.
Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high ...temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (
s
N
N
=
2.7--4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (
μ
B
>
500
MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation of state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2024, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.
The PHENIX collaboration presents first measurements of low-momentum (0.4<p_{T}<3 GeV/c) direct-photon yields from Au+Au collisions at sqrts_{NN}=39 and 62.4 GeV. For both beam energies the ...direct-photon yields are substantially enhanced with respect to expectations from prompt processes, similar to the yields observed in Au+Au collisions at sqrts_{NN}=200. Analyzing the photon yield as a function of the experimental observable dN_{ch}/dη reveals that the low-momentum (>1 GeV/c) direct-photon yield dN_{γ}^{dir}/dη is a smooth function of dN_{ch}/dη and can be well described as proportional to (dN_{ch}/dη)^{α} with α≈1.25. This scaling behavior holds for a wide range of beam energies at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider, for centrality selected samples, as well as for different A+A collision systems. At a given beam energy, the scaling also holds for high p_{T} (>5 GeV/c), but when results from different collision energies are compared, an additional sqrts_{NN}-dependent multiplicative factor is needed to describe the integrated-direct-photon yield.
Event reconstruction in the PHENIX central arm spectrometers Mitchell, J.T; Akiba, Y; Aphecetche, L ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
04/2002, Volume:
482, Issue:
1-2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The central arm spectrometers for the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider have been designed for the optimization of particle identification in relativistic heavy ion collisions. ...The spectrometers present a challenging environment for event reconstruction due to a very high track multiplicity in a complicated, focusing, magnetic field. In order to meet this challenge, nine distinct detector types are integrated for charged particle tracking, momentum reconstruction, and particle identification. The techniques which have been developed for the task of event reconstruction are described.
The anisotropy parameter (v(2)), the second harmonic of the azimuthal particle distribution, has been measured with the PHENIX detector in Au+Au collisions at roots(NN)=200 GeV for identified and ...inclusive charged particle production at central rapidities (eta<0.35) with respect to the reaction plane defined at high rapidities (eta=3-4 ). We observe that the v(2) of mesons falls below that of (anti)baryons for p(T)>2 GeV/c, in marked contrast to the predictions of a hydrodynamical model. A quark-coalescence model is also investigated.
Extensive experimental data from high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions were recorded using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The comprehensive set of measurements ...from the first three years of RHIC operation includes charged particle multiplicities, transverse energy, yield ratios and spectra of identified hadrons in a wide range of transverse momenta (
p
T
), elliptic flow, two-particle correlations, nonstatistical fluctuations, and suppression of particle production at high
p
T
. The results are examined with an emphasis on implications for the formation of a new state of dense matter. We find that the state of matter created at RHIC cannot be described in terms of ordinary color neutral hadrons.
The PHENIX experiment has measured midrapidity transverse momentum spectra (0.4<p(T)<4.0 GeV/c) of single electrons as a function of centrality in Au+Au collisions at roots(NN) = 200 GeV. ...Contributions from photon conversions and Dalitz decays of light neutral mesons are measured by introducing a thin (1.7% X-0) converter into the PHENIX acceptance and are statistically removed. The subtracted nonphotonic electron spectra are primarily due to the semileptonic decays of hadrons containing heavy quarks, mainly charm at lower p(T). For all centralities, the charm production cross section is found to scale with the nuclear overlap function, T-AA. For minimum-bias collisions the charm cross section per binary collision is N-c (c) over bar/T-AA=622+/-57(stat)+/-160(syst) mub.
Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of eta mesons have been measured within p(T)=2-10 GeV/c at midrapidity by the PHENIX experiment in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. In central Au+Au the ...eta yields are significantly suppressed compared to peripheral Au+Au, d+Au, and p+p yields scaled by the corresponding number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. The magnitude, centrality, and p(T) dependence of the suppression is common, within errors, for eta and pi(0). The ratio of eta to pi(0) spectra at high p(T) amounts to 0.40 < R-eta/pi(0)< 0.48 for the three systems, in agreement with the world average measured in hadronic and nuclear reactions and, at large scaled momentum, in e(+)e(-) collisions.
Transverse momentum spectra for charged hadrons and for neutral pions in the range 1 Gev/c < P-T < 5 GeV/c have been measured by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC in Au + Au collisions at rootS(NN) = 130 ...GeV. At high p(T) the spectra from peripheral nuclear collisions are consistent with scaling the spectra from p + p collisions by the average number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The spectra from central collisions are significantly suppressed when compared to the binary-scaled p + p expectation, and also when compared to similarly binary-scaled peripheral collisions, indicating a novel nuclear-medium effect in central nuclear collisions at RHIC energies.
The invariant differential cross section for inclusive neutral-pion production in p+p collisions at roots=200 GeV has been measured at midrapidity (eta<0.35) over the range 1<p(T)less than or similar ...to14 GeV/c by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Predictions of next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with these measurements. The precision of our result is sufficient to differentiate between prevailing gluon-to-pion fragmentation functions.
Transverse single-spin asymmetries to probe the transverse-spin structure of the proton have been measured for neutral pions and nonidentified charged hadrons from polarized proton-proton collisions ...at midrapidity and root s = 200 GeV. The data cover a transverse momentum (pT) range 1.0-5.0 GeV/c for neutral pions and 0.5-5.0 GeV/c for charged hadrons, at a Feynman-x value of approximately zero. The asymmetries seen in this previously unexplored kinematic region are consistent with zero within errors of a few percent. In addition, the inclusive charged hadron cross section at midrapidity from 0.5 < P-T < 7.0 GeV/c is presented and compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD ( pQCD) calculations. Successful description of the unpolarized cross section above similar to 2 GeV/c suggests that pQCD is applicable in the interpretation of the asymmetry results in the relevant kinematic range.
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