Recent results on heavy-ion physics from the SPS

The CERN SPS heavy-ion physics program was recently given an important and fresh impetus with the running of the NA60 dimuon experiment, which probed indium-indium collisions at 158 GeV per incident nucleon (in 2003), as well as proton-nucleus collisions at 158 and 400 GeV (essentially in 2004). Several interesting physics results have been obtained and were recently presented by NA60. They address such varied physics topics as the search for in-medium modifications on the ρ short-lived vector meson (which could be related to the restoration of chiral symmetry, spontaneously broken in the hadronic world), the understanding of the “anomalous” J/ψ suppression (expected to be a signature of quark-gluon deconfinement), the search for thermal dimuons (presumably radiated from a thermal system, maybe composed of deconfined quarks and gluons — the “quark-gluon plasma”), the understanding of the enhancement of θ production in heavy-ion collisions, etc. These topics were previously studied by other SPS experiments, and very interesting observations were made, but serious doubts remained concerning the interpretation of those earlier results. It is remarkable that one single experiment, NA60, is able to provide high-quality information on each of these many topics, potentially triggering a very significant step forward in our understanding of “quark-matter physics”.In this paper, after a general introduction, I describe the NA60 apparatus, the data taking conditions, and the main steps in the data reconstruction procedure. I then give some information on the muon track matching and background subtraction procedures. In the remaining sections I review some of the results presently available from the on-going physics analyses, in what concerns the studies of low mass and intermediate mass dimuon production, and J/ψ suppression, in proton-nucleus and indium-indium collisions. These new (and still preliminary) results are placed in perspective, by recalling the findings of previous experiments.     

Dilepton production at SIS energies

In this short review the results of detailed studies for dilepton production from p+A andA+A reactions at SIS energies are presented. The calculations are based on a semi-classical BUU transport model that includes the off-shell propagation of vector mesons and evaluates the width of the vector mesons dynamically. Different scenarios of in-medium modifications of vector mesons, such as collisional broadening and dropping vector meson masses, are investigated and the possibilities for an experimental observation of in-medium effects in p+A reactions at 1–4 GeV are discussed for a variety of nuclear targets.     

Evidence for radial flow of thermal dileptons in high-energy nuclear collisions

The NA60 experiment at the CERN SPS has studied low-mass dimuon production in 158A GeV In-In collisions. An excess of pairs above the known meson decays has been reported before. We now present precision results on the associated transverse momentum spectra. The slope parameter Teff extracted from the spectra rises with dimuon mass up to the rho, followed by a sudden decline above. While the initial rise is consistent with the expectations for radial flow of a hadronic decay source, the decline signals a transition to an emission source with much smaller flow. This may well represent the first direct evidence for thermal radiation of partonic origin in nuclear collisions.     

Low mass dimuons produced in relativistic nuclear collisions

The NA60 experiment has measured low mass muon pair production in In-In collisions at 158A GeV with unprecedented precision. We show that these data are reproduced very well by a dynamical model with parameters scaled from fits to measurements of hadronic transverse mass spectra and Hanbury Brown-Twiss correlations in Pb-Pb and Pb-Au collisions at the same energy. The data are consistent with in-medium properties of rho and omega mesons at finite temperature and density as deduced from empirical forward-scattering amplitudes. Inclusion of the vacuum decay of the rho meson after freeze-out is necessary for an understanding of the mass and transverse momentum spectrum of dimuons with M less similar 0.9 GeV/c(2).     

What does the ρ-meson do? In-medium mass shift scenarios versus hadronic model calculations

The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pair production in In–In collisions at 158 A GeV with unprecedented precision. With these results there is hope that the in-medium modifications of the vector meson spectral function can be constrained more thoroughly than before. We investigate in particular what can be learned about collisional broadening by a hot and dense medium and what constraints the experimental results put on in-medium mass shift scenarios. The data show a clear indication of considerable in-medium broadening effects but disfavor mass shift scenarios where the ρ-meson mass scales with the square root of the chiral condensate. Scaling scenarios which predict at finite density a dropping of the ρ-meson mass that is stronger than that of the quark condensate are clearly ruled out since they are also accompanied by a sharpening of the spectral function. PACS 25.75.-q     

Test of nuclear effects in hadronic dimuon production

We present the final analysis of the nuclear effects on the cross section of dimuon production, using simultaneously a hydrogen and a platinum target in a 150, 200 and 280 GeV pion beam. For the dimuon mass interval 4.1 to 8.5 GeV, the ratio of the cross sections is in agreement with the Drell-Yan model within a 10% error, mainly due to systematics. The variation of this ratio with the dimuon mass, x₁ and x₂ is also in good agreement, and no variation with the transverse momentum is observed.     

