No Arabic abstract
We report the measurement of the leptonic ($e^{+}e^{-}$) decay channel of the $phi$(1020) meson in Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. The transverse momentum ($p_{rm T}$) spectrum is measured for 0.1 $le p_{rm T} le 2.5$ GeV/$c$ at mid-rapidity ($|y|le1$). We obtain the $p_{rm T}$-integrated $phi$(1020) mass $M_{phi}=1017.7pm0.8 (rm {stat.}) pm0.9 (rm {sys.})$ MeV/$c^{2}$ and width $Gamma_{phi} = 8.0pm 2.5(rm {stat.}) pm 2.3(rm {sys.}) textrm{MeV/}c^{2}$, which are within 1.5,$sigma$ and 1.1,$sigma$ of the vacuum values, respectively. No significant difference is observed in the measured $p_{rm T}$ spectrum, $dN/dy$, or $left<p_{rm T}right>$ of the $phi$(1020) meson between the $e^{+}e^{-}$ and hadronic ($K^{+}K^{-}$) decay channels as measured by the same experiment. The experimental results are compared to a theoretical model including medium-modified $phi$(1020).
We report first measurements of $e^{+}e^{-}$ pair production in the mass region 0.4 $<M_{ee}<$ 2.6 GeV/$c^{2}$ at low transverse momentum ($p_T<$ 0.15 GeV/$c$) in non-central Au$+$Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV and U$+$U collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 193 GeV. Significant enhancement factors, expressed as ratios of data over known hadronic contributions, are observed in the 40-80% centrality of these collisions. The excess yields peak distinctly at low-$p_T$ with a width ($sqrt{langle p^2_Trangle}$) between 40 to 60 MeV/$c$. The absolute cross section of the excess depends weakly on centrality while those from a theoretical model calculation incorporating an in-medium broadened $rho$ spectral function and radiation from a Quark Gluon Plasma or hadronic cocktail contributions increase dramatically with increasing number of participant nucleons. Model calculations of photon-photon interactions generated by the initial projectile and target nuclei describe the observed excess yields but fail to reproduce the $p^{2}_{T}$ distributions.
We report on measurements of dielectron ($e^+e^-$) production in Au$+$Au collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV per nucleon-nucleon pair using the STAR detector at RHIC. Systematic measurements of the dielectron yield as a function of transverse momentum ($p_{rm T}$) and collision centrality show an enhancement compared to a cocktail simulation of hadronic sources in the low invariant-mass region ($M_{ee}<$ 1 GeV/$c^2$). This enhancement cannot be reproduced by the $rho$-meson vacuum spectral function. In minimum-bias collisions, in the invariant-mass range of 0.30 $-$ 0.76 GeV/$c^2$, integrated over the full $p_{rm T}$ acceptance, the enhancement factor is 1.76 $pm$ 0.06 (stat.) $pm$ 0.26 (sys.) $pm$ 0.29 (cocktail). The enhancement factor exhibits weak centrality and $p_{rm T}$ dependence in STARs accessible kinematic regions, while the excess yield in this invariant-mass region as a function of the number of participating nucleons follows a power-law shape with a power of 1.44 $pm$ 0.10. Models that assume an in-medium broadening of the $rho$ meson spectral function consistently describe the observed excess in these measurements. Additionally, we report on measurements of $omega$ and $phi$-meson production through their $e^+e^-$ decay channel. These measurements show good agreement with Tsallis Blast-Wave model predictions as well as, in the case of the $phi$-meson, results through its $K^+K^-$ decay channel. In the intermediate invariant-mass region (1.1$<M_{ee}<$ 3 GeV/$c^2$), we investigate the spectral shapes from different collision centralities. Physics implications for possible in-medium modification of charmed hadron production and other physics sources are discussed.
The PHENIX experiment has measured $phi$ meson production in $d$$+$Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV using the dimuon and dielectron decay channels. The $phi$ meson is measured in the forward (backward) $d$-going (Au-going) direction, $1.2<y<2.2$ ($-2.2<y<-1.2$) in the transverse-momentum ($p_T$) range from 1--7 GeV/$c$, and at midrapidity $|y|<0.35$ in the $p_T$ range below 7 GeV/$c$. The $phi$ meson invariant yields and nuclear-modification factors as a function of $p_T$, rapidity, and centrality are reported. An enhancement of $phi$ meson production is observed in the Au-going direction, while suppression is seen in the $d$-going direction, and no modification is observed at midrapidity relative to the yield in $p$$+$$p$ collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. Similar behavior was previously observed for inclusive charged hadrons and open heavy flavor indicating similar cold-nuclear-matter effects.
At RHIC, enhancements in the baryon-to-meson ratio for light hadrons and hadrons containing strange quarks have been observed in central heavy-ion collisions compared to those in p+p and peripheral heavy-ion collisions in the intermediate transverse momentum ($p_T$) range (2 $<$ $p_T$ $<$ 6 GeV/$c$). This can be explained by the hadronization mechanism involving multi-parton coalescence. $Lambda_{c}$ is the lightest charmed baryon with mass close to that of $D^0$ meson, and has an extremely short life time (c$tau$$sim$60 $mu$m). Different models predict different magnitudes of enhancement in the $Lambda_{c}$/$D^0$ ratio depending on the degree to which charm quarks are thermalized in the medium and how the coalescence mechanism is implemented. In these proceedings, we report the first measurement of $Lambda_{c}$ production in heavy-ion collisions using the Heavy Flavor Tracker at STAR. The invariant yield of $Lambda_{c}$ for 3 $<$ $p_T$ $<$ 6 GeV/$c$ is measured in 10-60% central Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. The $Lambda_{c}$/$D^0$ ratio is compared to different model calculations, and the physics implications are discussed.
We present first measurements of the $phi$-meson elliptic flow ($v_{2}(p_{T})$) and high statistics $p_{T}$ distributions for different centralities from $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. In minimum bias collisions the $v_{2}$ of the $phi$ meson is consistent with the trend observed for mesons. The ratio of the yields of the $Omega$ to those of the $phi$ as a function of transverse momentum is consistent with a model based on the recombination of thermal $s$ quarks up to $p_{T}sim 4$ GeV/$c$, but disagrees at higher momenta. The nuclear modification factor ($R_{CP}$) of $phi$ follows the trend observed in the $K^{0}_{S}$ mesons rather than in $Lambda$ baryons, supporting baryon-meson scaling. Since $phi$-mesons are made via coalescence of seemingly thermalized $s$ quarks in central Au+Au collisions, the observations imply hot and dense matter with partonic collectivity has been formed at RHIC.