The anomalous magnetic moment of the negative muon has been measured to a precision of 0.7 ppm (ppm) at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. This result is based on data collected in ...2001, and is over an order of magnitude more precise than the previous measurement for the negative muon. The result a(mu(-))=11 659 214(8)(3) x 10(-10) (0.7 ppm), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic, is consistent with previous measurements of the anomaly for the positive and the negative muon. The average of the measurements of the muon anomaly is a(mu)(exp)=11 659 208(6) x 10(-10) (0.5 ppm).
The extreme energy densities generated by ultra-relativistic collisions between heavy atomic nuclei produce a state of matter that behaves surprisingly like a fluid, with exceptionally high ...temperature and low viscosity. Non-central collisions have angular momenta of the order of 1,000ћ, and the resulting fluid may have a strong vortical structure that must be understood to describe the fluid properly. The vortical structure is also of particular interest because the restoration of fundamental symmetries of quantum chromodynamics is expected to produce novel physical effects in the presence of strong vorticity. However, no experimental indications of fluid vorticity in heavy ion collisions have yet been found. Since vorticity represents a local rotational structure of the fluid, spin-orbit coupling can lead to preferential orientation of particle spins along the direction of rotation. Here we present measurements of an alignment between the global angular momentum of a non-central collision and the spin of emitted particles (in this case the collision occurs between gold nuclei and produces Λ baryons), revealing that the fluid produced in heavy ion collisions is the most vortical system so far observed. (At high energies, this fluid is a quark-gluon plasma.) We find that Λ and hyperons show a positive polarization of the order of a few per cent, consistent with some hydrodynamic predictions. (A hyperon is a particle composed of three quarks, at least one of which is a strange quark; the remainder are up and down quarks, found in protons and neutrons.) A previous measurement that reported a null result, that is, zero polarization, at higher collision energies is seen to be consistent with the trend of our observations, though with larger statistical uncertainties. These data provide experimental access to the vortical structure of the nearly ideal liquid created in a heavy ion collision and should prove valuable in the development of hydrodynamic models that quantitatively connect observations to the theory of the strong force.
Global polarization of Λ hyperons has been measured to be of the order of a few tenths of a percent in Au+Au collisions at √SNN = 200 GeV, with no significant difference between Λ and Λ¯. These new ...results reveal the collision energy dependence of the global polarization together with the results previously observed √SNN = 7.7 – 62.4 GeV and indicate noticeable vorticity of the medium created in non-central heavy-ion collisions at the highest RHIC collision energy.
The Λ (Λ¯) hyperon polarization along the beam direction has been measured in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV, for the first time in heavy-ion collisions. The polarization dependence on the ...hyperons' emission angle relative to the elliptic flow plane exhibits a second harmonic sine modulation, indicating a quadrupole pattern of the vorticity component along the beam direction, expected due to elliptic flow. The polarization is found to increase in more peripheral collisions, and shows no strong transverse momentum (pT) dependence at pT greater than 1 GeV/c. The magnitude of the signal is about 5 times smaller than those predicted by hydrodynamic and multiphase transport models; the observed phase of the emission angle dependence is also opposite to these model predictions. In contrast, the kinematic vorticity calculations in the blast-wave model tuned to reproduce particle spectra, elliptic flow, and the azimuthal dependence of the Gaussian source radii measured with the Hanbury Brown–Twiss intensity interferometry technique reproduce well the modulation phase measured in the data and capture the centrality and transverse momentum dependence of the polarization signal.
A higher precision measurement of the anomalous g value, a(mu)=(g-2)/2, for the positive muon has been made at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, based on data collected in the year ...2000. The result a(mu(+))=11 659 204(7)(5)x10(-10) (0.7 ppm) is in good agreement with previous measurements and has an error about one-half that of the combined previous data. The present world average experimental value is a(mu)(expt)=11 659 203(8)x10(-10) (0.7 ppm).
