The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pair production in proton-nucleus collisions with a system of Be, Cu, In, W, Pb and U targets using a 400 GeV/$c$ proton beam at the CERN SPS. The mass spectrum is well described by the superposition of t
he two-body and Dalitz decays of the light neutral mesons $eta$, $rho$, $omega$, $eta$ and $phi$. A new high-precision measurement of the electromagnetic transition form factors of the $eta$ and $omega$ mesons is presented, complemented with a measurement of the temperature parameter of the $rho$ meson in cold nuclear matter. The $pt$ spectra for the $omega$ and $phi$ mesons are extracted in the full $pt$ range accessible, up to $pt = 2$ GeV/$c$. The nuclear dependence of the production cross sections for the $eta$, $omega$ and $phi$ mesons has been investigated in terms of the power law $sigma_mathrm{pA} propto mathrm{A}^alpha$, and the $alpha$ parameter was studied as a function of $pt$.
The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pairs production in proton-nucleus collisions at 400 GeV/$c$ at the CERN SPS. The mass spectrum is well described by the superposition of the two-body and Dalitz decays of the light neutral mesons $eta$,
$rho$, $omega$, $eta$ and $phi$. The large collected statistics allows to isolate the contributions due to the Dalitz decays of the $eta$ and $omega$ mesons, from which the electromagnetic transition form factors of the two mesons have been extracted. The found values agree with the previous available measurements, improving their uncertainty thanks to the higher statistics. The results thus confirm the discrepancy with the prediction of the Vector Meson Dominance model in the case of the electromagnetic form factor of the $omega$ meson.
The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied $phi$ meson production in In-In collisions at 158A GeV via both the $K^+K^-$ and the $mu^+mu^-$ decay channels. The yields and inverse slope parameters of the $m_T$ spectra observed in the two channels
are compatible within errors, different from the large discrepancies seen in Pb-Pb collisions between the hadronic (NA49) and dimuon (NA50) decay channels. Possible physics implications are discussed.
The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied dimuon production in 158 AGeV In-In collisions. The strong pair excess above the known sources found in the mass region $0.2<M<2.5$ GeV has been previously interpreted as thermal radiation. In this pape
r results on the associated angular distributions for $M<1$ GeV, as measured in the Collins-Soper reference frame, are presented. The structure function parameters $lambda$, $mu$, $ u$ are consistent with zero and the projected polar and azimuth angle distributions are uniform. The absence of any polarization is consistent with the interpretation of the excess dimuons as thermal radiation from a randomized system.
The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS studied phi meson production in In-In collisions at 158 A GeV via muon and kaon decay channels. Results in the hadronic channel are presented for the first time. These are discussed in the framework of the so-calle
d phi puzzle through the comparison with the previous NA60 measurements in the muon channel. The yield and inverse m_T slopes observed in the two channels are compatible within errors, showing that the large discrepancies seen in Pb-Pb collisions between NA50 (muon pairs) and NA49 (kaon pairs) are not seen in the NA60 In-In data.
The yield of muon pairs in the invariant mass region 1<M<2.5 GeV/c^2 produced in heavy-ion collisions significantly exceeds the sum of the two expected contributions, Drell-Yan dimuons and muon pairs from the decays of D meson pairs. These sources pr
operly account for the dimuons produced in proton-nucleus collisions. In this paper, we show that dimuons are also produced in excess in 158 A GeV In-In collisions. We furthermore observe, by tagging the dimuon vertices, that this excess is not due to enhanced D meson production, but made of prompt muon pairs, as expected from a source of thermal dimuons specific to high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The yield of this excess increases significantly from peripheral to central collisions, both with respect to the Drell-Yan yield and to the number of nucleons participating in the collisions. Furthermore, the transverse mass distributions of the excess dimuons are well described by an exponential function, with inverse slope values around 190 MeV. The values are independent of mass and significantly lower than those found at masses below 1 GeV/c^2, rising there up to 250 MeV due to radial flow. This suggests the emission source of thermal dimuons above 1 GeV/c^2 to be of largely partonic origin, when radial flow has not yet built up.
The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied dimuon production in 158A GeV In-In collisions. The strong excess of pairs above the known sources found in the complete mass region 0.2<M<2.6 GeV has previously been interpreted as thermal radiation. W
e now present first results on the associated angular distributions. Using the Collins-Soper reference frame, the structure function parameters lambda, mu and u are measured to be zero, and the projected distributions in polar and azimuth angles are found to be uniform. The absence of any polarization is consistent with the interpretation of the excess dimuons as thermal radiation from a randomized system.
The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has measured muon pairs with unprecedented precision in 158A GeV In-In collisions. A strong excess of pairs above the known sources is observed in the whole mass region 0.2<M<2.6 GeV. The mass spectrum for M<1 GeV
is consistent with a dominant contribution from pi+pi- -> rho -> mu+mu- annihilation. The associated rho spectral function shows a strong broadening, but essentially no shift in mass. For M>1 GeV, the excess is found to be prompt, not due to enhanced charm production, with pronounced differences to Drell-Yan pairs. The slope parameter Teff associated with the transverse momentum spectra rises with mass up to the rho, followed by a sudden decline above. The rise for M<1 GeV is consistent with radial flow of a hadronic emission source. The seeming absence of significant flow for M>1 GeV and its relation to parton-hadron duality is discussed in detail, suggesting a dominantly partonic emission source in this region. A comparison of the data to the present status of theoretical modeling is also contained. The accumulated empirical evidence, including also a Planck-like shape of the mass spectra at low pT and the lack of polarization, is consistent with a global interpretation of the excess dimuons as thermal radiation. We conclude with first results on omega in-medium effects.
The NA60 experiment studies muon pair production at the CERN SPS. In this letter we report on a precision measurement of J/psi in In-In collisions. We have studied the J/psi centrality distribution, and we have compared it with the one expected if ab
sorption in cold nuclear matter were the only active suppression mechanism. For collisions involving more than ~80 participant nucleons, we find that an extra suppression is present. This result is in qualitative agreement with previous Pb-Pb measurements by the NA50 experiment, but no theoretical explanation is presently able to coherently describe both results.
