Beam-Energy Dependence of the Directed Flow of Protons, Antiprotons, and Pions in Au+Au Collisions

Rapidity-odd directed flow (v1) measurements for charged pions, protons, and antiprotons near midrapidity (y=0) are reported in √sNN=7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV Au+Au collisions as recorded by the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. At intermediate impact parameters, the proton and net-proton slope parameter dv1/dy|y=0 shows a minimum between 11.5 and 19.6 GeV. In addition, the net-proton dv1/dy|y=0 changes sign twice between 7.7 and 39 GeV. The proton and net-proton results qualitatively resemble predictions of a hydrodynamic model with a first-order phase transition from hadronic matter to deconfined matter, and differ from hadronic transport calculations

J/ψ production at low pT in Au + Au and Cu + Cu collisions at √SNN = 200 GeV with the STAR detector

The J/ψ pT spectrum and nuclear modification factor (RAA) are reported for pT<5GeV/c and |y|<1 from 0% to 60% central Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at √sNN=200GeV at STAR. A significant suppression of pT-integrated J/ψ production is observed in central Au+Au events. The Cu+Cu data are consistent with no suppression, although the precision is limited by the available statistics. RAA in Au+Au collisions exhibits a strong suppression at low transverse momentum and gradually increases with pT. The data are compared to high-pT STAR results and previously published BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider results. Comparing with model calculations, it is found that the invariant yields at low pT are significantly above hydrodynamic flow predictions but are consistent with models that include color screening and regeneration

Jet-Hadron Correlations in √sNN=200 GeV p+p and Central Au+Au Collisions

Azimuthal angular correlations of charged hadrons with respect to the axis of a reconstructed (trigger) jet in Au+Au and p+p collisions at √sNN=200  GeV in STAR are presented. The trigger jet population in Au+Au collisions is biased toward jets that have not interacted with the medium, allowing easier matching of jet energies between Au+Au and p+p collisions while enhancing medium effects on the recoil jet. The associated hadron yield of the recoil jet is significantly suppressed at high transverse momentum (pTassoc) and enhanced at low pTassoc in 0%–20% central Au+Au collisions compared to p+p collisions, which is indicative of medium-induced parton energy loss in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

Measurement of charge multiplicity asymmetry correlations in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions at √sNN=200 GeV

A study is reported of the same- and opposite-sign charge-dependent azimuthal correlations with respect to the event plane in Au + Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV. The charge multiplicity asymmetries between the up/down and left/right hemispheres relative to the event plane are utilized. The contributions from statistical fluctuations and detector effects were subtracted from the (co-)variance of the observed charge multiplicity asymmetries. In the mid- to most-central collisions, the same- (opposite-) sign pairs are preferentially emitted in back-to-back (aligned on the same-side) directions. The charge separation across the event plane, measured by the difference, Δ, between the like- and unlike-sign up/down-left/right correlations, is largest near the event plane

Perspectives of QCD phase diagram studies at high densities with the Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

The future heavy-ion experiment CBM at FAIR will operate at unprecedented interaction rates in the region of the high net baryon densities. This will provide a unique opportunity to study extremely rare probes thus increasing the sensitivity to the processes taking place in the created QCD matter. The ambitious goals of the experiment will require novel solutions in hardware, reconstruction algorithms, and their software implementation, which are currently being developed: free streaming readout electronics without hardware trigger and full event reconstruction already at the selection stage. The feasibility studies show a great potential of CBM to explore the QCD phase diagram

Beam energy dependence of moments of the net-charge multiplicity distributions in Au+Au collisions at RHIC

We report the first measurements of the moments—mean (M), variance (σ2), skewness (S), and kurtosis (κ)—of the net-charge multiplicity distributions at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at seven energies, ranging from sNN−−−√=7.7 to 200 GeV, as a part of the Beam Energy Scan program at RHIC. The moments are related to the thermodynamic susceptibilities of net charge, and are sensitive to the location of the QCD critical point. We compare the products of the moments, σ2/M, Sσ, and κσ2, with the expectations from Poisson and negative binomial distributions (NBDs). The Sσ values deviate from the Poisson baseline and are close to the NBD baseline, while the κσ2 values tend to lie between the two. Within the present uncertainties, our data do not show nonmonotonic behavior as a function of collision energy. These measurements provide a valuable tool to extract the freeze-out parameters in heavy-ion collisions by comparing with theoretical models

Measurement of Longitudinal Spin Asymmetries for Weak Boson Production in Polarized Proton-Proton Collisions at RHIC

We report measurements of single- and double-spin asymmetries for W± and Z/γ∗ boson production in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at √s=510  GeV by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The asymmetries for W± were measured as a function of the decay lepton pseudorapidity, which provides a theoretically clean probe of the proton’s polarized quark distributions at the scale of the W mass. The results are compared to theoretical predictions, constrained by polarized deep inelastic scattering measurements, and show a preference for a sizable, positive up antiquark polarization in the range 0.05<x<0.2