Preprint
Refine
Year of publication
- 2003 (45) (remove)
Document Type
- Preprint (45) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (45)
Keywords
- baryon (3)
- Dirac (2)
- Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar (2)
- Semantik (2)
- collision (2)
- meson (2)
- quark (2)
- Baryon (1)
- Charmed mesons (1)
- Charmed quarks (1)
Institute
- Physik (33)
- Extern (4)
- Zentrum für Weiterbildung (2)
- Informatik (1)
- Mathematik (1)
- Rechtswissenschaft (1)
Directed and elliptic flow of charged pions and protons in Pb + Pb collisions at 40 and 158 A GeV
(2003)
Directed and elliptic flow measurements for charged pions and protons are reported as a function of transverse momentum, rapidity, and centrality for 40 and 158A GeV Pb + Pb collisions as recorded by the NA49 detector. Both the standard method of correlating particles with an event plane, and the cumulant method of studying multiparticle correlations are used. In the standard method the directed flow is corrected for conservation of momentum. In the cumulant method elliptic flow is reconstructed from genuine 4, 6, and 8-particle correlations, showing the first unequivocal evidence for collective motion in A+A collisions at SPS energies.
New results from the energy scan programme of NA49, in particular kaon production at 30 AGeV and phi production at 40 and 80 AGeV are presented. The K+/pi+ ratio shows a pronounced maximum at 30 AGeV; the kaon slope parameters are constant at SPS energies. Both findings support the scenario of a phase transition at about 30 AGeV beam energy. The phi/pi ratio increases smoothly with beam energy, showing an energy dependence similar to K-/pi-. The measured particle yields can be reproduced by a hadron gas model, with chemical freeze-out parameters on a smooth curve in the T-muB plane. The transverse spectra can be understood as resulting from a rapidly expanding, locally equilibrated source. No evidence for an earlier kinetic decoupling of heavy hyperons is found.
We study the behaviour of the effective temperature for K+ in several energy domains. For this purpose, we apply the recently developed SPheRIO code for hydrodynamics in 3+1 dimensions, using both Landau-type compact initial conditions and spatially more spread ones. We show that initial conditions given in small volume, like Landau-type ones, are unable to reproduce the effective temperature together with other data (multiplicities and rapidity distributions). These quantities can be reproduced altogether only when using a large initial volume with an appropriate velocity distribution.
The history and the main results of the energy scan program at the CERN SPS are reviewed. Several anomalies in energy dependence of hadron production predicted as signals of deconfinement phase transition are observed and they indicate that the onset of deconfinement is located at about 30 A GeV. For the first time we seem to have clear evidence for the existence of a deconfined state of matter in nature.
Transverse activity of kaons and the deconfinement phase transition in nucleus-nucleus collisions
(2003)
We found that the experimental results on transverse mass spectra of kaons produced in central Pb+Pb (Au+Au) interactions show an anomalous dependence on the collision energy. The inverse slopes of the spectra increase with energy in the low (AGS) and high (RHIC) energy domains, whereas they are constant in the intermediate (SPS) energy range. We argue that this anomaly is probably caused by a modification of the equation of state in the transition region between confined and deconfined matter. This observation may be considered as a new signal, in addition to the previously reported anomalies in the pion and strangeness production, of the onset of deconfinement located in the low SPS energy domain.
Observation of an exotic S = -2, Q = -2 baryon resonance in proton-proton collisions at the CERN SPS
(2003)
Results of resonance searches in the Xi- pi-, Xi- pi+, antiXi+ pi- and antiXi+ pi+ invariant mass spectra in proton-proton collisions at sqrt s=17.2 GeV are presented. Evidence is shown for the existence of a narrow Xi- pi- baryon resonance with mass of 1.862+/-0.002 GeV/c^2 and width below the detector resolution of about 0.018 GeV/c^2. The significance is estimated to be 4.0 sigma. This state is a candidate for the hypothetical exotic Xi_(3/2)^-- baryon with S = -2, I = 3/2 and a quark content of (d s d s ubar). At the same mass a peak is observed in the Xi- pi+ spectrum which is a candidate for the Xi_(3/2)^0 member of this isospin quartet with a quark content of (d s u s dbar). The corresponding antibaryon spectra also show enhancements at the same invariant mass.
Results are presented on event-by-event fluctuations in transverse momentum of charged particles, produced at forward rapidities in p+p, C+C, Si+Si and Pb+Pb collisions at 158 AGeV. Three different characteristics are discussed: the average transverse momentum of the event, the Phi_pT fluctuation measure and two-particle transverse momentum correlations. In the kinematic region explored, the dynamical fluctuations are found to be small. However, a significant system size dependence of Phi_pT is observed, with the largest value measured in peripheral Pb+Pb interactions. The data are compared with predictions of several models. PACS numbers: 14.20.Jn, 13.75.Cs, 12.39.-x
A non-monotonic energy dependence of the K + / pi + ratio with a sharp maximum close to 30 A GeV is observed in central Pb+Pb collisions. Within a statistical model of the early stage, this is interpreted as a sign of the phase transition to a QGP, which causes a sharp change in the energy dependence of the strangeness to entropy ratio. This observation naturally motivates us to study the production of multistrange hyperons (Xi, Omega) as a function of the beam energy. Furthermore it was suggested that the kinematic freeze-out of Omega takes place directly at QGP hadronization. If this is indeed the case, the transverse momentum spectra of the Omega directly reflect the transverse expansion velocity of a hadronizing QGP. In this report we show preliminary NA49 results on Omega - and Omega + production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 40 and 158 A GeV and compare them to measurements of Xi - and Xi + production in central Pb+Pb collisions at 30, 40, 80 and 158 A GeV.
A steep maximum occurs in the Wroblewski ratio between strange and non-strange quarks created in central nucleus-nucleus collisions, of about A=200, at the lower SPS energy square root s approximately equal to 7 GeV. By analyzing hadronic multiplicities within the grand canonical statistical hadronization model this maximum is shown to occur at a baryochemical potential of about 450 MeV. In comparison, recent QCD lattice calculations at finite baryochemical potential suggest a steep maximum of the light quark susceptibility, to occur at similar mu B, indicative of "critical fluctuation" expected to occur at or near the QCD critical endpoint. This endpoint hat not been firmly pinned down but should occur in the 300 MeV < mu c B < 700 MeV interval. It is argued that central collisions within the low SPS energy range should exhibit a turning point between compression/heating, and expansion/cooling at energy density, temperature and mu B close to the suspected critical point. Whereas from top SPS to RHIC energy the primordial dynamics create a turning point far above in epsilon and T, and far below in mu B. And at lower AGS energies the dynamical trajectory stays below the phase boundary. Thus, the observed sharp strangeness maximum might coincide with the critical square root s at which the dynamics settles at, or near the QCD endpoint.
Strangeness enhancement is discussed as a feature specific to relativistic nuclear collisions which create a fireball of strongly interacting matter at high energy density. At very high energy this is suggested to be partonic matter, but at lower energy it should consist of yet unknown hadronic degrees of freedom. The freeze-out of this high density state to a hadron gas can tell us about properties of fireball matter. The hadron gas at the instant of its formation captures conditions directly at the QCD phase boundary at top SPS and RHIC energy, chiefly the critical temperature and energy density.