450 research outputs found
Study of psi' and chi_c decays as feed-down sources of J/psi hadro-production
The interpretation of the J/psi suppression patterns observed in nuclear
collisions, at CERN and RHIC, as a signature of the formation of a deconfined
phase of QCD matter, requires knowing which fractions of the measured J/psi
yields, in pp collisions, are due to decays of heavier charmonium states. From
a detailed analysis of the available mid-rapidity charmonium hadro-production
cross sections, or their ratios, we determine that the J/psi feed-down
contributions from psi' and chi_c decays are, respectively, (8.1 +/- 0.3) % and
(25 +/- 5) %. These proton-proton values are derived from global averages of
the proton-nucleus measurements, assuming that the charmonium states are
exponentially absorbed with the length of matter they traverse in the nuclear
targets.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 3 table
Mesons and tachyons with confinement and chiral restoration, and NA60
In this paper the spectrum of quark-antiquark systems, including light mesons
and tachyons, is studied in the true vacuum and in the chiral invariant vacuum.
The mass gap equation for the vacua and the Salpeter-RPA equation for the
mesons are solved for a simple chiral invariant and confining quark model. At
T=0 and in the true vacuum, the scalar and pseudoscalar, or the vector and
axial vector are not degenerate, and in the chiral limit, the pseudoscalar
groundstates are Goldstone bosons. At T=0 the chiral invariant vacuum is an
unstable vacuum, decaying through an infinite number of scalar and pseudoscalar
tachyons. Nevertheless the axialvector and vector remain mesons, with real
masses. To illustrate the chiral restoration, an arbitrary path between the two
vacua is also studied. Different families of light-light and heavy-light
mesons, sensitive to chiral restoration, are also studied. At higher
temperatures the potential must be suppressed, and the chiral symmetry can be
restored without tachyons, but then all mesons have small real masses.
Implications for heavy-ion collisions, in particular for the recent vector
meson spectra measured by the NA60 collaboration, are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 3 table
Nuclear suppression of heavy quark production at forward rapidities in relativistic heavy ion collisions
We calculate nuclear suppression of heavy quarks produced from the
initial fusion of partons in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC
energies. We take the shadowing as well as the energy loss suffered by them
while passing through Quark Gluon Plasma into account. We obtain results for
charm and bottom quarks at several rapidities using different mechanisms for
energy loss, to see if we can distinguish between them.Comment: 21 pages including 13 figures. To appear in J. Phys.
Study of dimuon production in Indium-Indium collisions with the NA60 experiment
The NA60 experiment at the CERN-SPS is devoted to the study of dimuon
production in heavy-ion and proton-nucleus collisions. We present preliminary
results from the analysis of Indium-Indium collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon.
The topics covered are low mass vector meson production, J/psi production and
suppression, and the feasibility of the open charm measurement from the dimuon
continuum in the mass range below the J/psi peak.Comment: Contribution at XXXXth Rencontres de Moriond, "QCD and High Energy
Hadronic Interactions
Meson Production in In-In Collisions and the Puzzle
The NA60 experiment measured dimuon production in In-In collisions at 158
AGeV. This paper presents a high statistics measurement of with
the specific objective to provide insight on the puzzle, i.e. the
difference in the inverse slopes and absolute yields measured by NA49 and
NA50 in the kaon and lepton channel, respectively. Transverse momentum
distributions were studied as a function of centrality. The slope parameter
shows a rapid increase with centrality, followed by a saturation. Variations of
with the fit range of the order of 15 MeV were observed, possibly as a
consequence of radial flow. The meson yield normalized to the number of
participants increases with centrality and is consistently higher than the
yield measured by the NA49 experiment at any centrality.Comment: 4 Pages, 2 Figures. Proceedings of the 20 International
Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus Nucleus Collision
Thermal dileptons at SPS energies
Clear signs of excess dileptons above the known sources were found at the SPS
since long. However, a real clarification of these observations was only
recently achieved by NA60, measuring dimuons with unprecedented precision in
158A GeV, In-In collisions. The excess mass spectrum in the region M<1 GeV is
consistent with a dominant contribution from pi+pi- -> rho -> mu+mu-
annihilation. The associated rho spectral function shows a strong broadening,
