We report the measurement of cumulants ($C_n, n=1\ldots4$) of the net-charge distributions measured within pseudorapidity ($|\eta|<0.35$) in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=7.7-200$ GeV with the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The ratios of cumulants (e.g. $C_1/C_2$, $C_3/C_1$) of the net-charge distributions, which can be related to volume independent susceptibility ratios, are studied as a function of centrality and energy. These quantities are important to understand the quantum-chromodynamics phase diagram and possible existence of a critical end point. The measured values are very well described by expectation from negative binomial distributions. We do not observe any nonmonotonic behavior in the ratios of the cumulants as a function of collision energy. The measured values of $C_1/C_2 = \mu/\sigma^2$ and $C_3/C_1 = S\sigma^3/\mu$ can be directly compared to lattice quantum-chromodynamics calculations and thus allow extraction of both the chemical freeze-out temperature and the baryon chemical potential at each center-of-mass energy.
The PHENIX experiment at RHIC has measured transverse energy and charged particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 19.6, 130 and 200 GeV as a function of centrality. The presented results are compared to measurements from other RHIC experiments, and experiments at lower energies. The sqrt(s_NN) dependence of dE_T/deta and dN_ch/deta per pair of participants is consistent with logarithmic scaling for the most central events. The centrality dependence of dE_T/deta and dN_ch/deta is similar at all measured incident energies. At RHIC energies the ratio of transverse energy per charged particle was found independent of centrality and growing slowly with sqrt(s_NN). A survey of comparisons between the data and available theoretical models is also presented.
We present the centrality dependent measurement of multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles and photons in Au + Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 GeV. The charged particles and photons are measured in the pseudorapidity region 2.9 < eta < 3.9 and 2.3 < eta < 3.7, respectively. We have studied the scaling of particle production with the number of participating nucleons and the number of binary collisions. The photon and charged particle production in the measured pseudorapidity range has been shown to be consistent with energy independent limiting fragmentation behavior. The photons are observed to follow a centrality independent limiting fragmentation behavior while for the charged particles it is centrality dependent. We have carried out a comparative study of the pseudorapidity distributions of positively charged hadrons, negatively charged hadrons, photons, pions, net protons in nucleus--nucleus collisions and pseudorapidity distributions from p+p collisions. From these comparisons we conclude that baryons in the inclusive charged particle distribution are responsible for the observed centrality dependence of limiting fragmentation. The mesons are found to follow an energy independent behavior of limiting fragmentation while the behavior of baryons seems to be energy dependent.
The ALICE Collaboration has measured inclusive J/psi production in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt(s)=2.76 TeV at the LHC. The results presented in this Letter refer to the rapidity ranges |y|<0.9 and 2.5<y<4 and have been obtained by measuring the electron and muon pair decay channels, respectively. The integrated luminosities for the two channels are L^e_int=1.1 nb^-1 and L^mu_int=19.9 nb^-1, and the corresponding signal statistics are N_J/psi^e+e-=59 +/- 14 and N_J/psi^mu+mu-=1364 +/- 53. We present dsigma_J/psi/dy for the two rapidity regions under study and, for the forward-y range, d^2sigma_J/psi/dydp_t in the transverse momentum domain 0<p_t<8 GeV/c. The results are compared with previously published results at sqrt(s)=7 TeV and with theoretical calculations.
The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than those measured at RHIC.
We present results of searches for diphoton resonances produced both inclusively and also in association with a vector boson (W or Z) using 100 $pb^{-1}$ of $p\bar{p}$ collisions using the CDF detector. We set upper limits on the product of cross section times branching ratio for both $p\bar{p} \to \gamma \gamma + X$ and $p \bar{p} \to \gamma \gamma + W/Z$. Comparing the inclusive production to the expectations from heavy sgoldstinos we derive limits on the supersymmetry-breaking scale $\sqrt{F}$ in the TeV range, depending on the sgoldstino mass and the choice of other parameters. Also, using a NLO prediction for the associated production of a Higgs boson with a W or Z boson, we set an upper limit on the branching ratio for $H \to \gamma \gamma$. Finally, we set a lower limit on the mass of a 'bosophilic' Higgs boson (e.g. one which couples only to $\gamma, W,$ and $Z$ bosons with standard model couplings) of 82 GeV/$c^2$ at 95% confidence level.
We present a search for new heavy particles, $X$, which decay via $X \to WZ \to e\nu +jj$ in $p{\bar p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.8 TeV. No evidence is found for production of $X$ in 110 pb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Limits are set at the 95% C.L. on the mass and the production of new heavy charged vector bosons which decay via $W'\to WZ$ in extended gauge models as a function of the width, $\Gamma (W')$, and mixing factor between the $W'$ and the Standard Model $W$ bosons.
We present the results of a search for neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with $b$ quarks in $p\bar{p}\to b\bar{b} \phi\to b\bar{b}b\bar{b}$ final states with $91 \pm 7$ pb$^{-1}$ of $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.8$ TeV recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We find no evidence of such a signal and the data is interpreted in the context of the neutral Higgs sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. With basic parameter choices for the supersymmetric scale and the stop quark mixing, we derive 95% C.L. lower mass limits for neutral Higgs bosons for $\tb$ values in excess of 35.
We have reconstructed the radiative decays $\chi_{b}(1P) \to \Upsilon(1S) \gamma $ and $\chi_{b}(2P) \to \Upsilon(1S) \gamma $ in $p \bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.8$ TeV, and measured the fraction of $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons that originate from these decays. For $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons with $p^{\Upsilon}_{T}>8.0$ GeV/$c$, the fractions that come from $\chi_{b}(1P)$ and $\chi_{b}(2P)$ decays are $(27.1\pm6.9(stat)\pm4.4(sys))%$ and $(10.5\pm4.4(stat)\pm1.4(sys))%$, respectively. We have derived the fraction of directly produced $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons to be $(50.9\pm8.2(stat)\pm9.0(sys))%$.
Bottom quark production in pbar-p collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV is studied with 5 inverse picobarns of data collected in 1995 by the DO detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The differential production cross section for b jets in the central rapidity region (|y(b)| < 1) as a function of jet transverse energy is extracted from a muon-tagged jet sample. Within experimental and theoretical uncertainties, DO results are found to be higher than, but compatible with, next-to-leading-order QCD predictions.
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