Inclusive e+^+e−^- production in collisions of pions with protons and nuclei in the second resonance region of baryons

Inclusive e$^+$e$^-$ production has been studied with HADES in $\pi^-$ + p, $\pi^-$ + C and $\pi^- + \mathrm{CH}_2$ reactions, using the GSI pion beam at $\sqrt{s_{\pi p}}$ = 1.49 GeV. Invariant mass and transverse momentum distributions have been measured and reveal contributions from Dalitz decays of $\pi^0$, $\eta$ mesons and baryon resonances. The transverse momentum distributions are very sensitive to the underlying kinematics of the various processes. The baryon contribution exhibits a deviation up to a factor seven from the QED reference expected for the dielectron decay of a hypothetical point-like baryon with the production cross section constrained from the inverse $\gamma$ n$\rightarrow \pi^-$ p reaction. The enhancement is attributed to a strong four-momentum squared dependence of the time-like electromagnetic transition form factors as suggested by Vector Meson Dominance (VMD). Two versions of the VMD, that differ in the photon-baryon coupling, have been applied in simulations and compared to data. VMD1 (or two-component VMD) assumes a coupling via the $\rho$ meson and a direct coupling of the photon, while in VMD2 (or strict VMD) the coupling is only mediated via the $\rho$ meson. The VMD2 model, frequently used in transport calculations for dilepton decays, is found to overestimate the measured dielectron yields, while a good description of the data can be obtained with the VMD1 model assuming no phase difference between the two amplitudes. Similar descriptions have also been obtained using a time-like baryon transition form factor model where the pion cloud plays the major role.Comment: (HADES collaboration

Measurement of global polarization of {\Lambda} hyperons in few-GeV heavy-ion collisions

The global polarization of {\Lambda} hyperons along the total orbital angular momentum of a relativistic heavy-ion collision is presented based on the high statistics data samples collected in Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.4 GeV and Ag+Ag at 2.55 GeV with the High-Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at GSI, Darmstadt. This is the first measurement below the strangeness production threshold in nucleon-nucleon collisions. Results are reported as a function of the collision centrality as well as a function of the hyperon transverse momentum (p_T) and rapidity (y_{CM}) for the range of centrality 0--40%. We observe a strong centrality dependence of the polarization with an increasing signal towards peripheral collisions. For mid-central (20--40%) collisions the polarization magnitudes are (%) = 6.0 \pm 1.3 (stat.) \pm 2.0 (syst.) for Au+Au and (%) = 4.6 \pm 0.4 (stat.) \pm 0.5 (syst.) for Ag+Ag, which are the largest values observed so far. This observation thus provides a continuation of the increasing trend previously observed by STAR and contrasts expectations from recent theoretical calculations predicting a maximum in the region of collision energies about 3 GeV. The observed polarization is of a similar magnitude as predicted by 3D fluid dynamics and the UrQMD plus thermal vorticity model and significantly above results from the AMPT model.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Impact of the Coulomb field on charged-pion spectra in few-GeV heavy-ion collisions

In nuclear collisions the incident protons generate a Coulomb field which acts on produced charged particles. The impact of these interactions on charged-pion transverse-mass and rapidity spectra, as well as on pion–pion momentum correlations is investigated in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{^{S}NN}$ = 2.4 GeV. We show that the low-m$_{t}$ region (m$_{t}$ < 0.2 GeV / c$^{2}$) can be well described with a Coulomb-modified Boltzmann distribution that also takes changes of the Coulomb field during the expansion of the fireball into account. The observed centrality dependence of the fitted mean Coulomb potential energy deviates strongly from a $A_{part}^{2/3}$ scaling, indicating that, next to the fireball, the non-interacting charged spectators have to be taken into account. For the most central collisions, the Coulomb modifications of the HBT source radii are found to be consistent with the potential extracted from the single-pion transverse-mass distributions. This finding suggests that the region of homogeneity obtained from two-pion correlations coincides with the region in which the pions freeze-out. Using the inferred mean-square radius of the charge distribution at freeze-out, we have deduced a baryon density, in fair agreement with values obtained from statistical hadronization model fits to the particle yields