Evidence for the production of thermal muon pairs with masses above 1 GeV/c 2 in 158 A GeV indium-indium collisions

The yield of muon pairs in the invariant mass region 1<M<2.5 GeV/c ² produced in heavy-ion collisions significantly exceeds the sum of the two expected contributions, Drell-Yan dimuons and muon pairs from the decays of D meson pairs. These sources properly account for the dimuons produced in proton-nucleus collisions. In this paper, we show that dimuons are also produced in excess in 158 A GeV In-In collisions. We furthermore observe, by tagging the dimuon vertices, that this excess is not due to enhanced D meson production, but made of prompt muon pairs, as expected from a source of thermal dimuons specific to high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. The yield of this excess increases significantly from peripheral to central collisions, both with respect to the Drell-Yan yield and to the number of nucleons participating in the collisions. Furthermore, the transverse mass distributions of the excess dimuons are well described by an exponential function, with inverse slope values around 190 MeV. The values are independent of mass and significantly lower than those found at masses below 1 GeV/c ², rising there up to 250 MeV due to radial flow. This suggests the emission source of thermal dimuons above 1 GeV/c ² to be of largely partonic origin, when radial flow has not yet built up.     

Subthreshold ϕ-meson production and medium effects in proton-nucleus reactions

Within the spectral function approach, we study the direct production and decay via the dikaon (dimuon) channel of ϕ mesons in the interactions of 2.4-and 2.7-GeV protons with light and medium target nuclei. It is shown that the K ⁺ K ⁻ (μ⁺ μ⁻) invariant-mass distribution consists of the two components, which correspond to the ϕ decay “outside” and “inside” the target nucleus. The first (narrow) component has the free ϕ width, while the second (broad) component is distorted by the nuclear matter owing to resonance-nucleon scattering and a possible in-medium modification of the kaons and ρ meson at finite baryon density. The relative strength of the “inside” and “outside” components is analyzed in different scenarios for the ϕ width and momentum cut. It is demonstrated that the width of the resulting dimuon invariant-mass distribution on medium nuclei is larger than the free ϕ width by a factor of about 2 if the total ϕ in-medium width is used and the respective cutoff for the ϕ three-momentum is applied, whereas the resulting dikaon invariant-mass distribution has an insignificant sensitivity to the ϕ in-medium properties owing to the strong absorption of the K ⁻ in the surrounding nuclear matter. On the other hand, because of the distortion of the K ⁺ and K ⁻ on their way out of the target nucleus mainly due to the hadronic kaon potentials, the latter distribution is broadened and shifted to higher invariant masses, which means that the measurement of such broadening would give additional evidence for the modification of the kaon and antikaon properties in the nuclear medium. The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Persistent threshold effects characterizing dimuon and hadron distributions due to charmed particle production by neutrinos

If massive charmed particles are being produced in current νN scattering experiments, their semi-leptonic decay leads to dimuon states. The production and decay of such particles in this process is examined in a parton model which has been modified to realistically incorporate the threshold due to the large mass of the charmed particle.The model then predicts threshold scaling violations which are unexpectedly large, and persist out to several hundred GeV in neutrino energy. These effects are particularly striking in the distributions of the charmed particle and its decay products, whose naive-scaling violations are so extreme as to be better described in terms of new anomalous scaling “laws”.The resultant dimuon and hadron distributions are qualitatively consistent with all trends observed in the recent dimuon experiments. Comparative tests between charm and other mechanisms for dimuon production are proposed. An important feature of these tests is their reliance on the persistent threshold effects predicted above. The present data on the muonic energy asymmetry β as a function of incoming neutrino energy is in agreement with the anomalous scaling predicted in the above model.     

Kaon production in heavy ion collisions — Which observable is best suited to observe in-medium potentials?

A review of kaon production in heavy ion collisions at incident energies of 1–2 A GeV is presented. Two conflicting interpretations are discussed: Microscopic transport models can describe most of the observed features when in-medium modifications of kaons are taken into account. In contrast, statistical models in a canonical formulation are able to describe the particle yields only by using masses of free hadrons. Different inverse slope parameters and unequal azimuthal distributions are observed for K⁺ and K^- mesons. Interpretations are discussed.     

Di-lepton production in heavy-ion collisions and the QCD phase diagram

We reproduce di-electron spectra in the region of 0 < m _e+e < 4 GeV in both minimum bias and central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt {s_{NN} } $ = 200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment. A cocktail simulation, incorporating STAR acceptance and detector responses, is able to describe the ??enhancement?? of the low mass region by including an in-medium modification of vector mesons and a thermal di-lepton calculation. We also predict the di-lepton mass spectra in RHIC lower energies via an extrapolation method. The evolution of Di-lepton mass spectra, effective temperature, and possible medium modifications versus colliding energies are studied to explore the QCD phase diagram.     

The role of the rho meson in pion-nucleus interactions

It is shown that the static model gives a large overestimate of the effects of rho-meson propagation for pionic scattering and reactions at low and medium energies. In a relativistic treatment, the effect of intermediate stateρ-propagation is shown to be small and often negligible within present uncertainties. An improved value for theρNΔ coupling constant is extracted from Ragge pole fits.     

