Event-by-event study of DCC-like fluctuation in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions

A method based on sliding window scheme is developed to search for patches in the pseudorapidity-azimuth plane, on an event-by-event basis, having unusual fluctuation in the neutral pion fraction which may arise due to the formation of Disoriented Chrial Condensates (DCC) in high energy nuclear collisions. The efficiency of the method to extract the patches and the purity of the extracted sample are studied for possible experimental situations.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Effect of Finite Granularity of Detectors on Anisotropy Coefficients

The coefficients that describe the anisotropy in the azimuthal distribution of particles are lower when the particles are recorded in a detector with finite granularity and measures only hits. This arises due to loss of information because of multiple hits in any channel. The magnitude of this loss of signal depends both on the occupancy and on the value of the coefficient. These correction factors are obtained for analysis methods differing in detail, and are found to be different.Comment: 11 pages including 2 figure

Evolution of Fluctuation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We have studied the time evolution of the fluctuations in the net baryon number for different initial conditions and space time evolution scenarios. We observe that the fluctuations at the freeze-out depend crucially on the equation of state (EOS) of the system and for realistic EOS the initial fluctuation is substantially dissipated at the freeze-out stage. At SPS energies the fluctuations in net baryon number at the freeze-out stage for quark gluon plasma and hadronic initial state is close to the Poissonian noise for ideal as well as for EOS obtained by including heavier hadronic degrees of freedom. For EOS obtained from the parametrization of lattice QCD results the fluctuation is larger than Poissonian noise. It is also observed that at RHIC energies the fluctuations at the freeze-out point deviates from the Poissonian noise for ideal as well as realistic equation of state, indicating presence of dynamical fluctuations.Comment: 9 pages and 6 figures (Major modifications done

A Honeycomb Proportional Counter for Photon Multiplicity Measurement in the ALICE Experiment

A honeycomb detector consisting of a matrix of 96 closely packed hexagonal cells, each working as a proportional counter with a wire readout, was fabricated and tested at the CERN PS. The cell depth and the radial dimensions of the cell were small, in the range of 5-10 mm. The appropriate cell design was arrived at using GARFIELD simulations. Two geometries are described illustrating the effect of field shaping. The charged particle detection efficiency and the preshower characteristics have been studied using pion and electron beams. Average charged particle detection efficiency was found to be 98%, which is almost uniform within the cell volume and also within the array. The preshower data show that the transverse size of the shower is in close agreement with the results of simulations for a range of energies and converter thicknesses.Comment: To be published in NIM

Measurements of Heavy Flavor and Di-electron Production at STAR

Heavy quarks are produced early in the relativistic heavy ion collisions, and provide an excellent probe into the hot and dense nuclear matter created at RHIC. In these proceedings, we will discuss recent STAR measurements of heavy flavor production, to investigate the heavy quark interaction with the medium. Electromagnetic probes, such as electrons, provide information on the various stages of the medium evolution without modification by final stage interactions. Di-electron production measurements by STAR will also be discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, proceedings for CPOD201

Beam-Energy-Dependent Two-Pion Interferometry and the Freeze-Out Eccentricity of Pions Measured in Heavy Ion Collisions at the Star Detector

We present results of analyses of two-pion interferometry in Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV measured in the STAR detector as part of the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Beam Energy Scan program. The extracted correlation lengths (Hanbury-Brown-Twiss radii) are studied as a function of beam energy, azimuthal angle relative to the reaction plane, centrality, and transverse mass (m(T)) of the particles. The azimuthal analysis allows extraction of the eccentricity of the entire fireball at kinetic freeze-out. The energy dependence of this observable is expected to be sensitive to changes in the equation of state. A new global fit method is studied as an alternate method to directly measure the parameters in the azimuthal analysis. The eccentricity shows a monotonic decrease with beam energy that is qualitatively consistent with the trend from all model predictions and quantitatively consistent with a hadronic transport model

The STAR Photon Multiplicity Detector

Details concerning the design, fabrication and performance of STAR Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD) are presented. The PMD will cover the forward region, within the pseudorapidity range 2.3--3.5, behind the forward time projection chamber. It will measure the spatial distribution of photons in order to study collective flow, fluctuation and chiral symmetry restoration.Comment: 15 pages, including 11 figures; to appear in a special NIM volume dedicated to the accelerator and detectors at RHI

New results from fluctuation analysis in NA49 at the CERN SPS

The exploration of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter, particularly the study of the phase transition from hadronic to partonic matter and the search for a hypothetical critical endpoint of the first order transition line, is one of the most challenging tasks in present heavy ion physics. In this talk new results on chemical (particle ratio), transverse momentum, multiplicity and azimuthal angle fluctuations will be presented. We also discuss their connection to the onset of deconfinement and to the critical endpoint.Comment: The Proceedings of the International Conference "Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement - CPOD 2011", Wuhan, November 7-11, 201

Search and study of Quark Gluon Plasma at the CERN-LHC

The major aim of nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC is to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark gluon plasma (QGP), formed in extreme conditions of temperature and energy density. We give a brief overview of the experimental program and discuss the signatures and observables for a detailed study of QGP matter.Comment: 15 pages, Invited article for the volume on LHC physics to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the Indian National Science Academy, Edited by Amitava Datta, Biswarup Mukhopadhyaya and Amitava Raychaudhuri (Jan 2009

Photon interferometry and size of the hot zone in relativistic heavy ion collisions

The parameters obtained from the theoretical analysis of the single photon spectra observed by the WA98 collaboration at SPS energies have been used to evaluate the two photon correlation functions. The single photon spectra and the two photon correlations at RHIC energies have also been evaluated, taking into account the effects of the possible spectral change of hadrons in a thermal bath. We find that the ratio $R_{side}/R_{out} \sim 1$ for SPS and $R_{side}/R_{out} <1$ for RHIC energy.Comment: text changed, figures adde