169 research outputs found
Comment on ``Strangeness enhancement in and S interactions at energies near 200 GeV"
We argue that the recent analysis of strangeness production in nuclear
collisions at 200 GeV/ performed by Topor Pop {\it et al.} \cite{To:95}
is flawed. The conclusions are based on an erroneous interpretation of the data
and the numerical model results. The term ``strangeness enhancement" is used in
a misleading way.Comment: 4 pages REVTEX 3.0, no figures; Comment submitted to Physical Review
Phase-space dependence of particle-ratio fluctuations in Pb+Pb collisions from 20A to 158A GeV beam energy
A novel approach, the identity method, was used for particle identification
and the study of fluctuations of particle yield ratios in Pb+Pb collisions at
the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). This procedure allows to unfold the
moments of the unknown multiplicity distributions of protons (p), kaons (K),
pions () and electrons (e). Using these moments the excitation function of
the fluctuation measure [A,B] was measured, with A and
B denoting different particle types. The obtained energy dependence of
agrees with previously published NA49 results on the related
measure . Moreover, was found to depend
on the phase space coverage for [K,p] and [K,] pairs. This feature most
likely explains the reported differences between measurements of NA49 and those
of STAR in central Au+Au collisions
Production of deuterium, tritium, and He in central Pb+Pb collisions at 20A, 30A, 40A, 80A, and 158A GeV at the CERN SPS
Production of , , and He nuclei in central Pb+Pb interactions was
studied at five collision energies ( 6.3, 7.6, 8.8, 12.3, and
17.3 GeV) with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS. Transverse momentum spectra,
rapidity distributions, and particle ratios were measured. Yields are compared
to predictions of statistical models. Phase-space distributions of light nuclei
are discussed and compared to those of protons in the context of a coalescence
approach. The coalescence parameters and , as well as coalescence
radii for and He were determined as a function of transverse mass at
all energies.Comment: 22 pages, 29 figures, 8 tables, for submission to Phys. Rev.
Search for the QCD critical point in nuclear collisions at the CERN SPS
Pion production in nuclear collisions at the SPS is investigated with the aim
to search, in a restricted domain of the phase diagram, for power-laws in the
behavior of correlations which are compatible with critical QCD. We have
analyzed interactions of nuclei of different size (p+p, C+C, Si+Si, Pb+Pb) at
158 GeV adopting, as appropriate observables, scaled factorial moments in a
search for intermittent fluctuations in transverse dimensions. The analysis is
performed for pairs with invariant mass very close to the two-pion
threshold. In this sector one may capture critical fluctuations of the sigma
component in a hadronic medium, even if the -meson has no well defined
vacuum state. It turns out that for the Pb+Pb system the proposed analysis
technique cannot be applied without entering the invariant mass region with
strong Coulomb correlations. As a result the treatment becomes inconclusive in
this case. Our results for the other systems indicate the presence of power-law
fluctuations in the freeze-out state of Si+Si approaching in size the
prediction of critical QCD.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure
Centrality dependence of proton and antiproton spectra in Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV measured at the CERN SPS
The yields of (anti-)protons were measured by the NA49 Collaboration in
centrality selected Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV. Particle
identification was obtained in the laboratory momentum range from 5 to 63 GeV/c
by the measurement of the energy loss dE/dx in the TPC detector gas. The
corresponding rapidity coverage extends 1.6 units from mid-rapidity into the
forward hemisphere. Transverse mass spectra, the rapidity dependences of the
average transverse mass, and rapidity density distributions were studied as a
function of collision centrality. The values of the average transverse mass as
well as the midrapidity yields of protons when normalized to the number of
wounded nucleons show only modest centrality dependences. In contrast, the
shape of the rapidity distribution changes significantly with collision
centrality, especially at 40A GeV. The experimental results are compared to
calculations of the HSD and UrQMD transport models.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PR
Energy dependence of kaon-to-proton ratio fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions from = 6.3 to 17.3 GeV
Kaons and protons carry large parts of two conserved quantities, strangeness
and baryon number. It is argued that their correlation and thus also
fluctuations are sensitive to conditions prevailing at the anticipated
parton-hadron phase boundary. Fluctuations of the and
ratios have been measured for the first time by NA49 in central Pb+Pb
collisions at 5 SPS energies between = 6.3 GeV and 17.3 GeV.
