We present the final results from Experiment 864 of a search for charged and neutral strange quark matter produced in interactions of 11.5 GeV/c per nucleon Au beams with Pt or Pb targets. Searches were made for strange quark matter with A>4. Approximately 30 billion 10% most central collisions were sampled and no strangelet states with A<100 were observed. We find 90% confidence level upper limits of approximately 10^{-8} per central collision for both charged and neutral strangelets. These limits are for strangelets with proper lifetimes greater than 50 ns. Also limits for H^{0}-d and pineut production are given. The above limits are compared with the predictions of various models. The yields of light nuclei from coalescence are measured and a penalty factor for the addition of one nucleon to the coalescing nucleus is determined. This is useful in gauging the significance of our upper limits and also in planning future searches for strange quark matter.
A measurement of the transverse momentum spectra of jets in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV is reported. Jets are reconstructed from charged particles using the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ jet algorithm with jet resolution parameters $R$ of $0.2$ and $0.3$ in pseudo-rapidity $|\eta|<0.5$. The transverse momentum $p_{\rm T}$ of charged particles is measured down to $0.15$ GeV/$c$ which gives access to the low $p_{\rm T}$ fragments of the jet. Jets found in heavy-ion collisions are corrected event-by-event for average background density and on an inclusive basis (via unfolding) for residual background fluctuations and detector effects. A strong suppression of jet production in central events with respect to peripheral events is observed. The suppression is found to be similar to the suppression of charged hadrons, which suggests that substantial energy is radiated at angles larger than the jet resolution parameter $R=0.3$ considered in the analysis. The fragmentation bias introduced by selecting jets with a high $p_{\rm T}$ leading particle, which rejects jets with a soft fragmentation pattern, has a similar effect on the jet yield for central and peripheral events. The ratio of jet spectra with $R=0.2$ and $R=0.3$ is found to be similar in Pb-Pb and simulated PYTHIA pp events, indicating no strong broadening of the radial jet structure in the reconstructed jets with $R<0.3$.
Enhanced production of strange baryons and anti-baryons at central rapidity in S-W and S-z.sbnd;S with respect to p-A reactions has been reported by the CERN experiments WA85 and WA94. The WA97 experiment is extending such a study to Pb Pb collisions making use of the newly developed silicon pixel detectors. Results on Λ, Ξ − and Ω − production in Pb Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/ c at central rapidity are presented. Transverse mass spectra and particle ratios are presented. Hyperon yields are given as a function of the collision centrality and compared with those obtained from p-Pb collisions using the same experimental setup.
Exclusive production of the isoscalar vector mesons $\omega$ and $\phi$ is measured with a 190 GeV$/c$ proton beam impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. Cross section ratios are determined in three intervals of the Feynman variable $x_{F}$ of the fast proton. A significant violation of the OZI rule is found, confirming earlier findings. Its kinematic dependence on $x_{F}$ and on the invariant mass $M_{p\mathrm{V}}$ of the system formed by fast proton $p_\mathrm{fast}$ and vector meson $V$ is discussed in terms of diffractive production of $p_\mathrm{fast}V$ resonances in competition with central production. The measurement of the spin density matrix element $\rho_{00}$ of the vector mesons in different selected reference frames provides another handle to distinguish the contributions of these two major reaction types. Again, dependences of the alignment on $x_{F}$ and on $M_{p\mathrm{V}}$ are found. Most of the observations can be traced back to the existence of several excited baryon states contributing to $\omega$ production which are absent in the case of the $\phi$ meson. Removing the low-mass $M_{p\mathrm{V}}$ resonant region, the OZI rule is found to be violated by a factor of eight, independently of $x_\mathrm{F}$.
