124 research outputs found
Energy dependence of multiplicity fluctuations in heavy ion collisions
The energy dependence of multiplicity fluctuations was studied for the most central Pb+Pb collisions at 20A, 30A, 40A, 80A and 158A GeV by the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS. The multiplicity distribution for negatively and positively charged hadrons is significantly narrower than Poisson one for all energies. No significant structure in energy dependence of the scaled variance of multiplicity fluctuations is observed. The measured scaled variance is lower than the one predicted by the grand-canonical formulation of the hadron-resonance gas model. The results for scaled variance are in approximate agreement with the string-hadronic model UrQMD
Energy dependence of kaon-to-proton ratio fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions from = 6.3 to 17.3 GeV
Kaons and protons carry large parts of two conserved quantities, strangeness
and baryon number. It is argued that their correlation and thus also
fluctuations are sensitive to conditions prevailing at the anticipated
parton-hadron phase boundary. Fluctuations of the and
ratios have been measured for the first time by NA49 in central Pb+Pb
collisions at 5 SPS energies between = 6.3 GeV and 17.3 GeV.
Both ratios exhibit a change of sign in , a measure of
non-statistical fluctuations, around = 8 GeV. Below this
energy, is positive, indicating higher fluctuation
compared to a mixed event background sample, while for higher energies,
is negative, indicating correlated emission of kaons
and protons. The results are compared to UrQMD calculations which which give a
good description at the higher SPS energies, but fail to reproduce the
transition to positive values.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Search for the QCD critical point in nuclear collisions at the CERN SPS
Pion production in nuclear collisions at the SPS is investigated with the aim
to search, in a restricted domain of the phase diagram, for power-laws in the
behavior of correlations which are compatible with critical QCD. We have
analyzed interactions of nuclei of different size (p+p, C+C, Si+Si, Pb+Pb) at
158 GeV adopting, as appropriate observables, scaled factorial moments in a
search for intermittent fluctuations in transverse dimensions. The analysis is
performed for pairs with invariant mass very close to the two-pion
threshold. In this sector one may capture critical fluctuations of the sigma
component in a hadronic medium, even if the -meson has no well defined
vacuum state. It turns out that for the Pb+Pb system the proposed analysis
technique cannot be applied without entering the invariant mass region with
strong Coulomb correlations. As a result the treatment becomes inconclusive in
this case. Our results for the other systems indicate the presence of power-law
fluctuations in the freeze-out state of Si+Si approaching in size the
prediction of critical QCD.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure
NA49 results on hadron production: indications of the onset of deconfinement ?
The NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS measured the energy and system size
dependence of particle production in A+A collisions. A change of the energy
dependence of several hadron production properties at low SPS energies is
observed which suggests a scenario requiring the onset of deconfinement.Comment: XXXV International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics 200
Energy dependence of particle ratio fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions from ~6.3 to 17.3 GeV
We present measurements of the energy dependence of event-by-event
fluctuations in the K/pi and (p + \bar{p})/pi multiplicity ratios in heavy ion
collisions at the CERN SPS. The particle ratio fluctuations were obtained for
central Pb+Pb collisions at five collision energies, \sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}, between
6.3 and 17.3 GeV. After accounting for the effects of finite-number statistics
and detector resolution, we extract the strength of non-statistical
fluctuations at each energy. For the K/pi ratio, larger fluctuations than
expected for independent particle production are found at all collision
energies. The fluctuations in the (p + \bar{p})/pi ratio are smaller than
expectations from independent particle production, indicating correlated pion
and proton production from resonance decays. For both ratios, the deviation
from purely statistical fluctuations shows an increase towards lower collision
energies. The results are compared to transport model calculations, which fail
to describe the energy dependence of the K/pi ratio fluctuations.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, update to published versio
Upper Limit of D0 Production in Central Pb-Pb Collisions at 158A GeV
Results are presented from a search for the decays D0 -> Kmin piplus and
D0bar -> Kplus pimin in a sample of 3.8x10^6 central Pb-Pb events collected
with a beam energy of 158A GeV by NA49 at the CERN SPS. No signal is observed.
An upper limit on D0 production is derived and compared to predictions from
several models.Comment: REVTEX 5 pages, 4 figure
High p_T Spectra of Identified Particles Produced in Pb+Pb Collisions at 158GeV/nucleon Beam Energy
Transverse momentum spectra of pi^{+/-}, p, pbar, K^{+/-}, K^0_s and Lambda
at midrapidity were measured at high p_T in Pb+Pb collisions at 158GeV/nucleon
beam energy by the NA49 experiment. Particle yield ratios (p/pi, K/pi and
Lambda/K^0_s) show an enhancement of the baryon/meson ratio for p_T>2GeV/c. The
nuclear modification factor R_{CP} is extracted and compared to RHIC
measurements and pQCD calculations.Comment: Quark Matter 2005 parallel section proceeding
Proton -- Lambda Correlations in Central Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 17.3 GeV
The momentum correlation between protons and lambda particles emitted from
central Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 17.3 GeV was studied by the NA49
experiment at the CERN SPS. A clear enhancement is observed for small relative
momenta (q_{inv} < 0.2 GeV). By fitting a theoretical model, which uses the
strong interaction between the proton and the lambda in a given pair, to the
measured data a value for the effective source size is deduced. Assuming a
static Gaussian source distribution we derive an effective radius parameter of
R_G = 3.02 \pm 0.20$(stat.)^{+0.44}_{-0.16}(syst.) fm.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Centrality dependence of proton and antiproton spectra in Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV measured at the CERN SPS
The yields of (anti-)protons were measured by the NA49 Collaboration in
centrality selected Pb+Pb collisions at 40A GeV and 158A GeV. Particle
identification was obtained in the laboratory momentum range from 5 to 63 GeV/c
by the measurement of the energy loss dE/dx in the TPC detector gas. The
corresponding rapidity coverage extends 1.6 units from mid-rapidity into the
forward hemisphere. Transverse mass spectra, the rapidity dependences of the
average transverse mass, and rapidity density distributions were studied as a
function of collision centrality. The values of the average transverse mass as
well as the midrapidity yields of protons when normalized to the number of
wounded nucleons show only modest centrality dependences. In contrast, the
shape of the rapidity distribution changes significantly with collision
centrality, especially at 40A GeV. The experimental results are compared to
calculations of the HSD and UrQMD transport models.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PR
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