Evidence of Final-State Suppression of High-p_T Hadrons in Au + Au Collisions Using d + Au Measurements at RHIC

Transverse momentum spectra of charged hadrons with ${p_{T} <}$ 6 GeV/c have been measured near mid-rapidity (0.2 $< \eta <$ 1.4) by the PHOBOS experiment at RHIC in Au + Au and d + Au collisions at ${\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}} = \rm {200 GeV}}$. The spectra for different collision centralities are compared to ${p + \bar{p}}$ collisions at the same energy. The resulting nuclear modification factor for central Au + Au collisions shows evidence of strong suppression of charged hadrons in the high-$p_{T}$ region (${>2}$ GeV/c). In contrast, the d + Au nuclear modification factor exhibits no suppression of the high-$p_{T}$ yields. These measurements suggest a large energy loss of the high-$p_{T}$ particles in the highly interacting medium created in the central Au + Au collisions. The lack of suppression in d + Au collisions suggests that it is unlikely that initial state effects can explain the suppression in the central Au + Au collisions.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics EPS (July 17th-23rd 2003) in Aachen, German

Charmonium Production with QGP and Hadron Gas Effects at SPS and FAIR

The production of charmonium in heavy-ion collisions is investigated based on Boltzmann-type transport model for charmonium evolution and langevin equation for charm quark evolution. Charmonium suppression and regeneration in both quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and hadron phase are considered. Charm quarks are far from thermalization, and regeneration of charmonium in QGP and hadron gas is neglectable at SPS and FAIR. At peripheral collisions, charmonium suppression with hadron gas explains the experimental data well. But at central collisions, additional suppression from deconfined matter (QGP) is necessary for the data. This means there should be QGP produced at central collisions, and no QGP produced at peripheral collisions at SPS energy. Predictions are also made at FAIR $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=7.7$ GeV Au+Au collisions.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Infants' mu suppression during the observation of real and mimicked goal-directed actions

Since their discovery in the early 1990s, mirror neurons have been proposed to be related to many social-communicative abilities, such as imitation. However, research into the early manifestations of the putative neural mirroring system and its role in early social development is still inconclusive. In the current EEG study, mu suppression, generally thought to reflect activity in neural mirroring systems was investigated in 18- to 30-month-olds during the observation of object manipulations as well as mimicked actions. EEG power data recorded from frontal, central, and parietal electrodes were analysed. As predicted, based on previous research, mu wave suppression was found over central electrodes during action observation and execution. In addition, a similar suppression was found during the observation of intransitive, mimicked hand movements. To a lesser extent, the results also showed mu suppression at parietal electrode sites, over all three conditions. Mu wave suppression during the observation of hand movements and during the execution of actions was significantly correlated with quality of imitation, but not with age or language level

Jet-like Correlations with Direct-Photon and Neutral-Pion Triggers at sNN=200 GeV

Azimuthal correlations of charged hadrons with direct-photon (γdir) and neutral-pion (π0) trigger particles are analyzed in central Au+Au and minimum-bias p + p collisions at √sN N = 200 GeV in the STAR experiment. The charged-hadron per-trigger yields at mid-rapidity from central Au+Au collisions are compared with p + p collisions to quantify the suppression in Au+Au collisions. The suppression of the away-side associated-particle yields per γdir trigger is independent of the transverse momentum of the trigger particle (ptrig T ), whereas the suppression is smaller at low transverse momentum of the associated charged hadrons (passoc T ). Within uncertainty, similar levels of suppression are observed for γdir and π0 triggers as a function of zT (≡ passoc T /ptrig T ). The results are compared with energy-lossinspired theoretical model predictions. Our studies support previous conclusions that the lost energy reappears predominantly at low transverse momentum, regardless of the trigger energy

J/Psi suppression in central Pb-Pb collisions

We discuss the recent NA50 J/Psi production data in Pb--Pb collisions, in particular the second drop at high transverse energies which correspond to the most central collisions. Using a model which relates the J/Psi suppression to the local energy density, we show that the data can be explained by taking into account transverse energy fluctuations at a given impact parameter. Predictions of this model for RHIC are briefly discussed.Comment: to appear in the Proceedings of Quark Matter'200

Anisotropic J/ΨJ/\Psi suppression in nuclear collisions

The nuclear overlap zone in non-central relativistic heavy ion collisions is azimuthally very asymmetric. By varying the angle between the axes of deformation and the transverse direction of the pair momenta, the suppression of $J/\Psi$ and $\Psi'$ will oscillate in a characteristic way. Whereas the average suppression is mostly sensitive to the early and high density stages of the collision, the amplitude is more sensitive to the late stages. This effect provides additional information on the $J/\Psi$ suppression mechanisms such as direct absorption on participating nucleons, comover absorption or formation of a quark-gluon plasma. The behavior of the average $J/\Psi$ suppression and its amplitude with centrality of the collisions is discussed for SPS, RHIC and LHC energies with and without a phase transition.Comment: Revised and extended version, new figure

A Quantitative Analysis of Charmonium Suppression in Nuclear Collisions

Data from J/psi and psi' production in p-A collisions are used to determine the cross section for absorption of pre-resonance charmonium in nuclear matter. The J/psi suppression in O-Cu, O-U and S-U collisions is fully reproduced by the corresponding nuclear absorption, while Pb-Pb collisions show an additional suppression increasing with centrality. We study the onset of this change in terms of hadronic comover interactions and conclude that so far no conventional hadronic description can consistently account for all data. Deconfinement, starting at a critical point determined by central S-U collisions, is in accord with the observed suppression pattern.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures, uses epsfig style, LaTe

Transverse momentum and collision energy dependence of high pTp_{T} hadron suppression in Au+Au collisions at ultrarelativistic energies

We report high statistics measurements of inclusive charged hadron production in Au+Au and p+p collisions at \sqrtsNN=200 GeV. A large, approximately constant hadron suppression is observed in central Au+Au collisions for 5\lt\pT\lt12 GeV/c. The collision energy dependence of the yields and the centrality and \pT dependence of the suppression provide stringent constraints on theoretical models of suppression. Models incorporating initial-state gluon saturation or partonic energy loss in dense matter are largely consistent with observations. We observe no evidence of \pT-dependent suppression, which may be expected from models incorporating jet attentuation in cold nuclear matter or scattering of fragmentation hadrons.Comment: Final journal version. Data tables for figures may be downloaded from the STAR home page: http://www.star.bnl.gov --> Publications --> Access to STAR published dat