181 research outputs found
Charged Particle Production in Proton-, Deuteron-, Oxygen- and Sulphur-Nucleus Collisions at 200 GeV per Nucleon
The transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of net protons and
negatively charged hadrons have been measured for minimum bias proton-nucleus
and deuteron-gold interactions, as well as central oxygen-gold and
sulphur-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon. The rapidity density of net
protons at midrapidity in central nucleus-nucleus collisions increases both
with target mass for sulphur projectiles and with the projectile mass for a
gold target. The shape of the rapidity distributions of net protons forward of
midrapidity for d+Au and central S+Au collisions is similar. The average
rapidity loss is larger than 2 units of rapidity for reactions with the gold
target. The transverse momentum spectra of net protons for all reactions can be
described by a thermal distribution with `temperatures' between 145 +- 11 MeV
(p+S interactions) and 244 +- 43 MeV (central S+Au collisions). The
multiplicity of negatively charged hadrons increases with the mass of the
colliding system. The shape of the transverse momentum spectra of negatively
charged hadrons changes from minimum bias p+p and p+S interactions to p+Au and
central nucleus-nucleus collisions. The mean transverse momentum is almost
constant in the vicinity of midrapidity and shows little variation with the
target and projectile masses. The average number of produced negatively charged
hadrons per participant baryon increases slightly from p+p, p+A to central
S+S,Ag collisions.Comment: 47 pages, submitted to Z. Phys.
Experimental Study of the Shortest Reset Word of Random Automata
In this paper we describe an approach to finding the shortest reset word of a
finite synchronizing automaton by using a SAT solver. We use this approach to
perform an experimental study of the length of the shortest reset word of a
finite synchronizing automaton. The largest automata we considered had 100
states. The results of the experiments allow us to formulate a hypothesis that
the length of the shortest reset word of a random finite automaton with
states and 2 input letters with high probability is sublinear with respect to
and can be estimated as $1.95 n^{0.55}.
Event-by-event fluctuations of the kaon to pion ratio in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV per Nucleon
We present the first measurement of fluctuations from event to event in the
production of strange particles in collisions of heavy nuclei. The ratio of
charged kaons to charged pions is determined for individual central Pb+Pb
collisions. After accounting for the fluctuations due to detector resolution
and finite number statistics we derive an upper limit on genuine
non-statistical fluctuations, perhaps related to a first or second order QCD
phase transition. Such fluctuations are shown to be very small.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Results on correlations and fluctuations from NA49
The large acceptance and high momentum resolution as well as the significant
particle identification capabilities of the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS
allow for a broad study of fluctuations and correlations in hadronic
interactions. In the first part recent results on event-by-event charge and p_t
fluctuations are presented. Charge fluctuations in central Pb+Pb reactions are
investigated at three different beam energies (40, 80, and 158 AGeV), while for
the p_t fluctuations the focus is put on the system size dependence at 158
AGeV. In the second part recent results on Bose Einstein correlations of h-h-
pairs in minimum bias Pb+Pb reactions at 40 and 158 AGeV, as well as of K+K+
and K-K- pairs in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV are shown. Additionally,
other types of two particle correlations, namely pi p, Lambda p, and Lambda
Lambda correlations, have been measured by the NA49 experiment. Finally,
results on the energy and system size dependence of deuteron coalescence are
discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, Presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, France,
Corrected error in Eq.
Two-proton correlations from 158 AGeV Pb+Pb central collisions
The two-proton correlation function at midrapidity from Pb+Pb central
collisions at 158 AGeV has been measured by the NA49 experiment. The results
are compared to model predictions from static thermal Gaussian proton source
distributions and transport models RQMD and VENUS. An effective proton source
size is determined by minimizing CHI-square/ndf between the correlation
functions of the data and those calculated for the Gaussian sources, yielding
3.85 +-0.15(stat.) +0.60-0.25(syst.) fm. Both the RQMD and the VENUS model are
consistent with the data within the error in the correlation peak region.Comment: RevTeX style, 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. More discussion are added
about the structure on the tail of the correlation function. The systematic
error is revised. To appear in Phys. Lett.
