Nuclear Dependence of the Transverse-Single-Spin Asymmetry for Forward Neutron Production in Polarized p+A Collisions at √sNN=200 GeV

During 2015, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided collisions of transversely polarized protons with Au and Al nuclei for the first time, enabling the exploration of transverse-single-spin asymmetries with heavy nuclei. Large single-spin asymmetries in very forward neutron production have been previously observed in transversely polarized p+p collisions at RHIC, and the existing theoretical framework that was successful in describing the single-spin asymmetry in p+p collisions predicts only a moderate atomic-mass-number (A) dependence. In contrast, the asymmetries observed at RHIC in p+A collisions showed a surprisingly strong A dependence in inclusive forward neutron production. The observed asymmetry in p+Al collisions is much smaller, while the asymmetry in p+Au collisions is a factor of 3 larger in absolute value and of opposite sign. The interplay of different neutron production mechanisms is discussed as a possible explanation of the observed A dependence

Measurement of long-range angular correlations and azimuthal anisotropies in high-multiplicity p+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV

We present measurements of long-range angular correlations and the transverse momentum dependence of elliptic flow v2 in high-multiplicity p+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV. A comparison of these results to previous measurements in high-multiplicity d+Au and 3He+Au collisions demonstrates a relation between v2 and the initial collision eccentricity ɛ2, suggesting that the observed momentum-space azimuthal anisotropies in these small systems have a collective origin and reflect the initial geometry. Good agreement is observed between the measured v2 and hydrodynamic calculations for all systems, and an argument disfavoring theoretical explanations based on initial momentum-space domain correlations is presented. The set of measurements presented here allows us to leverage the distinct intrinsic geometry of each of these systems to distinguish between different theoretical descriptions of the long-range correlations observed in small collision systems

Measurements of Multiparticle Correlations in d+Au Collisions at 200, 62.4, 39, and 19.6 GeV and p+Au Collisions at 200 GeV and Implications for Collective Behavior

Recently, multiparticle-correlation measurements of relativistic p/d/3He+Au, p+Pb, and even p+p collisions show surprising collective signatures. Here, we present beam-energy-scan measurements of two-, four-, and six-particle angular correlations in d+Au collisions at √sNN=200, 62.4, 39, and 19.6 GeV. We also present measurements of two- and four-particle angular correlations in p+Au collisions at √sNN=200  GeV. We find the four-particle cumulant to be real valued for d+Au collisions at all four energies. We also find that the four-particle cumulant in p+Au has the opposite sign as that in d+Au. Further, we find that the six-particle cumulant agrees with the four-particle cumulant in d+Au collisions at 200 GeV, indicating that nonflow effects are subdominant. These observations provide strong evidence that the correlations originate from the initial geometric configuration, which is then translated into the momentum distribution for all particles, commonly referred to as collectivity

Measurement of the relative yields of ψ(2S) to ψ(1S) mesons produced at forward and backward rapidity in p + p, p + Al, p + Au, and 3He+Au collisions at √ sNN = 200 GeV

The PHENIX Collaboration has measured the ratio of the yields of ψ(2S) to ψ(1S) mesons produced in p+p, p+Al, p+Au, and 3He+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV over the forward and backward rapidity intervals 1.2<|y|<2.2. We find that the ratio in p+p collisions is consistent with measurements at other collision energies. In collisions with nuclei, we find that in the forward (p-going or 3He-going) direction, the relative yield of ψ(2S) mesons to ψ(1S) mesons is consistent with the value measured in p+p collisions. However, in the backward (nucleus-going) direction, the ψ(2S) meson is preferentially suppressed by a factor of ∼2. This suppression is attributed in some models to the breakup of the weakly bound ψ(2S) meson through final-state interactions with comoving particles, which have a higher density in the nucleus-going direction. These breakup effects may compete with color screening in a deconfined quark-gluon plasma to produce sequential suppression of excited quarkonia states

Measurements of e(+)e(-) pairs from open heavy flavor in p plus p and d plus A collisions at root S-NN=200 GeV

We report a measurement of e+e− pairs from semileptonic heavy-flavor decays in p+p collisions at √sNN=200 GeV. The e+e− pair yield from b¯b and c¯c is separated by exploiting a double differential fit done simultaneously in dielectron invariant mass and pT. We used three different event generators, pythia, mc@nlo, and powheg, to simulate the e+e− spectra from c¯c and b¯b production. The data can be well described by all three generators within the detector acceptance. However, when using the generators to extrapolate to 4π, significant differences are observed for the total cross section. These difference are less pronounced for b¯b than for c¯c. The same model dependence was observed in already published d+A data. The p+p data are also directly compared with d+A data in mass and pT, and within the statistical accuracy no nuclear modification is seen

Lévy-stable two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in √sNN=200 GeV Au+Au collisions

