D. Bucher

Elliptic flow of identified hadrons in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV

The anisotropy parameter (v(2)), the second harmonic of the azimuthal particle distribution, has been measured with the PHENIX detector in Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=200 GeV for identified and inclusive charged particle production at central rapidities (|eta|<0.35) with respect to the reaction plane defined at high rapidities (|eta|=3-4 ). We observe that the v(2) of mesons falls below that of (anti)baryons for p(T)>2 GeV/c, in marked contrast to the predictions of a hydrodynamical model. A quark-coalescence model is also investigated.

Scaling properties of azimuthal anisotropy in Au plus Au and Cu plus Cu collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV

Differential measurements of elliptic flow (v2) for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt[sNN]=200 GeV are used to test and validate predictions from perfect fluid hydrodynamics for scaling of v2 with eccentricity, system size, and transverse kinetic energy (KE T). For KE T identical with mT-m up to approximately 1 GeV the scaling is compatible with hydrodynamic expansion of a thermalized fluid. For large values of KE T mesons and baryons scale separately. Quark number scaling reveals a universal scaling of v2 for both mesons and baryons over the full KE T range for Au+Au. For Au+Au and Cu+Cu the scaling is more pronounced in terms of KE T, rather than transverse momentum.

Photon-hadron jet correlations in p+p and Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV

We report the observation at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider of suppression of back-to-back correlations in the direct photon+jet channel in Au+Au relative to p+p collisions. Two-particle correlations of direct photon triggers with associated hadrons are obtained by statistical subtraction of the decay photon-hadron (gamma-h) background. The initial momentum of the away-side parton is tightly constrained, because the parton-photon pair exactly balance in momentum at leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics, making such correlations a powerful probe of the in-medium parton energy loss. The away-side nuclear suppression factor, I-AA, in central Au+Au collisions, is 0.32 +/- 0.12(stat)+/- 0.09(syst) for hadrons of 3 < p(T)(h)< 5 in coincidence with photons of 5 < p(T)(gamma)< 15 GeV/c. The suppression is comparable to that observed for high-p(T) single hadrons and dihadrons. The direct photon associated yields in p+p collisions scale approximately with the momentum balance, z(T)equivalent to p(T)(h)/p(T)(gamma), as expected for a measurement of the away-side parton fragmentation function. We compare to Au+Au collisions for which the momentum balance dependence of the nuclear modification should be sensitive to the path-length dependence of parton energy loss.

J/psi production from proton-proton collisions at root s=200 GeV

J/ψ production has been measured in proton-proton collisions at s = 200 GeV over a wide rapidity and transverse momentum range by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Distributions of the rapidityand transverse momentum, along with measurements of the mean transverse momentum and total production cross section are presented and compared to available theoretical calculations. The total J/ψ cross section is 4.0 ′ 0.6(stat) ′ 0.6(syst) ′ 0.4(abs) μb. The mean transverse momentum is 1.80 ′ 0.23(stat) ′ 0.16(syst) GeV/c.

System size and energy dependence of jet-induced hadron pair correlation shapes in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 and 62.4 GeV

We present azimuthal angle correlations of intermediate transverse momentum (1-4 GeV/c) hadrons from dijets in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at square root sNN=62.4 and 200 GeV. The away-side dijet induced azimuthal correlation is broadened, non-Gaussian, and peaked away from Delta phi=pi in central and semicentral collisions in all the systems. The broadening and peak location are found to depend upon the number of participants in the collision, but not on the collision energy or beam nuclei. These results are consistent with sound or shock wave models, but pose challenges to Cherenkov gluon radiation models.

J/psi production in Au-Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV

First results on charm quarkonia production in heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are presented. The yield of J/Psis measured in the PHENIX experiment via electron-positron decay pairs at mid-rapidity for Au-Au reactions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV are analyzed as a function of collision centrality. For this analysis we have studied 49.3 million minimum bias Au-Au reactions. We present the J/Psi invariant yield dN/dy for peripheral and mid-central reactions. For the most central collisions where we observe no signal above background, we quote 90% confidence level upper limits. We compare these results with our J/Psi measurement from proton-proton reactions at the same energy. We find that our measurements are not consistent with models that predict strong enhancement relative to binary collision scaling.

Production of η mesons in 200 AGeV/cS+S and S+Au reactions

Abstract Minimum Bias production cross sections of η mesons have been measured in 200 AGeV/cS+Au and S+S collisions at the CERN SPS by reconstructing the η → γγ decay. The measurements have been made over the rapidity range 2.1 ≤ y ≤ 2.9 using the leadglass spectrometer of WA80. Within the statistical and systematical uncertainties the spectral shapes of π0 and η mesons yields are identical when their invariant differential cross section is plotted as a function of the transverse mass. The relative normalization of the η to π0 transverse mass spectra is found to be 0.53±0.07 for S+Au and 0.43±0.15 for S+S reactions. Extrapolation to full phase space leads to an integrated cross section ratio of η to π0 mesons of 0.147±0.017(stat.)±0.015(syst.), and 0.120±0.034(stat.)±0.022(syst.) for S+Au and S+S collisions, respectively.

Azimuthal angle correlations for rapidity separated hadron pairs in d+Au collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV

Deuteron-gold (d+Au) collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider provide ideal platforms for testing QCD theories in dense nuclear matter at high energy. In particular, models suggesting strong saturation effects for partons carrying small nucleon momentum fraction (x) predict modifications to jet production at forward rapidity (deuteron-going direction) in d+Au collisions. We report on two-particle azimuthal angle correlations between charged hadrons at forward/backward (deuteron/gold going direction) rapidity and charged hadrons at midrapidity in d+Au and p+p collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV. Jet structures observed in the correlations are quantified in terms of the conditional yield and angular width of away-side partners. The kinematic region studied here samples partons in the gold nucleus with x similar to 0.1 to similar to 0.01. Within this range, we find no x dependence of the jet structure in d+Au collisions.

Energy loss of pions and electrons of 1– in drift chambers operated with Xe,CO2(15%)

Abstract We present measurements of the energy loss of pions and electrons in drift chambers (DC) operated with a Xe,CO 2 (15%) mixture. The measurements are carried out for particle momenta from 1 to 6 GeV /c using prototype DC for the ALICE transition radiation detectors. 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.

Azimuthal anisotropy in S + Au reactions at 200 A GeV

Abstract Azimuthal correlations of photons produced at mid-rapidity in 200 A GeV S + Au collisions have been studied using a preshower photon multiplicity detector in the WA93 experiment. The Fourier expansion method has been employd to estimate the event plane via the anisotropy of the event as a function of centrality. The event plane correlation technique has been used to determine the true event anisotropy, beyond the anisotropy which arises due to finite multiplicity. The VENUS event generator with rescattering and proper simulation of the detector response can explain only a portion of the observed anisotropy. The residual anisotropy is found to be of the order of 5% for semi-central collisions. This suggests that directed collective flow of the produced particles is present at SPS energies.