199 research outputs found
Measurement of [phi] meson production in Cu+Cu collisions at 200 GeV using the PHOBOS detector at RHIC
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2012.In title on title-page "[phi]" appears as the lower-case Greek letter. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 245-271).Strong enhancement of production of strange particles, and in particular of [phi] mesons, in heavy ion collisions of sufficiently high energies has been predicted to be an indication of a formation of a new state of matter, composed of deconfined quarks and gluons and having a property of chiral symmetry, called Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Studying production of [phi] mesons is of special interest due to their small cross-section of interaction with non-strange hadrons and due to their long lifetime, which should allow [phi] mesons to decouple from the strongly interacting medium produced in heavy ion collisions early in time and to escape the medium before decaying, thereby preserving information about the conditions in which the mesons were produced. In addition, the decay properties of [phi] mesons have been predicted to be modified in a hadronic gas medium. The [phi] -> K+K~ decay is of particular interest since the mass of a [phi] meson in vacuum is very close to the mass of two charged kaons, and consequently, even a small change in the mass or the width of [phi] mesons or in the mass of kaons would have a strong effect on the decay properties. Measurement of [phi] meson production using the PHOBOS detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has proven to be especially challenging due to a small acceptance of the PHOBOS spectrometer and due to a much lower than predicted yield of [phi] mesons in heavy ion collisions at the highest RHIC energy. The measurement required a development of a new tracking algorithm, specifically tailored to reconstruct charged kaons with a high efficiency in a high hit density environment, keeping at the same time the necessary computing time within feasible limits. Results of a measurement of [phi] meson invariant yield in the rapidity interval 0 390 MeV/c), however, since a full analysis of the systematic errors was not performed for the measurement, the results cannot be considered conclusive. The V dependence of the yield of [phi] mesons at mid-rapidity was studied separately and with respect to the charged particle multiplicity, showing no indication of any special interval of js values which could be associated with such a transition (of a QCD matter into a new state) that would produce a noticeable sudden increase in the number of produced [phi] mesons. No evidence of any change in the mean or the width of the [phi] meson invariant mass peak with respect to the vacuum values was observed.by Siarhei Vaurynovich.Ph.D
The Importance of Correlations and Fluctuations on the Initial Source Eccentricity in High-Energy Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions
In this paper, we investigate various ways of defining the initial source
eccentricity using the Monte Carlo Glauber (MCG) approach. In particular, we
examine the participant eccentricity, which quantifies the eccentricity of the
initial source shape by the major axes of the ellipse formed by the interaction
points of the participating nucleons. We show that reasonable variation of the
density parameters in the Glauber calculation, as well as variations in how
matter production is modeled, do not significantly modify the already
established behavior of the participant eccentricity as a function of collision
centrality. Focusing on event-by-event fluctuations and correlations of the
distributions of participating nucleons we demonstrate that, depending on the
achieved event-plane resolution, fluctuations in the elliptic flow magnitude
lead to most measurements being sensitive to the root-mean-square, rather
than the mean of the distribution. Neglecting correlations among
participants, we derive analytical expressions for the participant eccentricity
cumulants as a function of the number of participating nucleons,
\Npart,keeping non-negligible contributions up to \ordof{1/\Npart^3}. We
find that the derived expressions yield the same results as obtained from
mixed-event MCG calculations which remove the correlations stemming from the
nuclear collision process. Most importantly, we conclude from the comparison
with MCG calculations that the fourth order participant eccentricity cumulant
does not approach the spatial anisotropy obtained assuming a smooth nuclear
matter distribution. In particular, for the Cu+Cu system, these quantities
deviate from each other by almost a factor of two over a wide range in
centrality.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, submitted to PR
System size and centrality dependence of charged hadron transverse momentum spectra in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt(s) = 62.4 and 200 GeV
We present transverse momentum distributions of charged hadrons produced in
Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt(s) = 62.4 and 200 GeV. The spectra are measured for
transverse momenta of 0.25 < p_T < 5.0 GeV/c at sqrt(s) = 62.4 GeV and 0.25 <
p_T < 7.0 GeV/c at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV, in a pseudo-rapidity range of 0.2 < eta <
1.4. The nuclear modification factor R_AA is calculated relative to p+p data at
both collision energies as a function of collision centrality. At a given
collision energy and fractional cross-section, R_AA is observed to be
systematically larger in Cu+Cu collisions compared to Au+Au. However, for the
same number of participating nucleons, R_AA is essentially the same in both
systems over the measured range of p_T, in spite of the significantly different
geometries of the Cu+Cu and Au+Au systems.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
System Size, Energy and Centrality Dependence of Pseudorapidity Distributions of Charged Particles in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
We present the first measurements of the pseudorapidity distribution of
primary charged particles in Cu+Cu collisions as a function of collision
centrality and energy, \sqrtsnn = 22.4, 62.4 and 200 GeV, over a wide range of
pseudorapidity, using the PHOBOS detector. Making a global comparison of Cu+Cu
and Au+Au results, we find that the total number of produced charged particles
and the rough shape (height and width) of the pseudorapidity distributions are
determined by the number of nucleon participants. More detailed studies reveal
that a more precise matching of the shape of the Cu+Cu and Au+Au pseudorapidity
distributions over the full range of pseudorapidity occurs for the same
