No Arabic abstract
We present the centrality dependent measurement of multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles and photons in Au + Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 GeV. The charged particles and photons are measured in the pseudorapidity region 2.9 < eta < 3.9 and 2.3 < eta < 3.7, respectively. We have studied the scaling of particle production with the number of participating nucleons and the number of binary collisions. The photon and charged particle production in the measured pseudorapidity range has been shown to be consistent with energy independent limiting fragmentation behavior. The photons are observed to follow a centrality independent limiting fragmentation behavior while for the charged particles it is centrality dependent. We have carried out a comparative study of the pseudorapidity distributions of positively charged hadrons, negatively charged hadrons, photons, pions, net protons in nucleus--nucleus collisions and pseudorapidity distributions from p+p collisions. From these comparisons we conclude that baryons in the inclusive charged particle distribution are responsible for the observed centrality dependence of limiting fragmentation. The mesons are found to follow an energy independent behavior of limiting fragmentation while the behavior of baryons seems to be energy dependent.
Longitudinal density correlations of produced matter in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV have been measured from the inclusive charged particle distributions as a function of pseudorapidity window sizes. The extracted alpha xi parameter, related to the susceptibility of the density fluctuations in the long wavelength limit, exhibits a non-monotonic behavior as a function of the number of participant nucleons, N_part. A local maximum is seen at N_part ~ 90, with corresponding energy density based on the Bjorken picture of epsilon_Bj tau ~ 2.4 GeV/(fm^2 c) with a transverse area size of 60 fm^2. This behavior may suggest a critical phase boundary based on the Ginzburg-Landau framework.
We present measurements of the J/psi invariant yields in sqrt(s_NN)=39 and 62.4 GeV Au+Au collisions at forward rapidity (1.2<|y|<2.2). Invariant yields are presented as a function of both collision centrality and transverse momentum. Nuclear modifications are obtained for central relative to peripheral Au+Au collisions (R_CP) and for various centrality selections in Au+Au relative to scaled p+p cross sections obtained from other measurements (R_AA). The observed suppression patterns at 39 and 62.4 GeV are quite similar to those previously measured at 200 GeV. This similar suppression presents a challenge to theoretical models that contain various competing mechanisms with different energy dependencies, some of which cause suppression and others enhancement.
A measurement of two-particle correlations with a high transverse momentum trigger particle (p_T^{trig} > 2.5 GeV/c) is presented for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV over the uniquely broad longitudinal acceptance of the PHOBOS detector (-4 < Deltaeta < 2). A broadening of the away-side azimuthal correlation compared to elementary collisions is observed at all Deltaeta. As in p+p collisions, the near-side is characterized by a peak of correlated partners at small angle relative to the trigger particle. However, in central Au+Au collisions an additional correlation extended in Deltaeta and known as the `ridge is found to reach at least |Deltaeta| approx 4. The ridge yield is largely independent of Deltaeta over the measured range, and it decreases towards more peripheral collisions. For the chosen p_T^{trig} cut, the ridge yield is consistent with zero for events with less than roughly 100 participating nucleons.
We report the measurement of direct photons at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV. The direct photon signal was extracted for the transverse-momentum range of 4 GeV/c < p_T < 22 GeV/c, using a statistical method to subtract decay photons from the inclusive-photon sample. The direct-photon nuclear-modification factor R_AA was calculated as a function of p_T for different Au+Au collision centralities using the measured p+p direct-photon spectrum and compared to theoretical predictions. R_AA was found to be consistent with unity for all centralities over the entire measured p_T range. Theoretical models that account for modifications of initial-direct-photon production due to modified-parton-distribution functions in Au and the different isospin composition of the nuclei, predict a modest change of R_AA from unity and are consistent with the data. Models with compensating effects of the quark-gluon plasma on high-energy photons, such as suppression of jet-fragmentation photons and induced-photon bremsstrahlung from partons traversing the medium, are also consistent with this measurement.
We report on K*0 production at mid-rapidity in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}} = 62.4 and 200 GeV collected by the Solenoid Tracker at RHIC (STAR) detector. The K*0 is reconstructed via the hadronic decays K*0 to K+ pi- and bar{K*0} to K-pi+. Transverse momentum, pT, spectra are measured over a range of pT extending from 0.2 GeV/c to 5 GeV/c. The center of mass energy and system size dependence of the rapidity density, dN/dy, and the average transverse momentum, <pT>, are presented. The measured N(K*0)/N(K) and N(phi)/N(K*0) ratios favor the dominance of re-scattering of decay daughters of K*0 over the hadronic regeneration for the K*0 production. In the intermediate pT region (2.0 < pT < 4.0 GeV/c), the elliptic flow parameter, v2, and the nuclear modification factor, RCP, agree with the expectations from the quark coalescence model of particle production.