224 research outputs found
Global hyperon polarization at local thermodynamic equilibrium with vorticity, magnetic field and feed-down
The system created in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions is known to behave
as an almost ideal liquid. In non-central collisions, due to the large orbital
momentum, such a system might be the fluid with the highest vorticity ever
created under laboratory conditions. Particles emerging from such a highly
vorticous fluid are expected to be globally polarized with their spins on
average pointing along the system angular momentum. Vorticity-induced
polarization is the same for particles and antiparticles, but the intense
magnetic field generated in these collisions may lead to the splitting in
polarization. In this paper we outline the thermal approach to the calculation
of the global polarization phenomenon for particles with spin and we discuss
the details of the experimental study of this phenomenon, estimating the effect
of feed-down. A general formula is derived for the polarization transfer in
two-body decays and, particularly, for strong and electromagnetic decays. We
find that accounting for such effects is crucial when extracting vorticity and
magnetic field from the experimental data.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure. Final version published in PRC with one more
formula and slightly revised tex
Measurement of the mass difference and the binding energy of the hypertriton and antihypertriton
According to the CPT theorem, which states that the combined operation of
charge conjugation, parity transformation and time reversal must be conserved,
particles and their antiparticles should have the same mass and lifetime but
opposite charge and magnetic moment. Here, we test CPT symmetry in a nucleus
containing a strange quark, more specifically in the hypertriton. This
hypernucleus is the lightest one yet discovered and consists of a proton, a
neutron, and a hyperon. With data recorded by the STAR
detector{\cite{TPC,HFT,TOF}} at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, we measure
the hyperon binding energy for the hypertriton, and
find that it differs from the widely used value{\cite{B_1973}} and from
predictions{\cite{2019_weak, 1995_weak, 2002_weak, 2014_weak}}, where the
hypertriton is treated as a weakly bound system. Our results place stringent
constraints on the hyperon-nucleon interaction{\cite{Hammer2002,
STAR-antiH3L}}, and have implications for understanding neutron star interiors,
where strange matter may be present{\cite{Chatterjee2016}}. A precise
comparison of the masses of the hypertriton and the antihypertriton allows us
to test CPT symmetry in a nucleus with strangeness for the first time, and we
observe no deviation from the expected exact symmetry
Centrality and transverse momentum dependence of elliptic flow of multi-strange hadrons and meson in Au+Au collisions at = 200 GeV
We present high precision measurements of elliptic flow near midrapidity
() for multi-strange hadrons and meson as a function of
centrality and transverse momentum in Au+Au collisions at center of mass energy
200 GeV. We observe that the transverse momentum dependence of
and is similar to that of and , respectively,
which may indicate that the heavier strange quark flows as strongly as the
lighter up and down quarks. This observation constitutes a clear piece of
evidence for the development of partonic collectivity in heavy-ion collisions
at the top RHIC energy. Number of constituent quark scaling is found to hold
within statistical uncertainty for both 0-30 and 30-80 collision
centrality. There is an indication of the breakdown of previously observed mass
ordering between and proton at low transverse momentum in the
0-30 centrality range, possibly indicating late hadronic interactions
affecting the proton .Comment: 7 pages and 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
Observation of charge asymmetry dependence of pion elliptic flow and the possible chiral magnetic wave in heavy-ion collisions
We present measurements of and elliptic flow, , at
midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at 200, 62.4, 39, 27,
19.6, 11.5 and 7.7 GeV, as a function of event-by-event charge asymmetry,
, based on data from the STAR experiment at RHIC. We find that
() elliptic flow linearly increases (decreases) with charge asymmetry
for most centrality bins at and higher.
At , the slope of the difference of
between and as a function of exhibits a
centrality dependence, which is qualitatively similar to calculations that
incorporate a chiral magnetic wave effect. Similar centrality dependence is
also observed at lower energies.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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