but essentially no shift in mass. In the region M>1 GeV, the excess is found to
be prompt, not due to enhanced charm production. The inverse slope parameter
Teff associated with the transverse momentum spectra rises with mass up to the
rho, followed by a sudden decline above. While the initial rise, coupled to a
hierarchy in hadron freeze-out, points to radial flow of a hadronic decay
source, the decline above signals a transition to a low-flow source, presumably
of partonic origin. The mass spectra show at low transverse momenta the steep
rise towards low masses characteristic for Planck-like radiation. The
polarization of the excess referred to the Collins Soper frame is found to be
isotropic. All observations are consistent with the interpretation of the
excess as thermal radiation.Comment: Prepared for 20th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic
Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions: Quark Matter 2008 (QM2008), Jaipur, India, 4-10
Feb. 200
Heavy-flavour and quarkonium production in the LHC era: from proton-proton to heavy-ion collisions
This report reviews the study of open heavy-flavour and quarkonium production
in high-energy hadronic collisions, as tools to investigate fundamental aspects
of Quantum Chromodynamics, from the proton and nucleus structure at high energy
to deconfinement and the properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma. Emphasis is
given to the lessons learnt from LHC Run 1 results, which are reviewed in a
global picture with the results from SPS and RHIC at lower energies, as well as
to the questions to be addressed in the future. The report covers heavy flavour
and quarkonium production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus
collisions. This includes discussion of the effects of hot and cold strongly
interacting matter, quarkonium photo-production in nucleus-nucleus collisions
and perspectives on the study of heavy flavour and quarkonium with upgrades of
existing experiments and new experiments. The report results from the activity
of the SaporeGravis network of the I3 Hadron Physics programme of the European
Union 7th Framework Programme
First results on angular distributions of thermal dileptons in nuclear collisions
The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied dimuon production in 158A GeV
In-In collisions. The strong excess of pairs above the known sources found in
the complete mass region 0.2<M<2.6 GeV has previously been interpreted as
thermal radiation. We now present first results on the associated angular
distributions. Using the Collins-Soper reference frame, the structure function
parameters \lambda, \mu and \nu are measured to be zero, and the projected
distributions in polar and azimuth angles are found to be uniform. The absence
of any polarization is consistent with the interpretation of the excess dimuons
as thermal radiation from a randomized system.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter
J/psi production in proton-nucleus collisions at 158 and 400 GeV
The NA60 experiment has studied J/psi production in p-A collisions at 158 and
400 GeV, at the CERN SPS. Nuclear effects on the J/psi yield have been
estimated from the A-dependence of the production cross section ratios
sigma_{J/psi}^{A}/sigma_{J/psi}^{Be} (A=Al, Cu, In, W, Pb, U). We observe a
significant nuclear suppression of the J/psi yield per nucleon-nucleon
collision, with a larger effect at lower incident energy, and we compare this
result with previous observations by other fixed-target experiments. An attempt
to disentangle the different contributions to the observed suppression has been
carried out by studying the dependence of nuclear effects on x_2, the fraction
of nucleon momentum carried by the interacting parton in the target nucleus.Comment: NA60 Collaboration, accepted for publication by Phys. Lett.
Measurement of the Z/gamma* + b-jet cross section in pp collisions at 7 TeV
The production of b jets in association with a Z/gamma* boson is studied
using proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy
of 7 TeV and recorded by the CMS detector. The inclusive cross section for
Z/gamma* + b-jet production is measured in a sample corresponding to an
integrated luminosity of 2.2 inverse femtobarns. The Z/gamma* + b-jet cross
section with Z/gamma* to ll (where ll = ee or mu mu) for events with the
invariant mass 60 < M(ll) < 120 GeV, at least one b jet at the hadron level
with pT > 25 GeV and abs(eta) < 2.1, and a separation between the leptons and
the jets of Delta R > 0.5 is found to be 5.84 +/- 0.08 (stat.) +/- 0.72 (syst.)
+(0.25)/-(0.55) (theory) pb. The kinematic properties of the events are also
studied and found to be in agreement with the predictions made by the MadGraph
event generator with the parton shower and the hadronisation performed by
PYTHIA.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physic
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