We report a particle source imaging analysis based on two-pion correlations in high multiplicity Au+Au collisions at beam energies between 2A and 8A GeV. We apply the imaging technique introduced by ...Brown and Danielewicz, which allows a model-independent extraction of source functions with useful accuracy out to relative pion separations of about 20 fm. The extracted source functions have Gaussian shapes. Values of source functions at zero separation are almost constant across the energy range under study. Imaging results are found to be consistent with conventional source parameters obtained from a multidimensional Hanburg-Brown-Twiss analysis.
Construction and performance of the PHENIX pad chambers Adcox, K.; Ajitanand, J.; Alexander, J. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
02/2003, Volume:
497, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
We present the Pad Chamber detector system in the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The three station system provides space points ...along each track in the spectrometer arms at mid-rapidity and covers a total area of
88
m
2
. Its main functions are to provide the track coordinate along the beam and to ensure reliable pattern recognition at very high particle multiplicity. A new concept for two dimensional wire chamber readout via its finely segmented cathode was developed. The full readout system, comprising
172
800
electronic channels, is described together with the challenging design of the chambers. The electronics, mounted on the outer chamber face, together with the chamber itself amounts to 1.2% of a radiation length. Results from cosmic ray tests, showing an average efficiency better than 99.5% for all chambers are presented. The experiences from the full scale operation in the first run are reported.
PHENIX on-line and off-line computing Adler, S.S.; Chujo, T.; Desmond, E.J. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
03/2003, Volume:
499, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Data handling in PHENIX is carried out by the On-Line Computing System (ONCS) and Off-Line Computing System (Off-Line). ONCS provides the overall control and monitoring of the front-end electronics, ...trigger and data acquisition system and detector ancillary systems. It configures and initializes the on-line system, monitors and controls the data flow, coordinates calibration processes, interlocks the data acquisition process with the slow control subsystems and performs a number of other functions. ONCS uses CORBA software to monitor and control the hardware. Off-Line provides all aspects of data handling not directly connected to the collection of data and monitoring, such as event simulation and reconstruction, data analysis and information management. The impact of the unprecedented data volumes on the design is presented, along with a detailed discussion of the tasks and methods of simulating, obtaining and monitoring the data.
Using the FOPI detector at GSI Darmstadt, excitation functions of collective flow components were measured for the Au+Au system, in the reaction plane and out of this plane, at seven incident ...energies ranging from 100
A MeV to 800
A MeV. The threshold energies, corresponding to the onset of sideward-flow (balance energy) and squeeze-out effect (transition energy), are extracted from extrapolations of these excitation functions toward lower beam energies for charged products with
Z ⩾ 2. The transition energy is found to be larger than the balance energy. The impact parameter dependence of both balance and transition energies, when extrapolated to central collisions, suggests comparable although slightly higher values than the threshold energy for the radial flow. The relevant parameter seems to be the energy deposited into the system in order to overcome the attractive nuclear forces.
The mass distributions of baryon resonances populated in near-central collisions of Au on Au and Ni on Ni are deduced by defolding the $p_t$ spectra of charged pions by a method which does not depend ...on a specific resonance shape. In addition the mass distributions of resonances are obtained from the invariant masses of $(p, \pi^{\pm})$ pairs. With both methods the deduced mass distributions are shifted by an average value of -60 MeV/c$^2$ relative to the mass distribution of the free $\Delta(1232)$ resonance, the distributions descent almost exponentially towards mass values of 2000 MeV/c^2. The observed differences between $(p, \pi^-)$ and $(p, \pi^+)$ pairs indicate a contribution of isospin $I = 1/2$ resonances. The attempt to consistently describe the deduced mass distributions and the reconstructed kinetic energy spectra of the resonances leads to new insights about the freeze out conditions, i.e. to rather low temperatures and large expansion velocities.
Directed sideward flow of light charged particles and intermediate mass fragments was measured in different symmetric reactions at bombarding energies from 90 to 800
A MeV. The flow parameter is ...found to increase with the charge of the detected fragment up to
Z = 3–4 and then turns into saturation for heavier fragments. Guided by simple simulations of an anisotropic expanding thermal source, we show that the value at saturation can provide a good estimate of the flow angle, Θ
flow, in the participant region. It is found that Θ
flow depends strongly on the impact parameter. The excitation function of Θ
folw reveals striking deviations from the ideal hydrodynamical scaling. The data exhibit a steep rise of Θ
flow to a maximum at around 250 – 400
A MeV, followed by a moderate decrease as the bombarding energy increases further.
We present some of the latest results from the E895 experiment conducted at the BNL AGS accelerator. Au+Au collisions were recorded by the EOS Time Projection Chamber (TPC) at beam energies of 2, 4, ...6, and 8 A GeV. The TPC detector permitted the reconstruction of individual collision events with almost 4π acceptance and good particle identification. This capability allowed E895 to study global observables and two particle correlations with respect to symmetries of the event. Flow excitation functions are examined and discussed in the context of the Nuclear Equation of State.
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