The invariant differential cross section for inclusive neutral pion production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV has been measured at mid-rapidity |eta| < 0.35 over the range 1 < p_T <~ 14 GeV/c by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Predictions of next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with these measurements. The precision of our result is sufficient to differentiate between prevailing gluon-to-pion fragmentation functions.
In a search for highly ionizing particles at PEP, Lexan and CR-39 plastic track detectors were exposed to an integrated luminosity of ∼1037 cm−2 at an energy of 29 GeV in the center of mass. The search was sensitive to particles with magnetic charge 20e≲g≲200e or electric charge 3≲Z≲180. An upper limit on the production cross section of σ<0.9×10−36 cm2 (95% C.L.) is obtained.
We have searched for direct photons of low PT (≤1.0 GeV/c) at θc.m.=90° in pp collisions at √s =63 GeV. We used two independent methods: direct detection in NaI crystals and conversion to e+e− pairs. No signal is observed; the photon spectrum is well described by the decay of hadrons. The result is consistent with a direct low-PT photon signal reported at √s =12 GeV, but excludes a rapid growth of soft-photon production with √s .
A search for the production of direct photons in S+Au collisions at 200AGeV has been carried out in the CERN-WA80 experiment. For central collisions the measured photon excess at each pT, averaged over the range 0.5≤pT≤2.5GeV/c, corresponded to 5.0% of the total inclusive photon yield with a statistical error of σstat=0.8% and a systematic error of σsyst=5.8%. Upper limits on the invariant yield for direct photon production at the 90% C.L. are presented. Possible implications for the dynamics of high-energy heavy-ion collisions are discussed.
New results on the production of charged pions in p+p interactions are presented. The data come from a sample of 4.8 million inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. Pions are identified by energy loss measurement in a large TPC tracking system which covers a major fraction of the production phase space. Inclusive invariant cross sections are given on a grid of nearly 300 bins per charge over intervals from 0 to 2 GeV/c in transverse momentum and from 0 to 0.85 in Feynman x. The results are compared to existing data in overlapping energy ranges.
The problem of the nuclear matter jets in nucleus-nucleus collisions at 4.5 A GeV/c is discussed. The global analysis of experimental data, namely the sphericity tensor, is used to evidence such jets.
We report the measurement of charged $D^*$ mesons in inclusive jets produced in proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV with the STAR experiment at RHIC. For $D^{*}$ mesons with fractional momenta $0.2 < z < 0.5$ in inclusive jets with 11.5 GeV mean transverse energy, the production rate is found to be $N(D^{*+}+D^{*-})/N(\mathrm{jet}) = 0.015 \pm 0.008 (\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.007 (\mathrm{sys})$. This rate is consistent with perturbative QCD evaluation of gluon splitting into a pair of charm quarks and subsequent hadronization.
We present results on the production of high transverse momentum charm mesons in collisions of 515 GeV/c negative pions with beryllium and copper targets. The experiment recorded a large sample of events containing high transverse momentum showers detected in an electromagnetic calorimeter. From these data, a sample of charm mesons has been reconstructed via their decay into the fully charged K pi pi mode. A measurement of the single inclusive transverse momentum distribution of charged D mesons from 1 to 8 GeV/c is presented. An extrapolation of the measured differential cross section yields an integrated charged D cross section of 11.4+-2.7(stat)+-3.3(syst) microbarns per nucleon for charged D mesons with Feynman x greater than zero. The data are compared with expectations based upon next-to-leading order perturbative QCD, as well as with results from PYTHIA. We also compare our integrated charged D cross section with measurements from other experiments.
The study of the J ψ transverse momentum distribution in oxygen-uranium reactions at 200 GeV/nucleon shows that 〈 P T 〉 and 〈 P T 2 〉 increase with the transverse energy of the reaction. Muon pairs in the mass continuum do not exhibit the same behaviour. The comparison of the J ψ production rates in central and peripheral collisions shows a significant diminution for low P T central events.
Production of charged kaons in proton-sulphur, proton-gold, sulphur-sulphur and oxygen-gold collisions at 200 GeV/nucleon has been studied in the NA35 Streamer Chamber experiment. Rapidity and transverse mass distributions as well as mean multiplicities were obtained. The results are compared with nucleon-nucleon data and with model predictions.
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