The HADES-at-FAIR project

After the completion of the experimental program at SIS18 the HADES setup will migrate to FAIR, where it will deliver high-quality data for heavy-ion collisions in an unexplored energy range of up to 8 A GeV. In this contribution, we briefly present the physics case, relevant detector characteristics and discuss the recently completed upgrade of HADES. © 2012 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. 75 5 589 593 Cited By :

Production of hydrogen isotopes and charged pions in p (3.5 GeV) + Nb reactions

International audienceThe double differential production cross sections, $d^2\sigma/d\Omega dE$, for hydrogen isotopes and charged pions in the reaction of p + Nb at 3.5 GeV proton beam energy have been measured by the High Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer (HADES). Thanks to the high acceptance of HADES at forward emission angles and usage of its magnetic field, the measured energy range of hydrogen isotopes could be significantly extended in comparison to the relatively scarce experimental data available in the literature. The data provide information about the development of the intranuclear cascade in the proton-nucleus collisions. They can as well be utilized to study the rate of energy/momentum dissipation in the nuclear systems and the mechanism of elementary and composite particle production in excited nuclear matter at normal density. Data of this type are important also for technological and medical applications. Our results are compared to models developed to describe the processes relevant to nuclear spallation (INCL++) or oriented to probe either the elementary hadronic processes in nuclear matter or the behavior of compressed nuclear matter (GiBUU)

Proton, deuteron and triton flow measurements in Au+Au collisions at sNN=2.4\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.4 GeV

High precision measurements of flow coefficients $v_{n}$ ($n = 1 - 4$) for protons, deuterons and tritons relative to the first-order spectator plane have been performed in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.4$ GeV with the High-Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at the SIS18/GSI. Flow coefficients are studied as a function of transverse momentum $p_{t}$ and rapidity $y_{cm}$ over a large region of phase space and for several classes of collision centrality. A clear mass hierarchy is found for the slope of $v_{1}$, $d v_{1}/d y^{\prime}|_{y^{\prime} = 0}$ where $y^{\prime}$ is the scaled rapidity, and for $v_{2}$ at mid-rapidity. Scaling with the number of nucleons is observed for the $p_{t}$ dependence of $v_{2}$ and $v_{4}$ at mid-rapidity, which is indicative for nuclear coalescence as the main process responsible for light nuclei formation. $v_{2}$ is found to scale with the initial eccentricity $\langle \epsilon_{2} \rangle$, while $v_{4}$ scales with $\langle \epsilon_{2} \rangle^{2}$ and $\langle \epsilon_{4} \rangle$. The multi-differential high-precision data on $v_{1}$, $v_{2}$, $v_{3}$, and $v_{4}$ provides important constraints on the equation-of-state of compressed baryonic matter

Proton, deuteron and triton flow measurements in Au+Au collisions at sNN=2.4\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.4 GeV

High precision measurements of flow coefficients $v_{n}$ ($n = 1 - 4$) for protons, deuterons and tritons relative to the first-order spectator plane have been performed in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.4$ GeV with the High-Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at the SIS18/GSI. Flow coefficients are studied as a function of transverse momentum $p_{t}$ and rapidity $y_{cm}$ over a large region of phase space and for several classes of collision centrality. A clear mass hierarchy is found for the slope of $v_{1}$, $d v_{1}/d y^{\prime}|_{y^{\prime} = 0}$ where $y^{\prime}$ is the scaled rapidity, and for $v_{2}$ at mid-rapidity. Scaling with the number of nucleons is observed for the $p_{t}$ dependence of $v_{2}$ and $v_{4}$ at mid-rapidity, which is indicative for nuclear coalescence as the main process responsible for light nuclei formation. $v_{2}$ is found to scale with the initial eccentricity $\langle \epsilon_{2} \rangle$, while $v_{4}$ scales with $\langle \epsilon_{2} \rangle^{2}$ and $\langle \epsilon_{4} \rangle$. The multi-differential high-precision data on $v_{1}$, $v_{2}$, $v_{3}$, and $v_{4}$ provides important constraints on the equation-of-state of compressed baryonic matter