Investigating in-medium lambda production in pion induced reactions

We present the status of the evaluation of in-medium production cross sections for Lambda baryons and K $_{0}^{S}$ mesons in pion induced reactions at 1.15 GeV/c beam momentum. A systematics of five target nuclei, from carbon to lead, has been measured. The inclusive in-medium cross section is studied as well as possible conclusions on in-medium potential by comparing to transport model calculations. The data have been recorded by the FOPI detector at the GSI.     

The production ofJ/ψ in 200 GeV/A oxygen-uranium interactions

The dimuon production in 200 GeV/nucleon oxygen-uranium interactions is studied by the NA 38 Collaboration. The production ofJ/ψ, correlated with the transverse energyET, is investigated and compared to the continuum, as a function of the dimuon massM and transverse momentumPT. A value of 0.64±0.06 is found for the ratio (ψ/Continuum at highET)/(ψ/Continuum at lowET), from which theJ/ψ relative suppression can be extracted. This suppression is enhanced at lowPT.     

Measurement of forward-backward asymmetry A FB and of the weak mixing angle in processes of dilepton production in proton-proton collisions at \sqrt s = 7 TeV in the CMS experiment at the LHC

The results obtained by measuring the forward-backward asymmetry (A _FB ) of Drell-Yan lepton pairs in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt s $ = 7 TeV at the LHC are presented. This asymmetry is measured as a function of the dilepton mass and rapidity in the dielectron and dimuon channels. The values of A _FB were found for invariant masses of dileptons in the range of 40 ? M _ll ? 600 GeV. The results for the effective weak mixing angle that were deduced from data on dimuon production in Drell-Yan processes are also presented. The respective data sample was collected by using the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector over the period spanning the years 2010 and 2011. The measured asymmetry and the effective weak mixing are consistent with the respective Standard Model predictions.     

Angular distributions in the dimuon hadronic production at 150 GeV/c

From π^- interactions at 150 GeV/c on a heavy target, we present the final analysis of the dimuon decay angular distribution in the mass interval 4.5–8.5 GeV/c². Results are presented and discussed in various reference frames and are also given in terms of the density matrix elements. Finally the possible contribution of higher-twist effects at largex ₁ is discussed; we find that our data are not compatible with higher twist contributions as proposed by the Berger and Brodsky Model.     

Temperature Dependence of Decuplet Baryon Masses from Thermal QCD Sum Rules

In the present work, the masses of the decuplet baryons at finite temperature are investigated using thermal QCD sum rules. Making use of the quark propagator at finite temperature, we calculate the spectral functions to T8 order, and find that there are no contributions to the spectral functions at T8 order and the temperature corrections mainly come from that containing T4 ones. The calculations show very little temperature dependence of the masses below T = 0.11 Ge V. While above that value, the masses decrease with increasing temperature. The results indicate that the hadron-quark phase transition temperature may be Tc≥ 0.11 Ge V for the decuplet bayons.     

Enhanced production of low-mass electron-positron pairs in 40-AGeV Pb-Au collisions at the CERN SPS

We report on first measurements of low-mass electron-positron pairs in Pb-Au collisions at the CERN SPS beam energy of 40 AGeV. The observed pair yield integrated over the range of invariant masses 0.2e(+)e(-) annihilation with a modified rho propagator. They may be linked to chiral symmetry restoration and support the notion that the in-medium modifications of the rho are more driven by baryon density than by temperature.     

Radial profile of bottom quarks in jets in high-energy nuclear collisions

Angular correlations between a heavy quark(HQ) and its tagged jet are potentially new tools to gain insight into the in-medium partonic interactions in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.In this work,we present the first theoretical study on the radial profiles of B mesons in jets in Pb+Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider(LHC).The initial production of a bottom quark tagged jet in p+p is computed by SHERPA,which matches the next-toleading order matrix elements with contributions of parton showers,whereas the massive quark traversing the quarkgluon plasma is described by a Monte Carlo model,SHELL,which can simultaneously simulate light and heavy flavor in-medium energy loss within the framework of Langevin evolution.In p+p collisions,we find that at lower p_T~Q the radial profiles of heavy flavors in jets are sensitive to the heavy quark mass.In 0-10% Pb+Pb collisions at S_(NN)~(1/2)=5.02 TeV,we observe an inverse modification pattern of the B meson radial profiles in jets at 4 p_T~Q 20 GeV compared to those of D mesons:the jet quenching effects narrow the jet radial profiles of B mesons in jets while broadening those of D mesons in jets.We find that in A+A collisions,the contribution dissipated from the higher p_T~Q 20 GeV region naturally has a narrower initial distribution and consequently leads to a narrower modification pattern of the radial profile;however the diffusion nature of the heavy flavor in-medium interactions will give rise to a broader modification pattern of the radial profile.These two effects consequently compete and offset with each other,and the b quarks in jets benefit more from the former and suffer less diffusion effect compared to that of c quarks in jets.These findings can be tested in the future experimental measurements at the LHC to gain better understanding of the mass effect of jet quenching.