153 research outputs found
Evidence for a Soft Nuclear Equation-of-State from Kaon Production in Heavy Ion Collisions
The production of pions and kaons has been measured in Au+Au collisions at
beam energies from 0.6 to 1.5 AGeV with the Kaon Spectrometer at SIS/GSI. The
K+ meson multiplicity per nucleon is enhanced in Au+Au collisions by factors up
to 6 relative to C+C reactions whereas the corresponding pion ratio is reduced.
The ratio of the K+ meson excitation functions for Au+Au and C+C collisions
increases with decreasing beam energy. This behavior is expected for a soft
nuclear equation-of-state.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Enhanced Out-of-plane Emission of K+ Mesons observed in Au+Au Collisions at 1 AGeV
The azimuthal angular distribution of K+ mesons has been measured in Au + Au
collisions at 1 AGeV. In peripheral and semi-central collisions, K+ mesons
preferentially are emitted perpendicular to the reaction plane. The strength of
the azimuthal anisotropy of K+ emission is comparable to the one of pions. No
in-plane flow was found for K+ mesons near projectile and target rapidity.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.Let
Production of Charged Pions, Kaons and Antikaons in Relativistic C+C and C+Au Collisions
Production cross sections of charged pions, kaons and antikaons have been
measured in C+C and C+Au collisions at beam energies of 1.0 and 1.8 AGeV for
different polar emission angles. The kaon and antikaon energy spectra can be
described by Boltzmann distributions whereas the pion spectra exhibit an
additional enhancement at low energies. The pion multiplicity per participating
nucleon M(pi+)/A_part is a factor of about 3 smaller in C+Au than in C+C
collisions at 1.0 AGeV whereas it differs only little for the C and the Au
target at a beam energy of 1.8 AGeV. The K+ multiplicities per participating
nucleon M(K+)/A_part are independent of the target size at 1 AGeV and at 1.8
AGeV. The K- multiplicity per participating nucleon M(K-)/A_part is reduced by
a factor of about 2 in C+Au as compared to C+C collisions at 1.8 AGeV. This
effect might be caused by the absorption of antikaons in the heavy target
nucleus. Transport model calculations underestimate the K-/K+ ratio for C+C
collisions at 1.8 AGeV by a factor of about 4 if in-medium modifications of K
mesons are neglected.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.
The HADES Tracking System
The tracking system of the dielectron spectrometer HADES at GSI Darmstadt is
formed out of 24 low-mass, trapezoidal multi-layer drift chambers providing in
total about 30 square meter of active area. Low multiple scattering in the in
total four planes of drift chambers before and after the magnetic field is
ensured by using helium-based gas mixtures and aluminum cathode and field
wires. First in-beam performance results are contrasted with expectations from
simulations. Emphasis is placed on the energy loss information, exploring its
relevance regarding track recognition.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, presented at the 10th Vienna Conference on
Instrumentation, Vienna, February 2004, to be published in NIM A (special
issue
Relativistic Transport Approach for Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions from SIS to SPS Energies
We formulate a covariant transport approach for high energy nucleus-nucleus
collisions where the real part of the nucleon selfenergies is fitted to nuclear
matter properties which are evaluated on the basis of a NJL-type Lagrangian for
the quark degrees of freedom. The parameters of the quark-model Lagrangian are
fixed by the Gell-Mann, Oakes and Renner relation, the pion- nucleon
-term, the nucleon energy as well as the nuclear binding energy at
saturation density . We find the resulting scalar and vector
selfenergies for nucleons to be well in line with either Dirac-Brueckner
computations for or those from the phenomenological
optical potential when accounting for a swelling of the nucleon at finite
nuclear matter density. The meson-baryon interaction density is modelled to
describe a decrease of the meson mass with baryon density. The imaginary part
of the hadron selfenergies is determined by a string fragmentation model which
accounts for the in-medium mass of hadrons in line with the 'chiral' dynamics
employed. The applicability of the transport approach is demonstrated in
comparison with experimental data from SIS to SPS energies. The enhancement of
the K ratio in A + A collisions compared to p + A reactions at AGS
energies is reproduced within the 'chiral' dynamics. Furthermore, detailed
predictions for the stopping in Pb + Pb collisions at 153 GeV/A are presented.Comment: 1 compressed uuencoded postscript file with 23 figures included, 45
page
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Pion production and the nuclear equation of state
There has been considerable recent interest in the nuclear equation of state and how it may be determined in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. In these collisions extremely high temperatures are reached and compression to densities several times that of normal nuclear matter are predicted. This affords us the unique opportunity to study, in a somewhat controlled manner, the behavior of nuclear matter under these extreme conditions. If the observables that are measured in experiments can be related in a quantitative way to state variables of the system then the equation of state can be extracted. This relation plays a very important role in understanding the formation and collapse of supernovae and the stability and structure of neutron stars. Furthermore, it can be used to test and constrain field theoretical approaches to nuclear matter and to help to better understand the dynamics of high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. In this presentation the relationship between the nuclear equation of state and relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions will be discussed with an emphasis on how to extract the former. That a high density state of the collision should exist will be shown. One observable, namely the pion multiplicity, will be shown to survive the succeeding stages of the collision process to provide information on the equation of state at high densities. The resulting equation of state will be presented and discussed in the light of recent theoretical development. 34 refs., 12 figs
Inclusive pion and eta production in p+Nb collisions at 3.5 GeV beam energy
Data on inclusive pion and eta production measured with the dielectron
spectrometer HADES in the reaction p+93Nb at a kinetic beam energy of 3.5 GeV
are presented. Our results, obtained with the photon conversion method,
supplement the rather sparse information on neutral meson production in
proton-nucleus reactions existing for this bombarding energy regime. The
reconstructed e+e-e+e- transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions are
confronted with transport model calculations, which account fairly well for
both pi0 and eta production.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Physical Review
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