Npart/2A value rather than the same Npart value. In other words, it is the
collision geometry rather than just the number of nucleon participants that
drives the detailed shape of the pseudorapidity distribution and its centrality
dependence at RHIC energies.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter
Identified charged antiparticle to particle ratios near midrapidity in Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt(s) = 62.4 and 200 GeV
Antiparticle to particle ratios for identified protons, kaons and pions at
sqrt(s) = 62.4 and 200 GeV in Cu+Cu collisions are presented as a function of
centrality for the midrapidity region of 0.2 < eta < 1.4. No strong dependence
on centrality is observed. For the / ratio at ~ 0.51 GeV/c, we
observe an average value of 0.50 +/- 0.003_(stat) +/- 0.04_(syst) and 0.77 +/-
0.008_(stat) +/- 0.05_(syst) for the 10% most central collisions of 62.4 and
200 GeV Cu+Cu, respectively. The values for all three particle species measured
at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV are in agreement within systematic uncertainties with that
seen in both heavier and lighter systems measured at the same RHIC energy. This
indicates that system size does not appear to play a strong role in determining
the midrapidity chemical freeze-out properties affecting the antiparticle to
particle ratios of the three most abundant particle species produced in these
collisions.Comment: 5 Pages, 4 figures Made changes to the figures to include the panel
numbers. Slight changes to the text. Updated data points from other
experiment
Latest Results from PHOBOS
This manuscript contains a summary of the latest physics results from PHOBOS,
as reported at Quark Matter 2006. Highlights include the first measurement from
PHOBOS of dynamical elliptic flow fluctuations as well as an explanation of
their possible origin, two-particle correlations, identified particle ratios,
identified particle spectra and the latest results in global charged particle
production.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, PHOBOS plenary proceedings for Quark Matter 200
System size, energy, centrality and pseudorapidity dependence of charged-particle density in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at RHIC
Charged particle pseudorapidity distributions are presented from the PHOBOS
experiment at RHIC, measured in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt{s_NN}=19.6,
22.4, 62.4, 130 and 200 GeV, as a function of collision centrality. The
presentation includes the recently analyzed Cu+Cu data at 22.4 GeV. The
measurements were made by the same detector setup over a broad range in
pseudorapidity, |eta|<5.4, allowing for a reliable systematic study of particle
production as a function of energy, centrality and system size. Comparing Cu+Cu
and Au+Au results, we find that the total number of produced charged particles
and the overall shape (height and width) of the pseudorapidity distributions
are determined by the number of nucleon participants, N_part. Detailed
comparisons reveal that the matching of the shape of the Cu+Cu and Au+Au
pseudorapidity distributions over the full range of eta is better for the same
N_part/2A value than for the same N_part value, where A denotes the mass
number. In other words, it is the geometry of the nuclear overlap zone, rather
than just the number of nucleon participants that drives the detailed shape of
the pseudorapidity distribution and its centrality dependence.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Presented at the 20th International Conference on
Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (Quark Matter 2008), Jaipur, Rajasthan, India,
4-10 February 200
Charged-Particle Pseudorapidity Distributions in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=62.4 GeV
The charged-particle pseudorapidity density for Au+Au collisions at
sqrt(s_NN)=62.4 GeV has been measured over a wide range of impact parameters
and compared to results obtained at other energies. As a function of collision
energy, the pseudorapidity distribution grows systematically both in height and
width. The mid-rapidity density is found to grow approximately logarithmically
between AGS energies and the top RHIC energy. As a function of centrality,
there is an approximate factorization of the centrality dependence of the
mid-rapidity yields and the overall multiplicity scale. The new results at
sqrt(s_NN)=62.4 GeV confirm the previously observed phenomenon of ``extended
longitudinal scaling'' in the pseudorapidity distributions when viewed in the
rest frame of one of the colliding nuclei. It is also found that the evolution
of the shape of the distribution with centrality is energy independent, when
viewed in this reference frame. As a function of centrality, the total charged
particle multiplicity scales linearly with the number of participant pairs as
it was observed at other energies.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. C - Rapid Communication
Cluster properties from two-particle angular correlations in p+p collisions at = 200 and 410 GeV
We present results on two-particle angular correlations in proton-proton
collisions at center of mass energies of 200 and 410 GeV. The PHOBOS experiment
at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has a uniquely large coverage for
charged particles, giving the opportunity to explore the correlations at both
short- and long-range scales. At both energies, a complex two-dimensional
correlation structure in and is observed. In the
context of an independent cluster model of short-range correlations, the
cluster size and its decay width are extracted from the two-particle
pseudorapidity correlation function and compared with previous measurements in
proton-proton and proton-antiproton collisions, as well as PYTHIA and HIJING
predictions.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
System Size, Energy, Pseudorapidity, and Centrality Dependence of Elliptic Flow
This paper presents measurements of the elliptic flow of charged particles as
a function of pseudorapidity and centrality from Cu-Cu collisions at 62.4 and
200 GeV using the PHOBOS detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC). The elliptic flow in Cu-Cu collisions is found to be significant even
for the most central events. For comparison with the Au-Au results, it is found
that the detailed way in which the collision geometry (eccentricity) is
estimated is of critical importance when scaling out system-size effects. A new
form of eccentricity, called the participant eccentricity, is introduced which
yields a scaled elliptic flow in the Cu-Cu system that has the same relative
magnitude and qualitative features as that in the Au-Au system
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