Recent high pT measurements in STAR

After five years of data taking, the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory provides precise measurements of particle production at high transverse momentum in p-p, d-Au, and Au-Au collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV. We review recent results on the flavor dependence of high pT particle suppression and hadron particle spectra at sqrt(s) = 62.4 GeV. New results on two-particle angular correlations for identified trigger particles and for low momentum associated charged hadrons in p-p and Au-Au as well as near-side $\Delta\eta$ correlations will be presented and discussed.Comment: 5th International Conference on Physics and Astrophysics of Quark Gluon Plasma, Calcutta. 8 pages, 10 figures, submitted to J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phy

Strange Particle Production in p+p, p+Pb and Pb+Pb Interactions from NA49

Recent NA49 results on Lambda, Antilambda, Xi- and Antixi+ production in minimum bias p+p and centrality selected p+Pb collisions at 158 GeV/c, and the results on Lambda, Antilambda, K+ and K- production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 40, 80 and 158 A GeV are discussed and compared with other available data. By comparing the energy dependence of Lambda and Antilambda production at mid-rapidity a striking similarity is observed between p+p and A+A data. This is also seen in the energy dependence of the Lambda/pi ratio. K+/pi at mid-rapidity is affected in a similar way, due to the associated production of K+ together with Lambda particles. The observed yields increase faster than the number of wounded nucleons when comparing p+Pb to p+p. As already observed in A+A collisions, the increase is larger for multistrange than for strange baryons and for baryons than for anti-baryons.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, To appear in proceedings of Strange Quark in Matter 2001-A Flavourspace Odyssey, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 24-29. Sept. 200

Measurements of charm hadron production and anisotropic flow in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV with the STAR experiment at RHIC

Heavy flavor quarks, owing to their large masses, are predominantly produced through initial hard parton scatterings in heavy-ion collisions, and thus are excellent probes to study properties of the strongly coupled Quark Gluon Plasma (sQGP) medium produced in these collisions. Measurements of anisotropic flow harmonics of heavy flavor hadrons can provide information on the properties of the medium, including the heavy flavor transport coefficient. Charm quark hadronization mechanism in the sQGP medium can be studied through measurements of yields of different charm hadrons. In these proceedings we report on the measurements of elliptic and triangular flow harmonics of D0 mesons as well as the yield ratios of D±s/D0 and Λ±c/D0 in Au+Au collisions at sNN = 200 GeV at RHIC with the STAR detector. These measurements use the STAR Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) to reconstruct charm hadrons via their hadronic decay channels. Results are compared to model calculations and the implications on the understanding of charm quark dynamics in the medium are discussed

Energy dependence of kaon production in central Pb+Pb collisions

Recent results from the NA49 experiment on the energy dependence of charged kaon production in central Pb+Pb collisions are presented. First results from the new data at 80 AGeV beam energy are compared with those from lower and higher energies. A difference in the energy dependence of the / and / ratios is observed. The / ratio shows a non-monotonic behaviour with a maximum near 40 AGeV.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, proceedings of talk at SQM2001, Frankfurt, Germany, to appear in J. Phys.

Quarkonium measurements in heavy-ion collisions with the STAR experiment

In these proceedings, we present the latest measurements of J/ψ and ϒ by the STAR experiment. The J/ψ and ϒ production measured in p+p collisions provide new baselines for similar measurements in Au+Au collisions, while the measurements in p+Au collisions can help quantify the cold nuclear matter effects. The J/ψ υ2 is measured in both U+U and Au+Au collisions to place constraints on the amount of J/ψ arising from recombination of deconfined charm and anti-charm pairs. Furthermore, the nuclear modification factors for ground and excited ϒ states as a function of transverse momentum and centrality are presented, and compared to those measured at the LHC as well as to theoretical calculations

Reeconstructing Sigma0 decays in STAR

Typical comparisons of data from nuclear collisions to particle production models require a caveat for (anti)Lambda yields from experimental inability to separate the contributions of those yields from Sigma state decays. Recent analysis in STAR is leading toward resolving the contribution from excited Sigma states, but the bulk contribution comes from electromagnetic decays of the (anti)Sigma0. In the STAR detector, photon conversions into e+e- pairs in the detector material have been used to identify photons from pi0 decays. A similar technique has been used here to identify photons from (anti)Sigma0 decays in conjunction with STAR's excellent PID capabilities for finding the associated (anti)Lambda daughters. We report here on progress toward measuring the (anti)Sigma0 yields in various nuclear collisions at RHIC.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, proceedings of Hot Quarks 2004 workshop, submitted to J. Phys.

Azimuthal anisotropy in Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV

The results from the STAR Collaboration on directed flow (v_1), elliptic flow (v_2), and the fourth harmonic (v_4) in the anisotropic azimuthal distribution of particles from Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV are summarized and compared with results from other experiments and theoretical models. Results for identified particles are presented and fit with a Blast Wave model. Different anisotropic flow analysis methods are compared and nonflow effects are extracted from the data. For v_2, scaling with the number of constituent quarks and parton coalescence is discussed. For v_4, scaling with v_2^2 and quark coalescence is discussed.Comment: 26 pages. As accepted by Phys. Rev. C. Text rearranged, figures modified, but data the same. However, in Fig. 35 the hydro calculations are corrected in this version. The data tables are available at http://www.star.bnl.gov/central/publications/ by searching for "flow" and then this pape

Measurements of ϕ\phi meson production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC

We present results for the measurement of $\phi$ meson production via its charged kaon decay channel $\phi \to K^+K^-$ in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=62.4$, 130, and 200 GeV, and in $p+p$ and $d$+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV from the STAR experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The midrapidity ($|y|<0.5$) $\phi$ meson transverse momentum ($p_{T}$) spectra in central Au+Au collisions are found to be well described by a single exponential distribution. On the other hand, the $p_{T}$ spectra from $p+p$, $d$+Au and peripheral Au+Au collisions show power-law tails at intermediate and high $p_{T}$ and are described better by Levy distributions. The constant $\phi/K^-$ yield ratio vs beam species, collision centrality and colliding energy is in contradiction with expectations from models having kaon coalescence as the dominant mechanism for $\phi$ production at RHIC. The $\Omega/\phi$ yield ratio as a function of $p_{T}$ is consistent with a model based on the recombination of thermal $s$ quarks up to $p_{T}\sim 4$ GeV/$c$, but disagrees at higher transverse momenta. The measured nuclear modification factor, $R_{dAu}$, for the $\phi$ meson increases above unity at intermediate $p_{T}$, similar to that for pions and protons, while $R_{AA}$ is suppressed due to the energy loss effect in central Au+Au collisions. Number of constituent quark scaling of both $R_{cp}$ and $v_{2}$ for the $\phi$ meson with respect to other hadrons in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=200 GeV at intermediate $p_{T}$ is observed. These observations support quark coalescence as being the dominant mechanism of hadronization in the intermediate $p_{T}$ region at RHIC.Comment: 22 pages, 21 figures, 4 table

Strangelet Search in AuAu Collisions at 200 GeV

We have searched for strangelets in a triggered sample of 61 million central (top 4%) Au+Au collisions at \sNN = 200 GeV near beam rapidities at the STAR detector. We have sensitivity to metastable strangelets with lifetimes of order $\geq 0.1 ns$, in contrast to limits over ten times longer in AGS studies and longer still at the SPS. Upper limits of a few 10^{-6} to 10^{-7} per central Au+Au collision are set for strangelets with mass ${}^{>}_{\sim}30$ GeV/c^{2}.Comment: As publishe