144 research outputs found
Transverse momentum and centrality dependence of dihadron correlations in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV: Jet-quenching and the response of partonic matter
Azimuthal angle \Delta\phi correlations are presented for charged hadrons
from dijets for 0.4 < p_T < 10 GeV/c in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200
GeV. With increasing p_T, the away-side distribution evolves from a broad to a
concave shape, then to a convex shape. Comparisons to p+p data suggest that the
away-side can be divided into a partially suppressed "head" region centered at
Delta\phi ~ \pi, and an enhanced "shoulder" region centered at Delta\phi ~ \pi
+/- 1.1. The p_T spectrum for the "head" region softens toward central
collisions, consistent with the onset of jet quenching. The spectral slope for
the "shoulder" region is independent of centrality and trigger p_T, which
offers constraints on energy transport mechanisms and suggests that the
"shoulder" region contains the medium response to energetic jets.Comment: 420 authors from 58 institutions, 6 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to
Physical Review Letters. 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
Measurement of high-p_T Single Electrons from Heavy-Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
The momentum distribution of electrons from decays of heavy flavor (charm and
beauty) for midrapidity |y| < 0.35 in p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV has
been measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC) over the transverse momentum range 0.3 < p_T < 9 GeV/c. Two independent
methods have been used to determine the heavy flavor yields, and the results
are in good agreement with each other. A fixed-order-plus-next-to-leading-log
pQCD calculation agrees with the data within the theoretical and experimental
uncertainties, with the data/theory ratio of 1.72 +/- 0.02^stat +/- 0.19^sys
for 0.3 < p_T < 9 GeV/c. The total charm production cross section at this
energy has also been deduced to be sigma_(c c^bar) = 567 +/- 57^stat +/-
224^sys micro barns.Comment: 375 authors from 57 institutions, 6 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to
Physical Review Letters. 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
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
Medium modification of jet fragmentation in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV measured in direct photon-hadron correlations
The jet fragmentation function is measured with direct photon-hadron
correlations in p+p and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The p_T of the
photon is an excellent approximation to the initial p_T of the jet and the
ratio z_T=p_T^h/p_T^\gamma is used as a proxy for the jet fragmentation
function. A statistical subtraction is used to extract the direct photon-hadron
yields in Au+Au collisions while a photon isolation cut is applied in p+p. I_
AA, the ratio of jet fragment yield in Au+Au to that in p+p, indicates
modification of the jet fragmentation function. Suppression, most likely due to
energy loss in the medium, is seen at high z_T. The fragment yield at low z_T
is enhanced at large angles. Such a trend is expected from redistribution of
the lost energy into increased production of low-momentum particles.Comment: 562 authors, 70 insitutions, 8 pages, and 3 figures. Submitted to
Phys. Rev. Lett. v2 has minor changes to improve clarity. 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
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
Cold Nuclear Matter Effects on J/Psi as Constrained by Deuteron-Gold Measurements at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
We present a new analysis of J/psi production yields in deuteron-gold
collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV using data taken by the PHENIX experiment in
2003 and previously published in [S.S. Adler et al., Phys. Rev. Lett 96, 012304
(2006)]. The high statistics proton-proton J/psi data taken in 2005 is used to
improve the baseline measurement and thus construct updated cold nuclear matter
modification factors R_dAu. A suppression of J/psi in cold nuclear matter is
observed as one goes forward in rapidity (in the deuteron-going direction),
corresponding to a region more sensitive to initial state low-x gluons in the
gold nucleus. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to
theoretical calculations of nuclear shadowing to which a J/psi (or precursor)
break-up cross-section is added. Breakup cross sections of sigma_breakup =
2.8^[+1.7_-1.4] (2.2^[+1.6_-1.5]) mb are obtained by fitting these calculations
to the data using two different models of nuclear shadowing. These breakup
cross section values are consistent within large uncertainties with the 4.2 +/-
0.5 mb determined at lower collision energies. Projecting this range of cold
nuclear matter effects to copper-copper and gold-gold collisions reveals that
the current constraints are not sufficient to firmly quantify the additional
hot nuclear matter effect.Comment: 453 authors from 59 institutions, 15 pages, 13 figures, 5 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
Measurements of elliptic and triangular flow in high-multiplicity HeAu collisions at GeV
We present the first measurement of elliptic () and triangular ()
flow in high-multiplicity HeAu collisions at
GeV. Two-particle correlations, where the particles have a large separation in
pseudorapidity, are compared in HeAu and in collisions and
indicate that collective effects dominate the second and third Fourier
components for the correlations observed in the HeAu system. The
collective behavior is quantified in terms of elliptic and triangular
anisotropy coefficients measured with respect to their corresponding
event planes. The values are comparable to those previously measured in
Au collisions at the same nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy.
Comparison with various theoretical predictions are made, including to models
where the hot spots created by the impact of the three He nucleons on the
Au nucleus expand hydrodynamically to generate the triangular flow. The
agreement of these models with data may indicate the formation of low-viscosity
quark-gluon plasma even in these small collision systems.Comment: 630 authors, 9 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. v2 is the version accepted
for publication by Physical Review Letters. 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
Transverse energy production and charged-particle multiplicity at midrapidity in various systems from to 200 GeV
Measurements of midrapidity charged particle multiplicity distributions,
, and midrapidity transverse-energy distributions,
, are presented for a variety of collision systems and energies.
Included are distributions for AuAu collisions at ,
130, 62.4, 39, 27, 19.6, 14.5, and 7.7 GeV, CuCu collisions at
and 62.4 GeV, CuAu collisions at
GeV, UU collisions at GeV,
Au collisions at GeV, HeAu collisions at
GeV, and collisions at
GeV. Centrality-dependent distributions at midrapidity are presented in terms
of the number of nucleon participants, , and the number of
constituent quark participants, . For all collisions
down to GeV, it is observed that the midrapidity data
are better described by scaling with than scaling with . Also presented are estimates of the Bjorken energy density,
, and the ratio of to ,
the latter of which is seen to be constant as a function of centrality for all
systems.Comment: 706 authors, 32 pages, 20 figures, 34 tables, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010,
2011, and 2012 data. v2 is version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
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