173 research outputs found
Recent results from Pb-Au collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon obtained with the CERES spectrometer
During the 1996 lead run time, CERES has accumulated 42 million events,
corresponding to a factor of 5 more statistics than in 1995 and 2.5 million
events of a special photon-run. We report on the results of the low-mass
ee-pair analysis. Since the most critical item is the poor
signal-to-background ratio we also discuss the understanding of this
background, in absolute terms, with the help of a detailed Monte Carlo
simulation. We show preliminary results of the photon analysis and summarize
the results of the hadron analysis preliminarily reported on already at QM'97Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, Proceedings of the XIV Int. Conf. on
Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions,Quark Matter 99, Torino, Italy, May 10 - 15, 199
What does the rho-meson do? In-medium mass shift scenarios versus hadronic model calculations
The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pair production in In-In
collisions at with unprecedented precision. With these results
there is hope that the in-medium modifications of the vector meson spectral
function can be constrained more thoroughly than before. We investigate in
particular what can be learned about collisional broadening by a hot and dense
medium and what constrains the experimental results put on in-medium mass shift
scenarios. The data show a clear indication of considerable in-medium
broadening effects but disfavor mass shift scenarios where the -meson
mass scales with the square root of the chiral condensate. Scaling scenarios
which predict at finite density a dropping of the -meson mass that is
stronger than that of the quark condensate are clearly ruled out since they are
also accompanied by a sharpening of the spectral function.Comment: Proceeding contribution, Talk given by J. Ruppert at Workshop for
Young Scientists on the Physics of Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus
Collisions (Hot Quarks 2006), Villasimius, Sardinia, Italy, 15-20 May 2006.
To appear in EPJ
Thermal rho and sigma mesons from chiral symmetry and unitarity
We study the temperature evolution of the rho and sigma mass and width, using
a unitary chiral approach. The one-loop pion-pion scattering amplitude in
Chiral Perturbation Theory at finite temperature is unitarized via the Inverse
Amplitude Method. Our results predict a clear increase with T of both the rho
and sigma widths. The masses decrease slightly for high T, while the
rho-pion-pion coupling increases. The rho behavior seems to be favored by
experimental results. In the sigma case, it signals chiral symmetry
restoration.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, revtex. References and brief comments added.
Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Low-mass e+e- pair production in 158 A GeV Pb-Au collisions at the CERN SPS, its dependence on multiplicity and transverse momentum
We report a measurement of low-mass electron pairs observed in 158
GeV/nucleon Pb-Au collisions. The pair yield integrated over the range of
invariant masses 0.2 < m < 2.0 GeV is enhanced by a factor of 3.5 +/- 0.4
(stat) +/- 0.9 (syst) over the expectation from neutral meson decays. As
observed previously in S-Au collisions, the enhancement is most pronounced in
the invariant-mass region 300-700 MeV. For Pb-Au we find evidence for a strong
increase of the enhancement with centrality. In addition, we show that the
enhancement covers a wide range in transverse momentum, but is largest at the
lowest observed pt.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys.Lett.
Semi-Hard Scattering Unraveled from Collective Dynamics by Two-Pion Azimuthal Correlations in 158 A GeV/c Pb + Au Collisions
Elliptic flow and two-particle azimuthal correlations of charged hadrons and
high- pions ( 1 GeV/) have been measured close to mid-rapidity in
158A GeV/ Pb+Au collisions by the CERES experiment. Elliptic flow ()
rises linearly with to a value of about 10% at 2 GeV/. Beyond
1.5 GeV/, the slope decreases considerably, possibly indicating
a saturation of at high . Two-pion azimuthal anisotropies for
1.2 GeV/ exceed the elliptic flow values by about 60% in mid-central
collisions. These non-flow contributions are attributed to near-side and
back-to-back jet-like correlations, the latter exhibiting centrality dependent
broadening.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters, 4 pages, 5 figure
Properties of and Mesons at Finite Temperature and Density as Inferred from Experiment
The mass shift, width broadening, and spectral density for the and
mesons in a heat bath of nucleons and pions are calculated using a
general formula which relates the self-energy to the real and imaginary parts
of the forward scattering amplitude. We use experimental data to saturate the
scattering amplitude at low energies with resonances and include a background
Pomeron term, while at high energies a Regge parameterization is used. The real
part obtained directly is compared with the result of a dispersion integral
over the imaginary part. The peaks of the spectral densities are little shifted
from their vacuum positions, but the widths are considerably increased due to
collisional broadening. Where possible we compare with the UrQMD model and find
quite good agreement. At normal nuclear matter density and a temperature of 150
MeV the spectral density of the meson has a width of 345 MeV, while that
for the is in the range 90--150 MeV.Comment: 21 pages revtex + 9 postscript figure
Is the analysis of flow at the CERN SPS reliable?
Several heavy ion experiments at SPS have measured azimuthal distributions of
particles with respect to the reaction plane. These distributions are deduced
from two-particle azimuthal correlations under the assumption that they result
solely from correlations with the reaction plane. In this paper, we investigate
other sources of azimuthal correlations: transverse momentum conservation,
which produces back-to-back correlations, resonance decays, HBT correlations
and final state interactions. These correlations increase with impact
parameter: most of them vary with the multiplicity N like 1/N. When they are
taken into account, the experimental results of the NA49 collaboration at SPS
are significantly modified. These correlations might also explain an important
fraction of the pion directed flow observed by WA98. Data should be reanalyzed
taking into account carefully these non--flow correlations.Comment: Revised version (minor corrections), 13 pages, LaTeX, 6 Postscript
figures included. Submitted to Physical Review
e+e--pair production in Pb-Au collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon
We present the combined results on electron-pair production in 158 GeV/n
{Pb-Au} (= 17.2 GeV) collisions taken at the CERN SPS in 1995 and
1996, and give a detailed account of the data analysis. The enhancement over
the reference of neutral meson decays amounts to a factor of 2.31 for semi-central collisions (28%
) when yields are integrated over 200 MeV/ in
invariant mass. The measured yield, its stronger-than-linear scaling with
, and the dominance of low pair strongly suggest an
interpretation as {\it thermal radiation} from pion annihilation in the
hadronic fireball. The shape of the excess centring at 500
MeV/, however, cannot be described without strong medium modifications of
the meson. The results are put into perspective by comparison to
predictions from Brown-Rho scaling governed by chiral symmetry restoration, and
from the spectral-function many-body treatment in which the approach to the
phase boundary is less explicit.Comment: 39 pages, 40 figures, to appear in Eur.Phys.J.C. (2005
Chiral unitary theory: application to nuclear problems
In this talk we briefly describe some basic elements of chiral perturbation
theory, , and how the implementation of unitarity and other novel
elements lead to a better expansion of the matrix for meson meson and meson
baryon interactions. Applications are then done to the interaction
in nuclear matter in the scalar and vector channels, antikaons in nuclei and
atoms, and how the meson properties are changed in a nuclear
medium.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, Invited talk in the International Symposium on
Nuclear Physics, Bombay, december 200
Flow and non-flow event anisotropies at the SPS
A study of differential elliptic event anisotropies (v_2) of charged
particles and high-pt pions in 158 AGeV/c Pb+Au collisions is presented.
Results from correlations with respect to the event plane and from two-particle
azimuthal correlations are compared. The latter give systematically higher v_2
values at pt>1.2GeV/c providing possibly an evidence of a non-flow semihard
component.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, to appear in Nucl.
Phys.
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