Hadron modifications in nuclear matter are discussed in connection to chiral symmetry restoration and/or hadronic many body effects. Experiments with photon, proton and heavy ion beams are used to ...probe properties of hadrons embedded in nuclear matter at different temperatures and densities. Most of the information has been gathered for the light vector mesons ρ ω and ø. HADES is a second generation experiment operating at GSI with the main aim to study in-medium modifications by means of dielectron production at the SIS18/Bevelac energy range. Large acceptance and excellent particle identification capabilities allows also for measurements of strangeness production. These abilities combined with the variety of beams provided by the SIS18 allow for a characterization of properties of the dense baryonic matter properties created in heavy ion collisions at these energies. A review of recent experimental results obtained by HADES is presented, with main emphasis on hadron properties in nuclear matter.
We report on the first measurements of J/ψ production at very low transverse momentum (pT<0.2 GeV/c) in hadronic Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV and U+U collisions at sNN=193 GeV. Remarkably, the ...inferred nuclear modification factor of J/ψ at midrapidity in Au+Au (U+U) collisions reaches about 24 (52) for pT<0.05 GeV/c in the 60%–80% collision centrality class. This noteworthy enhancement cannot be explained by hadronic production accompanied by cold and hot medium effects. In addition, the dN/dt distribution of J/ψ for the very low pT range is presented for the first time. The distribution is consistent with that expected from the Au nucleus and shows a hint of interference. Comparison of the measurements to theoretical calculations of coherent production shows that the excess yield can be described reasonably well and reveals a partial disruption of coherent production in semicentral collisions, perhaps due to the violent hadronic interactions. Incorporating theoretical calculations, the results strongly suggest that the dramatic enhancement of J/ψ yield observed at extremely low pT originates from coherent photon-nucleus interactions. In particular, coherently produced J/ψ's in violent hadronic collisions may provide a novel probe of the quark-gluon plasma.
We present measurements of second-order azimuthal anisotropy (v2) at midrapidity (|y| < 1.0) for light nuclei d,t,3He (for sNN=200, 62.4, 39, 27, 19.6, 11.5, and 7.7 GeV) and antinuclei $ ...\overline{d}\ $; (sNN=200, 62.4, 39, 27, and 19.6 GeV) and 3H$ \overline{e}\ $(sNN=200 GeV) in the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC) experiment. The v2 for these light nuclei produced in heavy-ion collisions is compared with those for p and $ \overline{p}\ $. We observe mass ordering in nuclei v2(pT) at low transverse momenta (pT < 2.0 GeV/c). We also find a centrality dependence of v2 for d and $ \overline{d}\ $. The magnitude of v2 for t and 3He agree within statistical errors. Light-nuclei v2 are compared with predictions from a blast-wave model. Atomic mass number (A) scaling of light-nuclei v2(pT) seems to hold for pT/A < 1.5GeV/c. Results on light-nuclei v2 from a transport-plus-coalescence model are consistent with the experimental measurements.
In this paper, we present high precision measurements of elliptic flow near midrapidity (|y|<1.0) for multistrange hadrons and φ meson as a function of centrality and transverse momentum in Au+Au ...collisions at center of mass energy $\sqrt{sNN}$=200 GeV. We observe that the transverse momentum dependence of φ and Ωv2 is similar to that of π and p, respectively, which may indicate that the heavier strange quark flows as strongly as the lighter up and down quarks. This observation constitutes a clear piece of evidence for the development of partonic collectivity in heavy-ion collisions at the top RHIC energy. Number of constituent quark scaling is found to hold within statistical uncertainty for both 0%-30% and 30%-80% collision centrality. Finally, there is an indication of the breakdown of previously observed mass ordering between φ and proton v2 at low transverse momentum in the 0%-30% centrality range, possibly indicating late hadronic interactions affecting the proton v2.
We present a search for the e+e− decay of a hypothetical dark photon, also named U vector boson, in inclusive dielectron spectra measured by HADES in the p(3.5 GeV) + p, Nb reactions, as well as the ...Ar (1.756 GeV/u) + KCl reaction. An upper limit on the kinetic mixing parameter squared ϵ2 at 90% CL has been obtained for the mass range MU=0.02–0.55 GeV/c2 and is compared with the present world data set. For masses 0.03–0.1 GeV/c2, the limit has been lowered with respect to previous results, allowing now to exclude a large part of the parameter region favored by the muon g−2 anomaly. Furthermore, an improved upper limit on the branching ratio of 2.3×10−6 has been set on the helicity-suppressed direct decay of the eta meson, η→e+e−, at 90% CL.
We report high-precision measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, ALL, for midrapidity inclusive jet and dijet production in polarized p p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of √ s ...= 200 GeV . The new inclusive jet data are sensitive to the gluon helicity distribution, Δg (x, Q2), for gluon momentum fractions in the range from x ≃ 0.05 to x ≃ 0.5, while the new dijet data provide further constraints on the x dependence of Δ g (x , Q2). The results are in good agreement with previous measurements at √ s = 200 GeV and with recent theoretical evaluations of prior world data. Our new results have better precision and thus strengthen the evidence that Δg(x,Q2) is positive for x > 0.05.