122 research outputs found
Hard X-ray stereographic microscopy for single-shot differential phase imaging
The characterisation of fast phenomena at the microscopic scale is required for the understanding of catastrophic responses of materials to loads and shocks, the processing of materials by optical or mechanical means, the processes involved in many key technologies such as additive manufacturing and microfluidics, and the mixing of fuels in combustion. Such processes are usually stochastic in nature and occur within the opaque interior volumes of materials or samples, with complex dynamics that evolve in all three dimensions at speeds exceeding many meters per second. There is therefore a need for the ability to record three-dimensional X-ray movies of irreversible processes with resolutions of micrometers and frame rates of microseconds. Here we demonstrate a method to achieve this by recording a stereo phase-contrast image pair in a single exposure. The two images are combined computationally to reconstruct a 3D model of the object. The method is extendable to more than two simultaneous views. When combined with megahertz pulse trains of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) it will be possible to create movies able to resolve 3D trajectories with velocities of kilometers per second
Inclusive cross section and double helicity asymmetry for pi^0 production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 62.4 GeV
The PHENIX experiment presents results from the RHIC 2006 run with polarized
proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 62.4 GeV for inclusive pi^0 production at
mid-rapidity. Unpolarized cross section results are measured for transverse
momenta p_T = 0.5 to 7 GeV/c. Next-to-leading order perturbative quantum
chromodynamics calculations are compared with the data, and while the
calculations are consistent with the measurements, next-to-leading logarithmic
corrections improve the agreement. Double helicity asymmetries A_LL are
presented for p_T = 1 to 4 GeV/c and probe the higher range of Bjorken_x of the
gluon (x_g) with better statistical precision than our previous measurements at
sqrt(s)=200 GeV. These measurements are sensitive to the gluon polarization in
the proton for 0.06 < x_g < 0.4.Comment: 387 authors from 63 institutions, 10 pages, 6 figures, 1 table.
Submitted to Physical Review D. Plain text data tables for the points plotted
in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be)
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Inclusive cross section and single-transverse-spin asymmetry for very forward neutron production in polarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV
The energy dependence of the single-transverse-spin asymmetry, A_N, and the
cross section for neutron production at very forward angles were measured in
the PHENIX experiment at RHIC for polarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV.
The neutrons were observed in forward detectors covering an angular range of up
to 2.2 mrad. We report results for neutrons with momentum fraction of x_F=0.45
to 1.0. The energy dependence of the measured cross sections were consistent
with x_F scaling, compared to measurements by an ISR experiment which measured
neutron production in unpolarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=30.6--62.7 GeV. The
cross sections for large x_F neutron production for p+p collisions, as well as
those in e+p collisions measured at HERA, are described by a pion exchange
mechanism. The observed forward neutron asymmetries were large, reaching
A_N=-0.08+/-0.02 for x_F=0.8; the measured backward asymmetries, for negative
x_F, were consistent with zero. The observed asymmetry for forward neutron
production is discussed within the pion exchange framework, with interference
between the spin-flip amplitude due to the pion exchange and nonflip amplitudes
from all Reggeon exchanges. Within the pion exchange description, the measured
neutron asymmetry is sensitive to the contribution of other Reggeon exchanges
even for small amplitudes.Comment: 383 authors, 16 pages, 18 figures, 6 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
D. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and
previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Cross sections and double-helicity asymmetries of midrapidity inclusive charged hadrons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=62.4 GeV
Unpolarized cross sections and double-helicity asymmetries of
single-inclusive positive and negative charged hadrons at midrapidity from p+p
collisions at sqrt(s)=62.4 GeV are presented. The PHENIX measurements for 1.0 <
p_T < 4.5 GeV/c are consistent with perturbative QCD calculations at
next-to-leading order in the strong coupling constant, alpha_s. Resummed pQCD
calculations including terms with next-to-leading-log accuracy, yielding
reduced theoretical uncertainties, also agree with the data. The
double-helicity asymmetry, sensitive at leading order to the gluon polarization
in a momentum-fraction range of 0.05 ~< x_gluon ~< 0.2, is consistent with
recent global parameterizations disfavoring large gluon polarization.Comment: PHENIX Collaboration. 447 authors, 12 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables.
Submitted to Physical Review
Charged hadron multiplicity fluctuations in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions from sqrt(s_NN) = 22.5 to 200 GeV
A comprehensive survey of event-by-event fluctuations of charged hadron
multiplicity in relativistic heavy ions is presented. The survey covers Au+Au
collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 62.4 and 200 GeV, and Cu+Cu collisions sqrt(s_NN) =
22.5, 62.4, and 200 GeV. Fluctuations are measured as a function of collision
centrality, transverse momentum range, and charge sign. After correcting for
non-dynamical fluctuations due to fluctuations in the collision geometry within
a centrality bin, the remaining dynamical fluctuations expressed as the
variance normalized by the mean tend to decrease with increasing centrality.
