A measurement of direct photon production in {sup 208}Pb+ {sup 208}Pb collisions at 158A GeV has been carried out in the CERN WA98 experiment. The invariant yield of direct photons in central ...collisions is extracted as a function of transverse momentum in the interval 0.5<p{sub T}<4 GeV/c . A significant direct photon signal, compared to statistical and systematical errors, is seen at p{sub T}>1.5 GeV/c . The result constitutes the first observation of direct photons in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. It could be significant for diagnosis of quark-gluon-plasma formation.
Results on transverse mass spectra of neutral pious measured at central rapidity are presented for impact parameter selected 158-A GeV Pb + Pb-1 and Pb + Nb collisions. The distributions cover the ...range 0.5 GeV/c(2) less than or equal to MT - Mo less than or equal to 4 GeV/c(2). The change of the spectral shape and the multiplicity with centrality is studied in detail. In going from p+p to semi-peripheral Pb+Pb collisions there is a nuclear enhancement increasing with transverse mass similar to the well known Cronin effect, while for very central collisions this enhancement appears to be weaker than expected.
Measurements of direct photon production in p+Pb and p+C collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 17.4\mathrm{GeV}$ are presented. Upper limits on the direct photon yield as a function of $p_\mathrm{T}$ ...are derived and compared to the results for Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 17.3$ GeV. The production of the $\eta$ meson, which is an important input to the direct photon signal extraction, has been determined in the $\eta \rightarrow 2\gamma$ channel for p+C collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 17.4\mathrm{GeV}$.
Two-particle correlations of direct photons were measured in central 208Pb+208Pb collisions at 158A GeV. The invariant interferometric radii were extracted for 100<K(T)<300 MeV/c and compared to ...radii extracted from charged pion correlations. The yield of soft direct photons, K(T)<300 MeV/c, was extracted from the correlation strength and compared to theoretical calculations.
Event-by-event fluctuations in the multiplicities of charged particles and photons, and the total transverse energy in 158A GeV Pb+Pb collisions are studied for a wide range of centralities. For ...narrow centrality bins the multiplicity and transverse energy distributions are found to be near perfect Gaussians. The effect of detector acceptance on the multiplicity fluctuations has been studied and demonstrated to follow statistical considerations. The centrality dependence of the charged particle multiplicity fluctuations in the measured data has been found to agree reasonably well with those obtained from a participant model. However, for photons the multiplicity fluctuations have been found to be lower compared to those obtained from a participant model. The multiplicity and transverse energy fluctuations have also been compared to those obtained from the VENUS event generator.
Neutral pion transverse momentum spectra were measured in p+C and p+Pb collisions at sqrtS{NN}=17.4 GeV at midrapidity (2.3 less than or approximately equal eta{lab} less than or approximately equal ...3.0) over the range 0.7 less than or approximately equal p{T} less than or approximately equal 3.5 GeV/c. The spectra are compared to pi{0} spectra measured in Pb+Pb collisions at sqrtS{NN}=17.3 GeV in the same experiment. For a wide range of Pb+Pb centralities (N{part} less than or approximately equal 300), the yield of pi{0}'s with p{T} greater than or approximately equal 2 GeV/c is larger than or consistent with the p+C or p+Pb yields scaled with the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions (N{coll}), while for central Pb+Pb collisions with N{part}greater than or approximately equal 350, the pi{0} yield is suppressed.
The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in Pb-208 + Pb-208 collisions at 158 (.) A GeV/c in the WA98 ...experiment at the CERN SPS. The anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.
The effect of the final state Coulomb interaction on particles produced in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c has been investigated in the WA98 experiment through the study of the pi-/pi+ and K-/K+ ...ratios measured as a function of transverse mass. While the ratio for kaons shows no significant transverse mass dependence, the pi-/pi+ ratio is enhanced at small transverse mass values with an enhancement that increases with centrality. A silicon pad detector located near the target is used to estimate the contribution of hyperon decays to the pi-/pi+ ratio. The comparison of results with predictions of the RQMD model in which the Coulomb interaction has been incorporated allows to place constraints on the time of the pion freeze-out.
PDF
