Relativistic Expansion of Electron-Positron-Photon Plasma Droplets and Photon Emission

The expansion dynamics of hot electron-positron-photon plasma droplets is dealt with within relativistic hydrodynamics. Such droplets, envisaged to be created in future experiments by irradiating thin foils with counter-propagating ultra-intense laser beams, are sources of flashes of gamma radiation. Warm electron-positron plasma droplets may be identified and characterized by a broadened 511 keV line

Parton energy loss limits and shadowing in Drell-Yan dimuon production

A precise measurement of the ratios of the Drell-Yan cross section per nucleon for an 800 GeV/c proton beam incident on Be, Fe and W targets is reported. The behavior of the Drell-Yan ratios at small target parton momentum fraction is well described by an existing fit to the shadowing observed in deep-inelastic scattering. The cross section ratios as a function of the incident parton momentum fraction set tight limits on the energy loss of quarks passing through a cold nucleus

Measurement of Angular Distributions of Drell-Yan Dimuons in p+pp + p Interactions at 800 GeV/c

We report a measurement of the angular distributions of Drell-Yan dimuons produced using an 800 GeV/c proton beam on a hydrogen target. The polar and azimuthal angular distribution parameters have been extracted over the kinematic range $4.5 < m_{\mu \mu} < 15$ GeV/c$^2$ (excluding the $\Upsilon$ resonance region), $0 < p_T < 4$ GeV/c, and $0 < x_F < 0.8$. The $p+p$ angular distributions are similar to those of $p+d$, and both data sets are compared with models which attribute the $\cos 2 \phi$ distribution either to the presence of the transverse-momentum-dependent Boer-Mulders structure function $h_1^\perp$ or to QCD effects. The data indicate the presence of both mechanisms. The validity of the Lam-Tung relation in $p+p$ Drell-Yan is also tested.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Measurement of Angular Distributions of Drell-Yan Dimuons in p + d Interaction at 800 GeV/c

We report a measurement of the angular distributions of Drell-Yan dimuons produced using an 800 GeV/c proton beam on a deuterium target. The muon angular distributions in polar angle $\theta$ and azimuthal angle $\phi$ have been measured over the kinematic range $4.5 < m_{\mu \mu} < 15$ GeV/c$^2$, $0 < p_T < 4$ GeV/c, and $0 < x_F < 0.8$. No significant cos$2\phi$ dependence is found in these proton-induced Drell-Yan data, in contrast to the situation for pion-induced Drell-Yan. The data are compared with expectations from models which attribute the cos$2\phi$ distribution to a QCD vacuum effect or to the presence of the transverse-momentum-dependent Boer-Mulders structure function $h_1^\perp$. Constraints on the magnitude of the sea-quark $h_1^\perp$ structure functions are obtained.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Interferometry of Direct Photons in Central 280Pb+208Pb Collisions at 158A GeV

Two-particle correlations of direct photons were measured in central 208Pb+208Pb collisions at 158 AGeV. The invariant interferometric radii were extracted for 100<K_T<300 MeV/c and compared to radii extracted from charged pion correlations. The yield of soft direct photons, K_T<300 MeV/c, was extracted from the correlation strength and compared to theoretical calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Measurement of the Light Antiquark Flavor Asymmetry in the Nucleon Sea

A precise measurement of the ratio of Drell-Yan yields from an 800 GeV/c proton beam incident on hydrogen and deuterium targets is reported. Over 140,000 Drell-Yan muon pairs with dimuon mass M_{mu+ mu-} >= 4.5 GeV/c^2 were recorded. From these data, the ratio of anti-down (dbar) to anti-up (ubar) quark distributions in the proton sea is determined over a wide range in Bjorken-x. A strong x dependence is observed in the ratio dbar/ubar, showing substantial enhancement of dbar with respect to ubar for x<0.2. This result is in fair agreement with recent parton distribution parameterizations of the sea. For x>0.2, the observed dbar/ubar ratio is much nearer unity than given by the parameterizations.Comment: REVTeX, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let