The dynamical fluctuations are consistent with or below the expectation from a
superposition of participant nucleon-nucleon collisions based upon p+p data,
indicating that this dataset does not exhibit evidence of critical behavior in
terms of the compressibility of the system. An analysis of Negative Binomial
Distribution fits to the multiplicity distributions demonstrates that the heavy
ion data exhibit weak clustering properties.Comment: 464 authors from 60 institutions, 17 pages, 12 figures, 1 table.
Submitted to Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted
in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be)
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Quantitative Constraints on the Transport Properties of Hot Partonic Matter from Semi-Inclusive Single High Transverse Momentum Pion Suppression in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
The PHENIX experiment has measured the suppression of semi-inclusive single
high transverse momentum pi^0's in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV.
The present understanding of this suppression is in terms of energy-loss of the
parent (fragmenting) parton in a dense color-charge medium. We have performed a
quantitative comparison between various parton energy-loss models and our
experimental data. The statistical point-to-point uncorrelated as well as
correlated systematic uncertainties are taken into account in the comparison.
We detail this methodology and the resulting constraint on the model
parameters, such as the initial color-charge density dN^g/dy, the medium
transport coefficient , or the initial energy-loss parameter epsilon_0.
We find that high transverse momentum pi^0 suppression in Au+Au collisions has
sufficient precision to constrain these model dependent parameters at the +/1
20%-25% (one standard deviation) level. These constraints include only the
experimental uncertainties, and further studies are needed to compute the
corresponding theoretical uncertainties.Comment: 422 authors, 13 pages text, RevTeX-4, 9 figures, 2 tables. This
version is updated with changes made during the review process and is now the
same as what was published in Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for
the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Identified charged hadron production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 and 62.4 GeV
Transverse momentum distributions and yields for , ,
and in collisions at =200 and 62.4 GeV at midrapidity
are measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC). These data provide important baseline spectra for comparisons with
identified particle spectra in heavy ion collisions at RHIC. We present the
inverse slope parameter , mean transverse momentum and
yield per unit rapidity at each energy, and compare them to other
measurements at different in and collisions. We
also present the scaling properties such as scaling, scaling on the
spectra between different energies. To discuss the mechanism of the
particle production in collisions, the measured spectra are compared to
next-to-leading-order or next-to-leading-logarithmic perturbative quantum
chromodynamics calculations.Comment: 431 authors from 62 institutions, 32 pages, 23 figures, and 18
tables. Submitted to Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for the points
plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be)
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Cross section and double helicity asymmetry for eta mesons and their comparison to neutral pion production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV
Measurements of double-helicity asymmetries for inclusive hadron production
in polarized p+p collisions are sensitive to helicity--dependent parton
distribution functions, in particular to the gluon helicity distribution,
Delta(g). This study focuses on the extraction of the double-helicity asymmetry
in eta production: polarized p+p --> eta + X, the eta cross section, and the
eta/pi^0 cross section ratio. The cross section and ratio measurements provide
essential input for the extraction of fragmentation functions that are needed
to access the helicity-dependent parton distribution functions.Comment: 432 authors from 62 institutions, 13 pages, 5 figures, and 3 tables.
Submitted to Physical Review D. v2 has minor changes only to update
references and reposition figures and tables. All data points plotted in
Figs. 2, 4, and 5 are given in Tables I, II, and III, respectivel
Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has
measured electrons from heavy flavor (charm and bottom) decays for 0.3 < p_T <
9 GeV/c at midrapidity (|y| < 0.35) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200
GeV. The nuclear modification factor R_AA relative to p+p collisions shows a
strong suppression in central Au+Au collisions, indicating substantial energy
loss of heavy quarks in the medium produced at RHIC. A large azimuthal
anisotropy, v_2, with respect to the reaction plane is observed for 0.5 < p_T <
5 GeV/c indicating non-zero heavy flavor elliptic flow. Both R_AA and v_2 show
a p_T dependence different from those of neutral pions. A comparison to
transport models which simultaneously describe R_AA(p_T) and v_2(p_T) suggests
that the viscosity to entropy density ratio is close to the conjectured quantum
lower bound, i.e., near a perfect fluid.Comment: v2 replaced Fig. 3 to fix an error in using a wrong theory curve; v3
minor changes in review process, including last 2 sentences of abstract. 422
authors, 58 institutions, 6 pages text, 3 figures, REVTeX4. Submitted to
Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in
figures available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
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