We present the first observation of K^{-} and ϕ absorption within nuclear matter by means of π^{-}-induced reactions on C and W targets at an incident beam momentum of 1.7 GeV/c studied with HADES ...at SIS18/GSI. The double ratio (K^{-}/K^{+})_{W}/(K^{-}/K^{+})_{C} is found to be 0.319±0.009(stat)_{-0.012}^{+0.014}(syst) indicating a larger absorption of K^{-} in heavier targets as compared to lighter ones. The measured ϕ/K^{-} ratios in π^{-}+C and π^{-}+W reactions within the HADES acceptance are found to be equal to 0.55±0.04(stat)_{-0.07}^{+0.06}(syst) and to 0.63±0.06(stat)_{-0.11}^{+0.11}(syst), respectively. The similar ratios measured in the two different reactions demonstrate for the first time experimentally that the dynamics of the ϕ meson in nuclear medium is strongly coupled to the K^{-} dynamics. The large difference in the ϕ production off C and W nuclei is discussed in terms of a strong ϕN in-medium coupling. These results are relevant for the description of heavy-ion collisions and the structure of neutron stars.
Angular distributions of charged particles relative to jet axes are studied in $\sqrt{^SNN}$ = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions as a function of the jet orientation with respect to the event plane. This ...differential study tests the expected path-length dependence of energy loss experienced by a hard-scattered parton as it traverses the hot and dense medium formed in heavy-ion collisions. A second-order event plane is used in the analysis as an experimental estimate of the reaction plane formed by the collision impact parameter and the beam direction. Charged-particle jets with 15 < $p_{\text {T,jet}}$ < 20 and 20 < $p_{\text {T,jet}}$ < 40 GeV / $c$ were reconstructed with the anti-$k_{\text {T}}$ algorithm with radius parameter setting of R = 0.4 in the 20-50% centrality bin to maximize the initial-state eccentricity of the interaction region. The reaction plane fit method is implemented to remove the flow-modulated background with better precision than prior methods. Yields and widths of jet-associated charged-hadron distributions are extracted in three angular bins between the jet axis and the event plane. The event-plane (EP) dependence is further quantified by ratios of the associated yields in different EP bins. No dependence on orientation of the jet axis with respect to the event plane is seen within the uncertainties in the kinematic regime studied. Finally, this finding is consistent with a similar experimental observation by ALICE in $\sqrt{^SNN}$ = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collision data.
High-precision measurements of flow coefficients
v
n
(
n
=
1
-
4
) for protons, deuterons and tritons relative to the first-order spectator plane have been performed in Au+Au collisions at
s
NN
=
2.4
... GeV with the High-Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at the SIS18/GSI. Flow coefficients are studied as a function of transverse momentum
p
t
and rapidity
y
cm
over a large region of phase-space and for several classes of collision centrality. A clear mass hierarchy, as expected by relativistic hydrodynamics, is found for the slope of
v
1
,
d
v
1
/
d
y
′
|
y
′
=
0
where
y
′
is the scaled rapidity, and for
v
2
at mid-rapidity. Scaling with the number of nucleons is observed for the
p
t
dependence of
v
2
and
v
4
at mid-rapidity, which is indicative for nuclear coalescence as the main process responsible for light nuclei formation.
v
2
is found to scale with the initial eccentricity
⟨
ϵ
2
⟩
, while
v
4
scales with
⟨
ϵ
2
⟩
2
and
⟨
ϵ
4
⟩
. The multi-differential high-precision data on
v
1
,
v
2
,
v
3
, and
v
4
provides important constraints on the equation-of-state of compressed baryonic matter.
Density fluctuations near the QCD critical point can be probed via an intermittency analysis in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We report the first measurement of intermittency in Au+Au collisions ...at $\sqrt{s{NN}}$ = 7.7-200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The scaled factorial moments of identified charged hadrons are analyzed at mid-rapidity and within the transverse momentum phase space. We observe a power-law behavior of scaled factorial moments in Au+Au collisions and a decrease in the extracted scaling exponent (ν) from peripheral to central collisions. The ν is consistent with a constant for different collisions energies in the mid-central (10-40%) collisions. Moreover, the ν in the 0-5% most central Au+Au collisions exhibits a non-monotonic energy dependence that reaches a minimum around $\sqrt{s{NN}}$ = 27 GeV. The physics implications on the QCD phase structure are discussed.
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