159 research outputs found
Identified Hadron Spectra From pp, dA and AA collisions
The experimental data for identified hadron spectra from pp,d+A and AA
collisions are reviewed. Three regions with different dominant production
mechanisms are considered: soft region (pt <2 GeV/c) - with large degree of
collectivity and thermalization, hard particle production which exhibits
jet-quenching in Au+Au collisions at RHIC and intermediate region (2 < pt <5
GeV/c) with distinct baryon dynamics. Cronin effect, nuclear modification
factors and jet-like correlations are studied with the goal of understanding
the baryon dynamics at RHIC.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, Plenary talk at Quark Matter 2004, Oakland, Jan
11-1
An Experimental Exploration of the QCD Phase Diagram: The Search for the Critical Point and the Onset of De-confinement
The QCD phase diagram lies at the heart of what the RHIC Physics Program is
all about. While RHIC has been operating very successfully at or close to its
maximum energy for almost a decade, it has become clear that this collider can
also be operated at lower energies down to 5 GeV without extensive upgrades. An
exploration of the full region of beam energies available at the RHIC facility
is imperative. The STAR detector, due to its large uniform acceptance and
excellent particle identification capabilities, is uniquely positioned to carry
out this program in depth and detail. The first exploratory beam energy scan
(BES) run at RHIC took place in 2010 (Run 10), since several STAR upgrades,
most importantly a full barrel Time of Flight detector, are now completed which
add new capabilities important for the interesting physics at BES energies. In
this document we discuss current proposed measurements, with estimations of the
accuracy of the measurements given an assumed event count at each beam energy.Comment: 59 pages, 78 figure
Azimuthal anisotropy in Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV
The results from the STAR Collaboration on directed flow (v_1), elliptic flow
(v_2), and the fourth harmonic (v_4) in the anisotropic azimuthal distribution
of particles from Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV are summarized and
compared with results from other experiments and theoretical models. Results
for identified particles are presented and fit with a Blast Wave model.
Different anisotropic flow analysis methods are compared and nonflow effects
are extracted from the data. For v_2, scaling with the number of constituent
quarks and parton coalescence is discussed. For v_4, scaling with v_2^2 and
quark coalescence is discussed.Comment: 26 pages. As accepted by Phys. Rev. C. Text rearranged, figures
modified, but data the same. However, in Fig. 35 the hydro calculations are
corrected in this version. The data tables are available at
http://www.star.bnl.gov/central/publications/ by searching for "flow" and
then this pape
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
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.
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
Identified high- spectra in Cu+Cu collisions at =200 GeV
We report new results on identified (anti)proton and charged pion spectra at
large transverse momenta (3<<10 GeV/c) from Cu+Cu collisions at
=200 GeV using the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion
Collider (RHIC). This study explores the system size dependence of two novel
features observed at RHIC with heavy ions: the hadron suppression at
high- and the anomalous baryon to meson enhancement at intermediate
transverse momenta. Both phenomena could be attributed to the creation of a new
form of QCD matter. The results presented here bridge the system size gap
between the available pp and Au+Au data, and allow the detailed exploration for
the on-set of the novel features. Comparative analysis of all available 200 GeV
data indicates that the system size is a major factor determining both the
magnitude of the hadron spectra suppression at large transverse momenta and the
relative baryon to meson enhancement.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. C, 9 pages, 5 figure
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-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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