Recently, multiparticle-correlation measurements of relativistic p/d/^{3}He+Au, p+Pb, and even p+p collisions show surprising collective signatures. Here, we present beam-energy-scan measurements of ...two-, four-, and six-particle angular correlations in d+Au collisions at sqrts_{NN}=200, 62.4, 39, and 19.6 GeV. We also present measurements of two- and four-particle angular correlations in p+Au collisions at sqrts_{NN}=200 GeV. We find the four-particle cumulant to be real valued for d+Au collisions at all four energies. We also find that the four-particle cumulant in p+Au has the opposite sign as that in d+Au. Further, we find that the six-particle cumulant agrees with the four-particle cumulant in d+Au collisions at 200 GeV, indicating that nonflow effects are subdominant. These observations provide strong evidence that the correlations originate from the initial geometric configuration, which is then translated into the momentum distribution for all particles, commonly referred to as collectivity.
We present measurements of the cross section and double-helicity asymmetry ALL of direct-photon production in p→+p→ collisions at s=510 GeV. The measurements have been performed at midrapidity (|η|
During 2015, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided collisions of transversely polarized protons with Au and Al nuclei for the first time, enabling the exploration of ...transverse-single-spin asymmetries with heavy nuclei. Large single-spin asymmetries in very forward neutron production have been previously observed in transversely polarized p+p collisions at RHIC, and the existing theoretical framework that was successful in describing the single-spin asymmetry in p+p collisions predicts only a moderate atomic-mass-number (A) dependence. In contrast, the asymmetries observed at RHIC in p+A collisions showed a surprisingly strong A dependence in inclusive forward neutron production. The observed asymmetry in p+Al collisions is much smaller, while the asymmetry in p+Au collisions is a factor of 3 larger in absolute value and of opposite sign. The interplay of different neutron production mechanisms is discussed as a possible explanation of the observed A dependence.
The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured the longitudinal double spin asymmetries, ALL, for charged pions at midrapidity (|η| < 0.35 ) in longitudinally polarized p + ...p collisions at √s = 510 GeV . These measurements are sensitive to the gluon spin contribution to the total spin of the proton in the parton momentum fraction x range between 0.04 and 0.09. One can infer the sign of the gluon polarization from the ordering of pion asymmetries with charge alone. The asymmetries are found to be consistent with global quantum-chromodynamics fits of deep-inelastic scattering and data at √s = 200 GeV , which show a nonzero positive contribution of gluon spin to the proton spin.
Polarized proton-proton collisions provide leading-order access to gluons, presenting an opportunity to constrain gluon spin-momentum correlations within transversely polarized protons and enhance ...our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the proton. Midrapidity open-heavy-flavor production at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV is dominated by gluon-gluon fusion, providing heightened sensitivity to gluon dynamics relative to other production channels. Transverse single-spin asymmetries of positrons and electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays are measured at midrapidity using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These charge-separated measurements are sensitive to gluon correlators that can in principle be related to gluon orbital angular momentum via model calculations. Explicit constraints on gluon correlators are extracted for two separate models, one of which had not been constrained previously.
The cross section and transverse single-spin asymmetries of μ− and μ+ from open heavy-flavor decays in polarized p+p collisions at s=200 GeV were measured by the PHENIX experiment during 2012 at the ...Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Because heavy-flavor production is dominated by gluon-gluon interactions at s=200 GeV, these measurements offer a unique opportunity to obtain information on the trigluon correlation functions. The measurements are performed at forward and backward rapidity (1.4<|y|<2.0) over the transverse momentum range of 1.25<pT<7 GeV/c for the cross section and 1.25<pT<5 GeV/c for the asymmetry measurements. The obtained cross section is compared to a fixed-order-plus-next-to-leading-log perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculation. The asymmetry results are consistent with zero within uncertainties, and a model calculation based on twist-3 three-gluon correlations agrees with the data.
In 2015, the PHENIX collaboration has measured very forward (η > 6.8) single spin asymmetries of inclusive neutrons in transversely polarized proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions at a center ...of mass energy of 200 GeV. A previous publication from this dataset concentrated on the nuclear dependence of such asymmetries. In this measurement the explicit transverse momentum dependence of inclusive neutron single spin asymmetries for proton-proton collisions is extracted using a bootstrapping unfolding technique on the transverse momenta. This explicit transverse momentum dependence will help improve the understanding of the mechanisms that create these asymmetries.
The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured the differential cross section, mean transverse momentum, mean transverse momentum squared of inclusive J/ψ, and cross ...section ratio of ψ(2S) to J/ψ at forward rapidity in p + p collisions at √s = 510 GeV via the dimuon decay channel. Comparison is made to inclusive J/ψ cross sections measured at √s = 200 GeV and 2.76–13 TeV. The result is also compared to leading-order nonrelativistic QCD calculations coupled to a color-glass-condensate description of the low-x gluons in the proton at low transverse momentum (pT) and to next-to-leading order nonrelativistic QCD calculations for the rest of the pTrange. These calculations overestimate the data at low pT. While consistent with the data within uncertainties above ≈ 3 GeV/c, the calculations are systematically below the data. The total cross section times the branching ratio is BR dσJ/ψpp/dy(1.2 < |y| < 2.2, 0 < pT< 10 GeV/c) = 54.3 ± 0.5 (stat) ± 5.5 (syst) nb.
Dihadron and isolated direct photon-hadron angular correlations are measured in p+p collisions at s=510 GeV. Correlations of charged hadrons of 0.7<pT<10 GeV/c with π0 mesons of 4<pT<15 GeV/c or ...isolated direct photons of 7<pT<15 GeV/c are used to study nonperturbative effects generated by initial-state partonic transverse momentum and final-state transverse momentum from fragmentation. The nonperturbative behavior is characterized by measuring the out-of-plane transverse momentum component pout perpendicular to the axis of the trigger particle, which is the high-pT direct photon or π0. Nonperturbative evolution effects are extracted from Gaussian fits to the away-side inclusive-charged-hadron yields for different trigger-particle transverse momenta (pTtrig). The Gaussian widths and root mean square of pout are reported as a function of the interaction hard scale pTtrig to investigate possible transverse-momentum-dependent evolution differences between the π0−h± and direct photon-h± correlations and factorization breaking effects. The widths are found to decrease with pTtrig, which indicates that the Collins-Soper-Sterman soft factor is not driving the evolution with the hard scale in nearly back-to-back dihadron and direct photon-hadron production in p+p collisions. This behavior is in contrast to Drell-Yan and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering measurements.