A thermal-model analysis of particle production of p-p collisions at sqrt(s) = 17 GeV using the latest available data is presented. The sensitivity of model parameters on data selections and model assumptions is studied. The system-size dependence of thermal parameters and recent differences in the statistical model analysis of p-p collisions at the super proton synchrotron (SPS) are discussed. It is shown that the temperature and strangeness undersaturation factor depend strongly on kaon yields which at present are still not well known experimentally. It is conclude, that within the presently available data at the SPS it is rather unlikely that the temperature in p-p collisions exceeds significantly that expected in central collisions of heavy ions at the same energy.
We present strange particle spectra and yields measured at mid-rapidity in $sqrt{text{s}}=200$ GeV proton-proton ($p+p$) collisions at RHIC. We find that the previously observed universal transverse mass ($mathrm{m_{T}}equivsqrt{mathrm{p_{T}}^{2}+mathrm{m}^{2}}$) scaling of hadron production in $p+p$ collisions seems to break down at higher mt and that there is a difference in the shape of the mt spectrum between baryons and mesons. We observe mid-rapidity anti-baryon to baryon ratios near unity for $Lambda$ and $Xi$ baryons and no dependence of the ratio on transverse momentum, indicating that our data do not yet reach the quark-jet dominated region. We show the dependence of the mean transverse momentum (mpt) on measured charged particle multiplicity and on particle mass and infer that these trends are consistent with gluon-jet dominated particle production. The data are compared to previous measurements from CERN-SPS, ISR and FNAL experiments and to Leading Order (LO) and Next to Leading order (NLO) string fragmentation model predictions. We infer from these comparisons that the spectral shapes and particle yields from $p+p$ collisions at RHIC energies have large contributions from gluon jets rather than quark jets.
The differential cross section for the production of direct photons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV at midrapidity was measured in the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Inclusive-direct photons were measured in the transverse-momentum range from 5.5--25 GeV/c, extending the range beyond previous measurements. Event structure was studied with an isolation criterion. Next-to-leading-order perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculations give a good description of the spectrum. When the cross section is expressed versus x_T, the PHENIX data are seen to be in agreement with measurements from other experiments at different center-of-mass energies.
The cross section of bottom quark-antiquark ($bbar{b}$) production in $p$+$p$ collisions at $sqrt{s}=510$ GeV is measured with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The results are based on the yield of high mass, like-sign muon pairs measured within the PHENIX muon arm acceptance ($1.2<|y|<2.2$). The $bbar{b}$ signal is extracted from like-sign dimuons by utilizing the unique properties of neutral $B$ meson oscillation. We report a differential cross section of $dsigma_{bbar{b}rightarrow mu^pmmu^pm}/dy = 0.16 pm 0.01~(mbox{stat}) pm 0.02~(mbox{syst}) pm 0.02~(mbox{global})$ nb for like-sign muons in the rapidity and $p_T$ ranges $1.2<|y|<2.2$ and $p_T>1$ GeV/$c$, and dimuon mass of 5--10 GeV/$c^2$. The extrapolated total cross section at this energy for $bbar{b}$ production is $13.1 pm 0.6~(mbox{stat}) pm 1.5~(mbox{syst}) pm 2.7~(mbox{global})~mu$b. The total cross section is compared to a perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculation and is consistent within uncertainties. The azimuthal opening angle between muon pairs from $bbar{b}$ decays and their $p_T$ distributions are compared to distributions generated using {sc ps pythia 6}, which includes next-to-leading order processes. The azimuthal correlations and pair $p_T$ distribution are not very well described by {sc pythia} calculations, but are still consistent within uncertainties. Flavor creation and flavor excitation subprocesses are favored over gluon splitting.
We report on charmonium measurements [J/psi(1S), psi(2S), and chi_c(1P)] in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. We find that the fraction of J/psi coming from the feed-down decay of psi and chi_c in the midrapidity region ($|eta|<0.35$) is 9.6+/-2.4% and 32+/-9%, respectively. We also report new, higher statistics p_T and rapidity dependencies of the J/psi yield via dielectron decay in the same midrapidity range and at forward rapidity (1.2<|eta|<2.4) via dimuon decay. These results are compared with measurements from other experiments and discussed in the context of current charmonium production models.
The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured low mass vector meson, $omega$, $rho$, and $phi$, production through the dimuon decay channel at forward rapidity ($1.2<|y|<2.2$) in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $sqrt{s}=200$ GeV. The differential cross sections for these mesons are measured as a function of both $p_T$ and rapidity. We also report the integrated differential cross sections over $1<p_T<7$ GeV/$c$ and $1.2<|y|<2.2$: $dsigma/dy(omega+rhorightarrowmumu) = 80 pm 6 mbox{(stat)} pm 12 mbox{(syst)}$ nb and $dsigma/dy(phirightarrowmumu) = 27 pm 3 mbox{(stat)} pm 4 mbox{(syst)}$ nb. These results are compared with midrapidity measurements and calculations.