We present the first measurement of the proton–Ω correlation function in heavy-ion collisions for the central (0–40%) and peripheral (40–80%) Au + Au collisions at GeV by the STAR experiment at the ...Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC). Predictions for the ratio of peripheral collisions to central collisions for the proton–Ω correlation function are sensitive to the presence of a nucleon–Ω bound state. These predictions are based on the proton–Ω interaction extracted from -flavor lattice QCD calculations at the physical point. The measured ratio of the proton–Ω correlation function between the peripheral (small system) and central (large system) collisions is less than unity for relative momentum smaller than 40 MeV/c. Comparison of our measured correlation ratio with theoretical calculation slightly favors a proton–Ω bound system with a binding energy of ~ 27 MeV.
We report K/pi fluctuations from Au + Au collisions at sqrts(NN)= 19.6, 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV using the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. K/pi fluctuations in central collisions ...show little dependence on incident energy and are on the same order as those from NA49 at the Super Proton Synchrotron in central Pb + Pb collisions at sqrts(NN)=12.3 and 17.3 GeV. We report results for the collision centrality dependence of K/pi fluctuations and results for charge-separated fluctuations. We observe that the K/pi fluctuations scale with the charged particle multiplicity density.
Identified charged-particle spectra of {pi}{sup {+-}}, K{sup {+-}}, p, and p at midrapidity (|y|<0.1) measured by the dE/dx method in the STAR (solenoidal tracker at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion ...Collider) time projection chamber are reported for pp and d+Au collisions at {radical}(s{sub NN})=200 GeV and for Au+Au collisions at 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV. Average transverse momenta, total particle production, particle yield ratios, strangeness, and baryon production rates are investigated as a function of the collision system and centrality. The transverse momentum spectra are found to be flatter for heavy particles than for light particles in all collision systems; the effect is more prominent for more central collisions. The extracted average transverse momentum of each particle species follows a trend determined by the total charged-particle multiplicity density. The Bjorken energy density estimate is at least several GeV/fm{sup 3} for a formation time less than 1 fm/c. A significantly larger net-baryon density and a stronger increase of the net-baryon density with centrality are found in Au+Au collisions at 62.4 GeV than at the two higher energies. Antibaryon production relative to total particle multiplicity is found to be constant over centrality, but increases with the collision energy. Strangeness production relative to total particle multiplicity is similar at the three measured RHIC energies. Relative strangeness production increases quickly with centrality in peripheral Au+Au collisions, to a value about 50% above the pp value, and remains rather constant in more central collisions. Bulk freeze-out properties are extracted from thermal equilibrium model and hydrodynamics-motivated blast-wave model fits to the data. Resonance decays are found to have little effect on the extracted kinetic freeze-out parameters because of the transverse momentum range of our measurements. The extracted chemical freeze-out temperature is constant, independent of collision system or centrality; its value is close to the predicted phase-transition temperature, suggesting that chemical freeze-out happens in the vicinity of hadronization and the chemical freeze-out temperature is universal despite the vastly different initial conditions in the collision systems. The extracted kinetic freeze-out temperature, while similar to the chemical freeze-out temperature in pp, d+Au, and peripheral Au+Au collisions, drops significantly with centrality in Au+Au collisions, whereas the extracted transverse radial flow velocity increases rapidly with centrality. There appears to be a prolonged period of particle elastic scatterings from chemical to kinetic freeze-out in central Au+Au collisions. The bulk properties extracted at chemical and kinetic freeze-out are observed to evolve smoothly over the measured energy range, collision systems, and collision centralities.
We present measurements of net charge fluctuations in Au+Au collisions at {radical}(s{sub NN})=19.6, 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV, Cu+Cu collisions at {radical}(s{sub NN})=62.4 and 200 GeV, and p+p ...collisions at {radical}(s)=200 GeV using the dynamical net charge fluctuations measure {nu}{sub +-,dyn}. We observe that the dynamical fluctuations are nonzero at all energies and exhibit a modest dependence on beam energy. A weak system size dependence is also observed. We examine the collision centrality dependence of the net charge fluctuations and find that dynamical net charge fluctuations violate 1/N{sub ch} scaling but display approximate 1/N{sub part} scaling. We also study the azimuthal and rapidity dependence of the net charge correlation strength and observe strong dependence on the azimuthal angular range and pseudorapidity widths integrated to measure the correlation.
We report on a polarization measurement of inclusive J/ψ mesons in the di-electron decay channel at mid-rapidity at 2<pT<6 GeV/c in p+p collisions at s=200 GeV. Data were taken with the STAR detector ...at RHIC. The J/ψ polarization measurement should help to distinguish between different models of the J/ψ production mechanism since they predict different pT dependences of the J/ψ polarization. In this analysis, J/ψ polarization is studied in the helicity frame. The polarization parameter λθ measured at RHIC becomes smaller towards high pT, indicating more longitudinal J/ψ polarization as pT increases. The result is compared with predictions of presently available models.
We present the measurements of elliptic flow ($v_2$) of non-photonic electrons (NPE) by the STAR experiment using 2- and 4-particle correlations, $v_2${2} and $v_2${4}, and the event plane method in ...Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200$ GeV, and $v_2${2} at 62.4 and 39 GeV. $v_2${2} and $v_2${4} are non-zero at low and intermediate transverse momentum ($p_T$) at 200 GeV, and $v_2${2} is consistent with zero at low $p_T$ at other energies. For Au+Au collisions at $p_T<1$ GeV/c, there is a statistically significant difference between $v_2${2} at 200 GeV and $v_2${2} at the two lower beam energies.
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