Observation of an Exotic S = -2, Q = -2 Baryon Resonance in Proton-Proton Collisions at the CERN SPS
Results of resonance searches in the Xi- pi-, Xi- pi+, antiXi+ pi- and
antiXi+ pi+ invariant mass spectra in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s}=17.2
GeV are presented. Evidence is shown for the existence of a narrow Xi- pi-
baryon resonance with mass of 1.862+/-0.002 GeV/c^2 and width below the
detector resolution of about 0.018 GeV/c^2. The significance is estimated to be
4.0 sigma. This state is a candidate for the hypothetical exotic Xi_(3/2)^--
baryon with S = -2, I = 3/2 and a quark content of (d s d s ubar). At the same
mass a peak is observed in the Xi- pi+ spectrum which is a candidate for the
Xi_(3/2)^0 member of this isospin quartet with a quark content of (d s u s
dbar). The corresponding antibaryon spectra also show enhancements at the same
invariant mass.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Transverse Momentum Fluctuations in Nuclear Collisions at 158 AGeV
Results are presented on event-by-event fluctuations in transverse momentum
of charged particles, produced at forward rapidities in p+p, C+C, Si+Si and
Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV. Three different characteristics are discussed:
the average transverse momentum of the event, the Phi_pT fluctuation measure
and two-particle transverse momentum correlations. In the kinematic region
explored, the dynamical fluctuations are found to be small. However, a
significant system size dependence of Phi_pT is observed, with the largest
value measured in peripheral Pb+Pb interactions. The data are compared with
predictions of several models.Comment: will be submitted to Phys. Rev.
Bose-Einstein Correlations of Charged Kaons in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at
Bose-Einstein correlations of charged kaons were measured near mid-rapidity
in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV by the NA49 experiment at the
CERN SPS. Source radii were extracted using the Yano-Koonin-Podgoretsky and
Bertsch-Pratt parameterizations. The results are compared to published pion
data. The measured dependence for kaons and pions is consistent with
collective transverse expansion of the source and a freeze-out time of about
9.5 .Comment: 14 pages with 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.
Event-by-event fluctuations of average transverse momentum in central Pb+Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon
We present first data on event-by-event fluctuations in the average
transverse momentum of charged particles produced in Pb+Pb collisions at the
CERN SPS. This measurement provides previously unavailable information allowing
sensitive tests of microscopic and thermodynamic collision models and to search
for fluctuations expected to occur in the vicinity of the predicted QCD phase
transition. We find that the observed variance of the event-by-event average
transverse momentum is consistent with independent particle production modified
by the known two-particle correlations due to quantum statistics and final
state interactions and folded with the resolution of the NA49 apparatus. For
two specific models of non-statistical fluctuations in transverse momentum
limits are derived in terms of fluctuation amplitude. We show that a
significant part of the parameter space for a model of isospin fluctuations
predicted as a consequence of chiral symmetry restoration in a non-equilibrium
scenario is excluded by our measurement.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.
Baryon Stopping and Charged Particle Distributions in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at 158 GeV per Nucleon
Net proton and negative hadron spectra for central \PbPb collisions at 158
GeV per nucleon at the CERN SPS were measured and compared to spectra from
lighter systems. Net baryon distributions were derived from those of net
protons, utilizing model calculations of isospin contributions as well as data
and model calculations of strange baryon distributions. Stopping (rapidity
shift with respect to the beam) and mean transverse momentum \meanpt of net
baryons increase with system size. The rapidity density of negative hadrons
scales with the number of participant nucleons for nuclear collisions, whereas
their \meanpt is independent of system size. The \meanpt dependence upon
particle mass and system size is consistent with larger transverse flow
velocity at midrapidity for \PbPb compared to \SS central collisions.Comment: This version accepted for publication in PRL. 4 pages, 3 figures.
Typos corrected, some paragraphs expanded in response to referee comments, to
better explain details of analysi
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