The production of prompt charmed mesons D$^0$, D$^+$ and D$^{*+}$, and their antiparticles, was measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at the centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair, $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$, of 2.76 TeV. The production yields for rapidity $|y|<0.5$ are presented as a function of transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, in the interval 1-36 GeV/$c$ for the centrality class 0-10% and in the interval 1-16 GeV/$c$ for the centrality class 30-50%. The nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm AA}$ was computed using a proton-proton reference at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV, based on measurements at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV and on theoretical calculations. A maximum suppression by a factor of 5-6 with respect to binary-scaled pp yields is observed for the most central collisions at $p_{\rm T}$ of about 10 GeV/$c$. A suppression by a factor of about 2-3 persists at the highest $p_{\rm T}$ covered by the measurements. At low $p_{\rm T}$ (1-3 GeV/$c$), the $R_{\rm AA}$ has large uncertainties that span the range 0.35 (factor of about 3 suppression) to 1 (no suppression). In all $p_{\rm T}$ intervals, the $R_{\rm AA}$ is larger in the 30-50% centrality class compared to central collisions. The D-meson $R_{\rm AA}$ is also compared with that of charged pions and, at large $p_{\rm T}$, charged hadrons, and with model calculations.
The first measurement of neutron emission in electromagnetic dissociation of $^{208}$Pb nuclei at the LHC is presented. The measurement is performed using the neutron Zero Degree Calorimeters of the ALICE experiment, which detect neutral particles close to beam rapidity. The measured cross sections of single and mutual electromagnetic dissociation of Pb nuclei at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV with neutron emission are $\sigma_{\rm single\ EMD} = 187.4\pm0.2$ (stat.) $^{+13.2} _{-11.2}$ (syst.) b and $\sigma_{\rm mutual\ EMD} = 5.7\pm0.1$ (stat.) $\pm$0.4 (syst.) b, respectively. The experimental results are compared to the predictions from a relativistic electromagnetic dissociation model.
The ALICE Collaboration reports three measurements in ultra-peripheral proton$-$lead collisions at forward rapidity. The exclusive two-photon process \ggmm and the exclusive photoproduction of J/$\psi$ are studied. J/$\psi$ photoproduction with proton dissociation is measured for the first time at a hadron collider. The cross section for the two-photon process of dimuons in the invariant mass range from 1 to 2.5 GeV/$c^2$ agrees with leading order quantum electrodynamics calculations. The exclusive and dissociative cross sections for J/$\psi$ photoproductions are measured for photon$-$proton centre-of-mass energies from 27 to 57 GeV. They are in good agreement with HERA results.
We report on the measurement of the Central Exclusive Production of charged particle pairs $h^{+}h^{-}$ ($h = \pi, K, p$) with the STAR detector at RHIC in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV. The charged particle pairs produced in the reaction $pp\to p^\prime+h^{+}h^{-}+p^\prime$ are reconstructed from the tracks in the central detector, while the forward-scattered protons are measured in the Roman Pot system. Differential cross sections are measured in the fiducial region, which roughly corresponds to the square of the four-momentum transfers at the proton vertices in the range $0.04~\mbox{GeV}^2 < -t_1 , -t_2 < 0.2~\mbox{GeV}^2$, invariant masses of the charged particle pairs up to a few GeV and pseudorapidities of the centrally-produced hadrons in the range $|\eta|<0.7$. The measured cross sections are compared to phenomenological predictions based on the Double Pomeron Exchange (DPE) model. Structures observed in the mass spectra of $\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $K^{+}K^{-}$ pairs are consistent with the DPE model, while angular distributions of pions suggest a dominant spin-0 contribution to $\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ production. The fiducial $\pi^+\pi^-$ cross section is extrapolated to the Lorentz-invariant region, which allows decomposition of the invariant mass spectrum into continuum and resonant contributions. The extrapolated cross section is well described by the continuum production and at least three resonances, the $f_0(980)$, $f_2(1270)$ and $f_0(1500)$, with a possible small contribution from the $f_0(1370)$. Fits to the extrapolated differential cross section as a function of $t_1$ and $t_2$ enable extraction of the exponential slope parameters in several bins of the invariant mass of $\pi^+\pi^-$ pairs. These parameters are sensitive to the size of the interaction region.
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