Both ratios exhibit a change of sign in , a measure of
non-statistical fluctuations, around = 8 GeV. Below this
energy, is positive, indicating higher fluctuation
compared to a mixed event background sample, while for higher energies,
is negative, indicating correlated emission of kaons
and protons. The results are compared to UrQMD calculations which which give a
good description at the higher SPS energies, but fail to reproduce the
transition to positive values.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Proton -- Lambda Correlations in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 17.3 GeV
The momentum correlation between protons and lambda particles emitted from
central Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 17.3 GeV was studied by the NA49
experiment at the CERN SPS. A clear enhancement is observed for small relative
momenta (q_{inv} < 0.2 GeV). By fitting a theoretical model, which uses the
strong interaction between the proton and the lambda in a given pair, to the
measured data a value for the effective source size is deduced. Assuming a
static Gaussian source distribution we derive an effective radius parameter of
R_G = 3.02 \pm 0.20$(stat.)^{+0.44}_{-0.16}(syst.) fm.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Upper Limit of D0 Production in Central Pb-Pb Collisions at 158A GeV
Results are presented from a search for the decays D0 -> Kmin piplus and
D0bar -> Kplus pimin in a sample of 3.8x10^6 central Pb-Pb events collected
with a beam energy of 158A GeV by NA49 at the CERN SPS. No signal is observed.
An upper limit on D0 production is derived and compared to predictions from
several models.Comment: REVTEX 5 pages, 4 figure
Energy dependence of particle ratio fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions from ~6.3 to 17.3 GeV
We present measurements of the energy dependence of event-by-event
fluctuations in the K/pi and (p + \bar{p})/pi multiplicity ratios in heavy ion
collisions at the CERN SPS. The particle ratio fluctuations were obtained for
central Pb+Pb collisions at five collision energies, \sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}, between
6.3 and 17.3 GeV. After accounting for the effects of finite-number statistics
and detector resolution, we extract the strength of non-statistical
fluctuations at each energy. For the K/pi ratio, larger fluctuations than
expected for independent particle production are found at all collision
energies. The fluctuations in the (p + \bar{p})/pi ratio are smaller than
expectations from independent particle production, indicating correlated pion
and proton production from resonance decays. For both ratios, the deviation
from purely statistical fluctuations shows an increase towards lower collision
energies. The results are compared to transport model calculations, which fail
to describe the energy dependence of the K/pi ratio fluctuations.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, update to published versio
Energy Dependence of Multiplicity Fluctuations in Heavy Ion Collisions at the CERN SPS
Multiplicity fluctuations of positively, negatively and all charged hadrons
in the forward hemisphere were studied in central Pb+Pb collisions at 20A, 30A,
40A, 80A and 158A GeV. The multiplicity distributions and their scaled
variances are presented in dependence of collision energy as well as of
rapidity and transverse momentum. The distributions have bell-like shape and
their scaled variances are in the range from 0.8 to 1.2 without any significant
structure in their energy dependence. No indication of the critical point in
fluctuations are observed. The string-hadronic model UrQMD significantly
overpredicts the mean, but approximately reproduces the scaled variance of the
multiplicity distributions. The predictions of the statistical hadron-resonance
gas model obtained within the grand-canonical and canonical ensembles disagree
with the measured scaled variances. The narrower than Poissonian multiplicity
fluctuations measured in numerous cases may be explained by the impact of
conservation laws on fluctuations in relativistic systems.Comment: 26 pages, 34 figures, updated version including referee comment
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