43 research outputs found
Test of Chemical freeze-out at RHIC
We present the results of a systematic test applying statistical thermal
model fits in a consistent way for different particle ratios, and different
system sizes using the various particle yields measured in the STAR experiment.
Comparison between central and peripheral Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions with data
from p+p collisions provides an interesting tool to verify the dependence with
the system size. We also present a study of the rapidity dependence of the
thermal fit parameters using available data from RHIC in the forward rapidity
regions and also using different parameterization for the rapidity distribution
of different particles.Comment: SQM2008 conference proceeding
Measurements of and Production in + Collisions at = 200 GeV
We report measurements of charmed-hadron (, ) production cross
sections at mid-rapidity in + collisions at a center-of-mass energy of
200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the
hadronic decays , and their charge conjugates,
covering the range of 0.62.0 GeV/ and 2.06.0 GeV/ for
and , respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross
section at mid-rapidity is = 170 45
(stat.) (sys.) b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is
compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential
cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order
Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. Revised version submitted to Phys. Rev.
Observation of the antimatter helium-4 nucleus
High-energy nuclear collisions create an energy density similar to that of
the universe microseconds after the Big Bang, and in both cases, matter and
antimatter are formed with comparable abundance. However, the relatively
short-lived expansion in nuclear collisions allows antimatter to decouple
quickly from matter, and avoid annihilation. Thus, a high energy accelerator of
heavy nuclei is an efficient means of producing and studying antimatter. The
antimatter helium-4 nucleus (), also known as the anti-{\alpha}
(), consists of two antiprotons and two antineutrons (baryon
number B=-4). It has not been observed previously, although the {\alpha}
particle was identified a century ago by Rutherford and is present in cosmic
radiation at the 10% level. Antimatter nuclei with B < -1 have been observed
only as rare products of interactions at particle accelerators, where the rate
of antinucleus production in high-energy collisions decreases by about 1000
with each additional antinucleon. We present the observation of the antimatter
helium-4 nucleus, the heaviest observed antinucleus. In total 18
counts were detected at the STAR experiment at RHIC in 10 recorded Au+Au
collisions at center-of-mass energies of 200 GeV and 62 GeV per nucleon-nucleon
pair. The yield is consistent with expectations from thermodynamic and
coalescent nucleosynthesis models, which has implications beyond nuclear
physics.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Nature. Under media embarg
Observation of charge-dependent azimuthal correlations and possible local strong parity violation in heavy ion collisions
Parity-odd domains, corresponding to non-trivial topological solutions of the
QCD vacuum, might be created during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These
domains are predicted to lead to charge separation of quarks along the orbital
momentum of the system created in non-central collisions. To study this effect,
we investigate a three particle mixed harmonics azimuthal correlator which is a
\P-even observable, but directly sensitive to the charge separation effect. We
report measurements of this observable using the STAR detector in Au+Au and
Cu+Cu collisions at =200 and 62~GeV. The results are presented
as a function of collision centrality, particle separation in rapidity, and
particle transverse momentum. A signal consistent with several of the
theoretical expectations is detected in all four data sets. We compare our
results to the predictions of existing event generators, and discuss in detail
possible contributions from other effects that are not related to parity
violation.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, as accepted for publication in Physical Review
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Charged and strange hadron elliptic flow in Cu+Cu collisions at = 62.4 and 200 GeV
We present the results of an elliptic flow analysis of Cu+Cu collisions
recorded with the STAR detector at 62.4 and 200GeV. Elliptic flow as a function
of transverse momentum is reported for different collision centralities for
charged hadrons and strangeness containing hadrons , ,
, in the midrapidity region . Significant reduction in
systematic uncertainty of the measurement due to non-flow effects has been
achieved by correlating particles at midrapidity, , with those at
forward rapidity, . We also present azimuthal correlations in
p+p collisions at 200 GeV to help estimating non-flow effects. To study the
system-size dependence of elliptic flow, we present a detailed comparison with
previously published results from Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV. We observe that
() of strange hadrons has similar scaling properties as were
first observed in Au+Au collisions, i.e.: (i) at low transverse momenta,
, scales with transverse kinetic energy, , and
(ii) at intermediate , , it scales with the number of
constituent quarks, . We have found that ideal hydrodynamic calculations
fail to reproduce the centrality dependence of () for
and . Eccentricity scaled values, , are larger
in more central collisions, suggesting stronger collective flow develops in
more central collisions. The comparison with Au+Au collisions which go further
in density shows depend on the system size, number of
participants . This indicates that the ideal hydrodynamic limit is
not reached in Cu+Cu collisions, presumably because the assumption of
thermalization is not attained.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figure