We present a detailed measurement of charged two-pion correlation functions in 0–30% centrality √sNN=200 GeV Au+Au collisions by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The data are well described by Bose-Einstein correlation functions stemming from Lévy-stable source distributions. Using a fine transverse momentum binning, we extract the correlation strength parameter λ, the Lévy index of stability α, and the Lévy length scale parameter R as a function of average transverse mass of the pair mT. We find that the positively and the negatively charged pion pairs yield consistent results, and their correlation functions are represented, within uncertainties, by the same Lévy-stable source functions. The λ(mT) measurements indicate a decrease of the strength of the correlations at low mT. The Lévy length scale parameter R(mT) decreases with increasing mT, following a hydrodynamically predicted type of scaling behavior. The values of the Lévy index of stability α are found to be significantly lower than the Gaussian case of α=2, but also significantly larger than the conjectured value that may characterize the critical point of a second-order quark-hadron phase transition

Measurements of double-helicity asymmetries in inclusive J／ψ production in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at √s=510 GeV

We report the double-helicity asymmetry, AJ/ψLL, in inclusive J/ψ production at forward rapidity as a function of transverse momentum pT and rapidity |y|. The data analyzed were taken during √s=510  GeV longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in the 2013 run using the PHENIX detector. At this collision energy, J/ψ particles are predominantly produced through gluon-gluon scatterings, thus AJ/ψLL is sensitive to the gluon polarization inside the proton. We measured AJ/ψLL by detecting the decay daughter muon pairs μ+μ− within the PHENIX muon spectrometers in the rapidity range 1.2<|y|<2.2. In this kinematic range, we measured the AJ/ψLL to be 0.012±0.010 (stat) ±0.003 (syst). The AJ/ψLL can be expressed to be proportional to the product of the gluon polarization distributions at two distinct ranges of Bjorken x: one at moderate range x≈5×10−2 where recent data of jet and π0 double helicity spin asymmetries have shown evidence for significant gluon polarization, and the other one covering the poorly known small-x region x≈2×10−3. Thus our new results could be used to further constrain the gluon polarization for x<5×10−2

Cross section and transverse single-spin asymmetry of muons from open heavy-flavor decays in polarized p+p collisions at √s=200 GeV

The cross section and transverse single-spin asymmetries of μ− and μ+ from open heavy-flavor decays in polarized p+p collisions at √s=200  GeV were measured by the PHENIX experiment during 2012 at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Because heavy-flavor production is dominated by gluon-gluon interactions at √s=200  GeV, these measurements offer a unique opportunity to obtain information on the trigluon correlation functions. The measurements are performed at forward and backward rapidity (1.4<|y|<2.0) over the transverse momentum range of 1.25<pT<7  GeV/c for the cross section and 1.25<pT<5  GeV/c for the asymmetry measurements. The obtained cross section is compared to a fixed-order-plus-next-to-leading-log perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculation. The asymmetry results are consistent with zero within uncertainties, and a model calculation based on twist-3 three-gluon correlations agrees with the data

Nonperturbative-transverse-momentum effects and evolution in dihadron and direct photon-hadron angular correlations in p+p collisions at √s=510 GeV

Dihadron and isolated direct photon-hadron angular correlations are measured in p+p collisions at √s=510  GeV. Correlations of charged hadrons of 0.7<pT<10  GeV/c with π0 mesons of 4<pT<15  GeV/c or isolated direct photons of 7<pT<15  GeV/c are used to study nonperturbative effects generated by initial-state partonic transverse momentum and final-state transverse momentum from fragmentation. The nonperturbative behavior is characterized by measuring the out-of-plane transverse momentum component pout perpendicular to the axis of the trigger particle, which is the high-pT direct photon or π0. Nonperturbative evolution effects are extracted from Gaussian fits to the away-side inclusive-charged-hadron yields for different trigger-particle transverse momenta (ptrigT). The Gaussian widths and root mean square of pout are reported as a function of the interaction hard scale ptrigT to investigate possible transverse-momentum-dependent evolution differences between the π0−h± and direct photon-h± correlations and factorization breaking effects. The widths are found to decrease with ptrigT, which indicates that the Collins-Soper-Sterman soft factor is not driving the evolution with the hard scale in nearly back-to-back dihadron and direct photon-hadron production in p+p collisions. This behavior is in contrast to Drell-Yan and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering measurements

Angular decay coefficients of J/ψ mesons at forward rapidity from p+p collisions at √s=510 GeV

We report the first measurement of the full angular distribution for inclusive J/ψ→μ+μ− decays in p+p collisions at √s=510  GeV. The measurements are made for J/ψ transverse momentum 2<pT<10  GeV/c and rapidity 1.2<y<2.2 in the Helicity, Collins-Soper, and Gottfried-Jackson reference frames. In all frames the polar coefficient λθ is strongly negative at low pT and becomes close to zero at high pT, while the azimuthal coefficient λϕ is close to zero at low pT, and becomes slightly negative at higher pT. The frame-independent coefficient ˜λ is strongly negative at all pT in all frames. The data are compared to the theoretical predictions provided by nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics models