The Fermilab E866/NuSea Collaboration has measured the Drell-Yan dimuon cross sections in 800 GeV/$c$ $pp$ and $pd$ collisions. This represents the first measurement of the Drell-Yan cross section in $pp$ collisions over a broad kinematic region and the most extensive study to date of the Drell-Yan cross section in $pd$ collisions. The results indicate that recent global parton distribution fits provide a good description of the light antiquark sea in the nucleon over the Bjorken-$x$ range $0.03 \lesssim x < 0.15$, but overestimate the valence quark distributions as $x \to 1$.
Charged kaon production has been measured in Si+Al and Si+Au collisions at 14.6 A GeV/c, and Au+Au collisions at 11.1 A GeV/c by Experiments 859 and 866 (the E--802 Collaboration) at the BNL AGS. Invariant transverse mass spectra and rapidity distributions for both K+ and K- are presented. The centrality dependence of rapidity-integrated kaon yields is studied. Strangeness enhancement is observed as an increase in the slope of the kaon yield with the total number of participants as well as the yield per participant. The enhancement starts with peripheral Si+Al and Si+Au collisions (relative to N+N) and appears to saturate for a moderate number of participating nucleons in Si+Au collisions. It is also observed to increase slowly with centrality in Au+Au collisions, to a level in the most central Au+Au collisions that is greater than that found in central Si+A collisions. The enhancement factor for $K^+$ production are 3.0 +-0.2(stat.) +-0.4(syst.) and 4.0 +-0.3(stat.) +-0.5(syst.), respectively, for the most central 7% Si+Au collisions and the most central 4% Au+Au collisions relative to N+N at the correponding beam energy.
We present the first measurement at the LHC of exclusive J/$\psi$ photoproduction off protons, in ultra-peripheral proton-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV. Events are selected with a dimuon pair produced either in the rapidity interval, in the laboratory frame, $2.5<y<4$ (p-Pb) or $-3.6<y<-2.6$ (Pb--p), and no other particles observed in the ALICE acceptance. The measured cross sections $\sigma (\gamma + {\rm p} \rightarrow J/\psi + {\rm p})$ are 33.2 $\pm$ 2.2 (stat) $\pm$ 3.1 (syst) $\pm$ 0.7 (theo) nb in p-Pb and 284 $\pm$ 36 (stat) $^{+27}_{-32}$ (syst) $\pm$ 26 (theo) nb in Pb-p collisions. We measure this process up to about 700 GeV in the $\gamma {\rm p}$ centre-of-mass, which is a factor of two larger than the highest energy studied at HERA. The data are consistent with a power law dependence of the $J/\psi$ photoproduction cross section in $\gamma {\rm p}$ energies from about 20 to 700 GeV, or equivalently, from Bjorken-$x$ between $\sim 2\times 10^{-2}$ to $\sim 2\times 10^{-5}$, thus indicating no significant change in the gluon density behaviour of the proton between HERA and LHC energies.
The production of muons from heavy flavour decays is measured at forward rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV collected with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The analysis is carried out on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity $L_{\rm int} = 16.5$ nb$^{-1}$. The transverse momentum and rapidity differential production cross sections of muons from heavy flavour decays are measured in the rapidity range 2.5 < y < 4, over the transverse momentum range 2 < $p_{\rm T}$ < 12 GeV/$c$. The results are compared to predictions based on perturbative QCD calculations.
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.
J/psi production has been measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)= 200 GeV over a wide rapidity and transverse momentum range by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Distributions of the rapidity and transverse momentum, along with measurements of the mean transverse momentum and total production cross section are presented and compared to available theoretical calculations. The total J/psi cross section is 3.99 +/- 0.61(stat) +/- 0.58(sys) +/- 0.40(abs) micro barns. The mean transverse momentum is 1.80 +/- 0.23(stat) +/- 0.16(sys) GeV/c.
J/Psi production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV has been Measured in the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) over a rapidity range of -2.2 < y < 2.2 and a transverse momentum range of 0 < pT < 9 GeV/c. The statistics available allow a detailed measurement of both the pT and rapidity distributions and are sufficient to constrain production models. The total cross section times branching ratio determined for J/Psi production is B_{ll} sigma_pp^J/psi = 178 +/- 3(stat) +/- 53(syst) +/- 18(norm) nb.
Yields for J/psi production in Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt (s_NN)= 200 GeV have been measured by the PHENIX experiment over the rapidity range |y| < 2.2 at transverse momenta from 0 to beyond 5 GeV/c. The invariant yield is obtained as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum and collision centrality, and compared with results in p+p and Au+Au collisions at the same energy. The Cu+Cu data provide greatly improved precision over existing Au+Au data for J/psi production in collisions with small to intermediate numbers of participants, providing a key constraint that is needed for disentangling cold and hot nuclear matter effects.
We have studied J/psi production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV at the LHC through its muon pair decay. The polar and azimuthal angle distributions of the decay muons were measured, and results on the J/$\psi$ polarization parameters $\lambda_{\theta}$ and $\lambda_\phi$ were obtained. The study was performed in the kinematic region 2.5<y<4, 2<$p_{\rm T}$<8 GeV/$c$, in the helicity and Collins-Soper reference frames. In both frames, the polarization parameters are compatible with zero, within uncertainties.
J/psi production in d+Au and p+p collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV has been measured by the PHENIX experiment at rapidities -2.2 < y < +2.4. The cross sections and nuclear dependence of J/\psi production versus rapidity, transverse momentum, and centrality are obtained and compared to lower energy p+A results and to theoretical models. The observed nuclear dependence in d+Au collisions is found to be modest, suggesting that the absorption in the final state is weak and the shadowing of the gluon distributions is small and consistent with Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi-based parameterizations that fit deep-inelastic scattering and Drell-Yan data at lower energies.
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