191 research outputs found
Energy loss of pions and electrons of 1 to 6 GeV/c in drift chambers operated with Xe,CO2(15%)
We present measurements of the energy loss of pions and electrons in drift
chambers operated with a Xe,CO2(15%) mixture. The measurements are carried out
for particle momenta from 1 to 6 GeV/c using prototype drift chambers for the
ALICE TRD. Microscopic calculations are performed using input parameters
calculated with GEANT3. These calculations reproduce well the measured average
and most probable values for pions, but a higher Fermi plateau is required in
order to reproduce our electron data. The widths of the measured distributions
are smaller for data compared to the calculations. The electron/pion
identification performance using the energy loss is also presented.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Nucl.Instrum.Meth.
Space charge in drift chambers operated with the Xe,CO2(15%) mixture
Using prototype modules of the ALICE Transition Radiation Detector we
investigate space charge effects and the dependence of the pion rejection
performance on the incident angle of the ionizing particle. The average pulse
height distributions in the drift chambers operated with the Xe,CO2(15%)
mixture provide quantitative information on the gas gain reduction due to space
charge accumulating during the drift of the primary ionization. Our results
demonstrate that the pion rejection performance of a TRD is better for tracks
which are not at normal incidence to the anode wires. We present detailed
simulations of detector signals, which reproduce the measurements and lend
strong support to our interpretation of the measurements in terms of space
charge effects.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Nucl.Instrum.Meth.
A. Data files available at http://www-alice.gsi.de/tr
Position Reconstruction in Drift Chambers operated with Xe, CO2 (15%)
We present measurements of position and angular resolution of drift chambers
operated with a Xe,CO(15%) mixture. The results are compared to Monte Carlo
simulations and important systematic effects, in particular the dispersive
nature of the absorption of transition radiation and non-linearities, are
discussed. The measurements were carried out with prototype drift chambers of
the ALICE Transition Radiation Detector, but our findings can be generalized to
other drift chambers with similar geometry, where the electron drift is
perpendicular to the wire planes.Comment: 30 pages, 18 figure
Transition Radiation Spectroscopy with Prototypes of the ALICE TRD
We present measurements of the transition radiation (TR) spectrum produced in
an irregular radiator at different electron momenta. The data are compared to
simulations of TR from a regular radiator.Comment: 4 pages, 5 Figures, Proceedings for "TRDs for the 3rd millennium"
(Sept. 4-7, 2003, Bari, Italy
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
High-pT pi^zero Production with Respect to the Reaction Plane in Au + Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
Measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy of high-\pT neutral pion neutral
pion production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV by the PHENIX
experiment are presented. The data included in this paper were collected during
the 2004 RHIC running period and represent approximately an order of magnitude
increase in the number of analyzed events relative to previously published
results. Azimuthal angle distributions of pi^0s detected in the PHENIX
electromagnetic calorimeters are measured relative to the reaction plane
determined event-by-event using the forward and backward beam-beam counters.
Amplitudes of the second Fourier component (v_2) of the angular distributions
are presented as a function of pi^0 transverse momentum p_T for different bins
in collision centrality. Measured reaction plane dependent pi^0 yields are used
to determine the azimuthal dependence of the pi^0 suppression as a function of
p_T, R_AA (Delta phi,p_T). A jet-quenching motivated geometric analysis is
presented that attempts to simultaneously describe the centrality dependence
and reaction plane angle dependence of the pi^0 suppression in terms of the
path lengths of hypothetical parent partons in the medium. This set of results
allows for a detailed examination of the influence of geometry in the collision
region, and of the interplay between collective flow and jet-quenching effects
along the azimuthal axis.Comment: 344 authors, 35 pages text, RevTeX-4, 24 figures, 8 tables. Submitted
to Physical Review
Identified charged hadron production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 and 62.4 GeV
Transverse momentum distributions and yields for , ,
and in collisions at =200 and 62.4 GeV at midrapidity
are measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC). These data provide important baseline spectra for comparisons with
identified particle spectra in heavy ion collisions at RHIC. We present the
inverse slope parameter , mean transverse momentum and
yield per unit rapidity at each energy, and compare them to other
measurements at different in and collisions. We
also present the scaling properties such as scaling, scaling on the
spectra between different energies. To discuss the mechanism of the
particle production in collisions, the measured spectra are compared to
next-to-leading-order or next-to-leading-logarithmic perturbative quantum
chromodynamics calculations.Comment: 431 authors from 62 institutions, 32 pages, 23 figures, and 18
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
Transverse-energy distributions at midrapidity in , Au, and AuAu collisions at --200~GeV and implications for particle-production models
Measurements of the midrapidity transverse energy distribution, d\Et/d\eta,
are presented for , Au, and AuAu collisions at
GeV and additionally for AuAu collisions at
and 130 GeV. The d\Et/d\eta distributions are first
compared with the number of nucleon participants , number of
binary collisions , and number of constituent-quark participants
calculated from a Glauber model based on the nuclear geometry. For
AuAu, \mean{d\Et/d\eta}/N_{\rm part} increases with , while
\mean{d\Et/d\eta}/N_{qp} is approximately constant for all three energies.
This indicates that the two component ansatz, , which has been used to represent
distributions, is simply a proxy for , and that the term
does not represent a hard-scattering component in distributions. The
distributions of AuAu and Au are then calculated from
the measured distribution using two models that both reproduce
the AuAu data. However, while the number-of-constituent-quark-participant
model agrees well with the Au data, the additive-quark model does not.Comment: 391 authors, 24 pages, 19 figures, and 15 Tables. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. 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
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
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