta(E)/E = 2% at 0.5 GeV has been achieved. Reconstructed photons have also been used to measure the transverse momentum (pt) spectra of pi0 mesons about mid-rapidity (|y|<1) via the pi0 -> photon photon decay channel. The fractional contribution of the pi0 -> photon photon decay to the inclusive photon spectrum decreases by 20% +/- 5% between pt = 1.65 GeV/c and pt = 2.4 GeV/c in the most central events, indicating that relative to pi0 -> photon photon decay the contribution of other photon sources is substantially increasing.
The first measurements of light antinucleus production in Au+Au collisions at RHIC are reported. The observed production rates for antideuterons and antihelions are much larger than in lower energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. A coalescence model analysis of the yields indicates that there is little or no increase in the antinucleon freeze-out volume compared to collisions at SPS energy. These analyses also indicate that the antihelion freeze-out volume is smaller than the antideuteron freeze-out volume.
We report measurements of charmed-hadron ($D^{0}$, $D^{*}$) production cross sections at mid-rapidity in $p$ + $p$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the hadronic decays $D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}$, $D^{*+}\rightarrow D^{0}\pi^{+}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{+}$ and their charge conjugates, covering the $p_T$ range of 0.6$-$2.0 GeV/$c$ and 2.0$-$6.0 GeV/$c$ for $D^{0}$ and $D^{*+}$, respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross section at mid-rapidity is $d\sigma/dy|_{y=0}^{c\bar{c}}$ = 170 $\pm$ 45 (stat.) $^{+38}_{-59}$ (sys.) $\mu$b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.
We present three-particle mixed-harmonic correlations $\la \cos (m\phi_a + n\phi_b - (m+n) \phi_c)\ra$ for harmonics $m,n=1-3$ for charged particles in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. These measurements provide information on the three-dimensional structure of the initial collision zone and are important for constraining models of a subsequent low-viscosity quark-gluon plasma expansion phase. We investigate correlations between the first, second and third harmonics predicted as a consequence of fluctuations in the initial state. The dependence of the correlations on the pseudorapidity separation between particles show hints of a breaking of longitudinal invariance. We compare our results to a number of state-of-the art hydrodynamic calculations with different initial states and temperature dependent viscosities. These measurements provide important steps towards constraining the temperature dependent transport and the longitudinal structure of the initial state at RHIC.
The measurement of J/{psi} azimuthal anisotropy is presented as a function of transverse momentum for different centralities in Au+Au collisions at {sqrt{s_{NN}}} = 200 GeV. The measured J/{psi} elliptic flow is consistent with zero within errors for transverse momentum between 2 and 10 GeV/c. Our measurement suggests that J/{psi} with relatively large transverse momentum are not dominantly produced by coalescence from thermalized charm quarks, when comparing to model calculations.
The STAR Collaboration at RHIC reports measurements of azimuthal correlations of high transverse momentum (p_T) charged hadrons in Au+Au collisions at higher p_T than reported previously. As p_T is increased, a narrow, back-to-back peak emerges above the decreasing background, providing a clear dijet signal for all collision centralities studied. Using these correlations, we perform a systematic study of dijet production and suppression in nuclear collisions, providing new constraints on the mechanisms underlying partonic energy loss in dense matter.
We report precision measurements of the Feynman-x dependence, and first measurements of the transverse momentum dependence, of transverse single spin asymmetries for the production of \pi^0 mesons from polarized proton collisions at \sqrt{s}=200 GeV. The x_F dependence of the results are in fair agreement with perturbative QCD model calculations that identify orbital motion of quarks and gluons within the proton as the origin of the spin effects. Results for the p_T dependence at fixed x_F are not consistent with pQCD-based calculations.
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