Laying the groundwork at the AGS: Recent results from experiment E895

The E895 Collaboration at the Brookhaven AGS has performed a systematic investigation of Au+Au collisions at 2-8 AGeV, using a large-acceptance Time Projection Chamber. In addition to extensive measurements of particle flow, spectra, two-particle interferometry, and strangeness production, we have performed novel hybrid analyses, including azimuthally-sensitive pion HBT, extraction of the six-dimensional pion phasespace density, and a first measurement of the Lambda-proton correlation function.Comment: Presented at Quark Matter 2001, 8 pages, 5 figure

Longitudinal Flow of Protons from 2-8 AGeV Central Au+Au Collisions

Rapidity distributions of protons from central $^{197}$Au + $^{197}$Au collisions measured by the E895 Collaboration in the energy range from 2 to 8 AGeV at the Brookhaven AGS are presented. Longitudinal flow parameters derived using a thermal model including collective longitudinal expansion are extracted from these distributions. The results show an approximately linear increase in the longitudinal flow velocity, $_{L}$, as a function of the logarithm of beam energy.Comment: 5 Pages, including 3 figures, 1 tabl

Rhino Conjunctivitis and Asthma Among Seafood Processing Workers in Greenland. A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: The fishing- and the seafood processing industries are the largest industrial sectors in Greenland. Despite this, only a few cases of occupational diseases in this industry have been reported to the Danish Labor Market Insurance. Occupational asthma and allergy are well-known occupational diseases in the seafood processing industry worldwide and underreporting of occupational diseases in Greenland is suspected.Objective: The aim of the current study was to examine the associations between job exposures and occupational asthma and rhino conjunctivitis in workers in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry and to compare the prevalence of sensitization by type and degree of exposure to snow crab, shrimp, fish, and the fish parasite, Anisakis simplex.Methods: Data from 382 Greenlandic seafood processing workers were collected during 2016–2018. Data included questionnaire answers, lung function measurements, skin prick tests, and blood samples with ImmunoCAP. For all analyses, p < 0.05 was considered the level of significance.Results: 5.5% of the workers had occupational asthma and 4.6% had occupational rhino conjunctivitis. A large proportion of the workers were sensitized to allergens specific to the workplace; 18.1% to snow crab, 13.6% to shrimp, 1.4% to fish, and 32.6% to the fish parasite, A. simplex. We found a dose-response relationship between the risk of being sensitized to snow crab and A. simplex and years of exposure to the allergens in the seafood processing industry.Conclusion: This study showed that a considerable proportion of workers in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry had occupational asthma and rhino conjunctivitis. Additionally, the study showed high sensitization levels toward snow crab, shrimp, and the fish parasite, A. simplex. This supports the hypothesis of a considerable degree of underreporting of occupational allergic airway disease in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry. Prospectively, it is important to inform workers, leaders, and health care professionals of the health problems and the law on worker's compensation, and to initiate preventive actions at factory and trawler level

Charged Pion Production in 2 to 8 AGeV Central Au+Au Collisions

Momentum spectra of charged pions over nearly full rapidity coverage from target to beam rapidity have been measured in the 0-5% most central Au+Au collisions in the beam energy range from 2 to 8 AGeV by the E895 Experiment. Using a thermal parameterization to fit the transverse mass spectra, rapidity density distributions are extracted. The observed spectra are compared with predictions from the RQMD v2.3 cascade model and also to a thermal model including longitudinal flow. The total 4$\pi$ yields of the charged pions are used to infer an initial state entropy produced in the collisions.Comment: 13 pgs, 19 figs, accepted by Phys. Rev. C. Data tables available at http://nuclear.ucdavis.edu/~e895/published_spectra.htm

Comparison of Source Images for protons, π−\pi^-'s and Λ\Lambda's in 6 AGeV Au+Au collisions

Source images are extracted from two-particle correlations constructed from strange and non-strange hadrons produced in 6 AGeV Au + Au collisions. Very different source images result from pp vs p$\Lambda$ vs $\pi^-\pi^-$ correlations. These observations suggest important differences in the space-time emission histories for protons, pions and neutral strange baryons produced in the same events

Near-threshold production of the multi-strange Ξ−\Xi^- hyperon

The yield for the multi-strange $\Xi^{-}$ hyperon has been measured in 6 AGeV Au+Au collisions via reconstruction of its decay products $\pi^{-}$ and $\Lambda$, the latter also being reconstructed from its daughter tracks of $\pi^{-}$ and p. The measurement is rather close to the threshold for $\Xi^{-}$ production and therefore provides an important test of model predictions. The measured yield for $\Xi^{-}$ and $\Lambda$ are compared for several centralities. In central collisions the $\Xi^{-}$ yield is found to be in excellent agreement with statistical and transport model predictions, suggesting that multi-strange hadron production approaches chemical equilibrium in high baryon density nuclear matter.Comment: Submitted to PR

Statistical signatures of critical behavior in small systems

The cluster distributions of different systems are examined to search for signatures of a continuous phase transition. In a system known to possess such a phase transition, both sensitive and insensitive signatures are present; while in systems known not to possess such a phase transition, only insensitive signatures are present. It is shown that nuclear multifragmentation results in cluster distributions belonging to the former category, suggesting that the fragments are the result of a continuous phase transition.Comment: 31 pages, two columns with 30 figure