The measurements of particle multiplicity distributions have generated considerable interest in understanding the fluctuations of conserved quantum numbers in the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) ...hadronization regime, in particular near a possible critical point and near the chemical freeze-out. Net-protons and net-kaons have been used as proxies for the net-baryon number and net-strangeness, respectively. We report the measurement of efficiency- and centrality-bin width-corrected cumulant ratios (C2/C1, C3/C2) of net- Λ distributions, in the context of both strangeness and baryon number conservation, as a function of collision energy, centrality, and rapidity. The results are for Au + Au collisions at five beam energies ( √sNN = 19.6 , 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV) recorded with the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR). We compare our results to the Poisson and negative binomial (NBD) expectations, as well as to ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) and hadron resonance gas (HRG) model predictions. Both NBD and Poisson baselines agree with data within the statistical and systematic uncertainties. UrQMD describes the measured net- Λ C1 and C3 at 200 GeV reasonably well but deviates from C2, and the deviation increases as a function of collision energy. The ratios of the measured cumulants show no features of critical fluctuations. The chemical freeze-out temperatures extracted from a recent HRG calculation, which was successfully used to describe the net-proton, net-kaon, and net-charge data, indicate Λ freeze-out conditions similar to those of kaons. However, large deviations are found when comparing with temperatures obtained from net-proton fluctuations. The net- Λ cumulants show a weak but finite dependence on the rapidity coverage in the acceptance of the detector, which can be attributed to quantum number conservation.
We present a measurement of the first-order azimuthal anisotropy, v1(y), of deuterons from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, and 39 GeV recorded with the STAR ...experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The energy dependence of the v1(y) slope, dv1/dy|y=0, for deuterons, where y is the rapidity, is extracted for semi-central collisions (10-40\% centrality) and compared to that of protons. While the v1(y) slopes of protons are generally negative for $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$> 10 GeV, those for deuterons are consistent with zero, a strong enhancement of the v1(y) slope of deuterons is seen at the lowest collision energy (the largest baryon density) at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$= 7.7 GeV. In addition, we report the transverse momentum dependence of v1 for protons and deuterons. The experimental results are compared with transport and coalescence models.
Density fluctuations near the QCD critical point can be probed via an intermittency analysis in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We report the first measurement of intermittency in Au+Au collisions ...at $\sqrt{s{NN}}$ = 7.7-200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The scaled factorial moments of identified charged hadrons are analyzed at mid-rapidity and within the transverse momentum phase space. We observe a power-law behavior of scaled factorial moments in Au+Au collisions and a decrease in the extracted scaling exponent (ν) from peripheral to central collisions. The ν is consistent with a constant for different collisions energies in the mid-central (10-40%) collisions. Moreover, the ν in the 0-5% most central Au+Au collisions exhibits a non-monotonic energy dependence that reaches a minimum around $\sqrt{s{NN}}$ = 27 GeV. The physics implications on the QCD phase structure are discussed.
The STAR collaboration reports a measurement of the transverse single-spin asymmetries, AN , for neutral pions produced in polarized proton collisions with protons ( pp ), with aluminum nuclei ( pAl ...) and with gold nuclei ( pAu ) at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV. Neutral pions are observed in the forward direction relative to the transversely polarized proton beam, in the pseudorapidity region 2.7<η<3.8 . Results are presented for π0 s observed in the STAR forward meson spectrometer electromagnetic calorimeter in narrow Feynman x ( xF ) and transverse momentum ( pT ) bins, spanning the range 0.17<xF<0.81 and 1.7<pT<6.0 GeV/c . For fixed xF<0.47 , the asymmetries are found to rise with increasing transverse momentum. For larger xF , the asymmetry flattens or falls as pT increases. Parametrizing the ratio r ( A ) ≡AN ( pA ) / AN ( pp ) =AP over the kinematic range, the ratio r ( A ) is found to depend only weakly on A , with ( P ) =-0.027±0.005 . No significant difference in P is observed between the low- pT region, pT<2.5 GeV/c , where gluon saturation effects may play a role, and the high- pT region, pT>2.5 GeV/c . It is further observed that the value of AN is significantly larger for events with a large- pT isolated π0 than for events with a nonisolated π0 accompanied by additional jetlike fragments. The nuclear dependence r ( A ) is similar for isolated and nonisolated π0 events.
We present the first measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry ALL for dijets with at least one jet reconstructed within the pseudorapidity range 0.8<η<1.8. The dijets were measured in ...polarized pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy s=200 GeV. Values for ALL are determined for several distinct event topologies, defined by the jet pseudorapidities, and span a range of parton momentum fraction x down to x∼0.01. The measured asymmetries are found to be consistent with the predictions of global analyses that incorporate the results of previous RHIC measurements. They will provide new constraints on Δg(x) in this poorly constrained region when included in future global analyses.
A
bstract
We report a new measurement of the production of electrons from open heavy-flavor hadron decays (HFEs) at mid-rapidity (|
y
|
<
0.7) in Au+Au collisions at
$$ \sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} $$
s
NN
...= 200 GeV. Invariant yields of HFEs are measured for the transverse momentum range of 3
.
5
< p
T
<
9 GeV/
c
in various configurations of the collision geometry. The HFE yields in head-on Au+Au collisions are suppressed by approximately a factor of 2 compared to that in
p
+
p
collisions scaled by the average number of binary collisions, indicating strong interactions between heavy quarks and the hot and dense medium created in heavy-ion collisions. Comparison of these results with models provides additional tests of theoretical calculations of heavy quark energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma.
We report the beam energy and collision centrality dependence of fifth and sixth order cumulants (C5, C6) and factorial cumulants (κ5, κ6) of net-proton and proton distributions, from ...$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=3-200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. The net-proton cumulant ratios generally follow the hierarchy expected from QCD thermodynamics, except for the case of collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 3 GeV. C6/C2 for 0-40\% centrality collisions is increasingly negative with decreasing $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$, while it is positive for the lowest $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ studied. These observed negative signs are consistent with QCD calculations (at baryon chemical potential, μB≤ 110 MeV) that include a crossover quark-hadron transition. In addition, for $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$≥ 11.5 GeV, the measured proton κn, within uncertainties, does not support the two-component shape of proton distributions that would be expected from a first-order phase transition. Taken in combination, the hyper-order proton number fluctuations suggest that the structure of QCD matter at high baryon density, μB~750 MeV ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 3 GeV) is starkly different from those at vanishing μB~20MeV ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV and higher).
The elliptic (v2) and triangular (v3) azimuthal anisotropy coefficients in central 3He + Au, d + Au, and p + Au collisions at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV are measured as a function of transverse ...momentum (PT) at midrapidity (|n| < 0.9) via the azimuthal angular correlation between two particles both at |n| < 0.9 while the v2(PT) values depend on the colliding systems, the v3(PT) values are system independent within the uncertainties, suggesting an influence on eccentricity from subnucleonic fluctuations in these small-sized systems. Furthermore, these results also provide stringent constraints for the hydrodynamic modeling of these systems.
We report a new measurement of the production cross section for inclusive electrons from open heavy-flavor hadron decays as a function of transverse momentum (pT) at midrapidity (|y| < 0.7) in p + p ...collisions at √s = 200 GeV. Overall, the result is presented for 2.5 < PT < 10 GeV/c with an improved precision above 6 GeV/c with respect to the previous measurements, providing more constraints on perturbative QCD calculations. Moreover, this measurement also provides a high-precision reference for measurements of nuclear modification factors for inclusive electrons from open-charm and -bottom hadron decays in heavy-ion collisions.