Global polarization of Ξ and Ω hyperons has been measured for the first time in Au + Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV. The measurements of the Ξ− and ... hyperon polarization have been performed by ...two independent methods, via analysis of the angular distribution of the daughter particles in the parity violating weak decay Ξ → Λ + π, as well as by measuring the polarization of the daughter Λ hyperon, polarized via polarization transfer from its parent. The polarization, obtained by combining the results from the two methods and averaged over Ξ− and ... is measured to be ⟨PΞ⟩ = 0.47 ± 0.10(stat) ± 0.23(syst)% for the collision centrality 20%–80%. The ⟨PΞ⟩ is found to be slightly larger than the inclusive Λ polarization and in reasonable agreement with a multiphase transport model. The ⟨PΞ⟩ is found to follow the centrality dependence of the vorticity predicted in the model, increasing toward more peripheral collisions. The global polarization of Ω, ⟨PΩ⟩ = 1.11 ± 0.87(stat) ± 1.97(syst)% was obtained by measuring the polarization of daughter Λ in the decay Ω → Λ + K, assuming the polarization transfer factor CΩΛ = 1.
According to the CPT theorem, which states that the combined operation of charge conjugation, parity transformation and time reversal must be conserved, particles and their antiparticles should have ...the same mass and lifetime but opposite charge and magnetic moment. Here, we test CPT symmetry in a nucleus containing a strange quark, more specifically in the hypertriton. This hypernucleus is the lightest one yet discovered and consists of a proton, a neutron and a Λ hyperon. With data recorded by the STAR detector1–3 at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, we measure the Λ hyperon binding energy BΛ for the hypertriton, and find that it differs from the widely used value4 and from predictions5–8, where the hypertriton is treated as a weakly bound system. Our results place stringent constraints on the hyperon–nucleon interaction9,10 and have implications for understanding neutron star interiors, where strange matter may be present11. A precise comparison of the masses of the hypertriton and the antihypertriton allows us to test CPT symmetry in a nucleus with strangeness, and we observe no deviation from the expected exact symmetry.The STAR collaboration reports a measurement of the mass difference and binding energy of the hypertriton and its antiparticle. This work constrains the hyperon–nucleon interaction and allows us to test the CPT theorem in a nucleus with strangeness.
A precise measurement of the anomalous g value, a(mu) = (g-2)/2, for the positive muon has been made at the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. The result a(mu+) = 11 659 202(14) (6) x ...10(-10) (1.3 ppm) is in good agreement with previous measurements and has an error one third that of the combined previous data. The current theoretical value from the standard model is a(mu)(SM) = 11 659 159.6(6.7) x 10(-10) (0.57 ppm) and a(mu)(exp) - a(mu)(SM) = 43(16) x 10(-10) in which a(mu)(exp) is the world average experimental value.
We report a new measurement of D0-meson production at mid-rapidity (| y | < 1) in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}$$_ {NN}$ = 200 GeV utilizing the heavy flavor tracker, a high resolution silicon ...detector at the STAR experiment. Invariant yields of D0 mesons with transverse momentum pT ≲ 9 GeV / c are reported in various centrality bins (0–10%, 10–20%, 20–40%, 40–60%, and 60–80%). Blast-wave thermal models are used to fit the D0-meson pT spectra to study D0 hadron kinetic freeze-out properties. The average radial flow velocity extracted from the fit is considerably smaller than that of light hadrons (π, K, and p), but comparable to that of hadrons containing multiple strange quarks (Φ, Ξ -) , indicating that D0 mesons kinetically decouple from the system earlier than light hadrons. The calculated D0 nuclear modification factors reaffirm that charm quarks suffer a large amount of energy loss in the medium, similar to those of light quarks for pT > 4 GeV/c in central 0–10% Au + Au collisions. At low pT, the nuclear modification factors show a characteristic structure qualitatively consistent with the expectation from model predictions that charm quarks gain sizable collective motion during the medium evolution. The improved measurements are expected to offer new constraints to model calculations and help gain further insights into the hot and dense medium created in these collisions.
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