Backward yields of pions,protons, and deuterons in relativistic 28Si+Pb collisions at 14.6 A GeVc

The production of pions, protons and deuterons is studied at a laboratory angle of 144° in ²⁸Si+Pb collisions at 14.6 GeV/c per nucleon. The centrality dependence of the pion yields is studied over the full impact parameter range using a zero degree calorimeter. The results are compared with the hadronic cascade model RQMD. These calculations are generally in agreement with the experimental results. According to these calculations, the pion yield in our acceptance is completely dominated by Δ-decay at freeze-out. Our measurements thus support the importance of baryon resonance production as one of the central features of relativistic heavy ion collisions at AGS energies. Although the strength of the pion spectrum is adequately described for kinetic energies above 50 MeV, an additional very soft component is observed in the pion spectra which is not predicted by RQMD. This very soft component accounts for a significant fraction of the total pion yield in this rapidity range but remains unexplained.     

Charged pion production in p+C collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum: Discussion

The new data on pion production in p+C interactions from the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS are used for a detailed study of hadronization in the collision of protons with light nuclei. The comparison to the extensive set of data from p+p collisions obtained with the same detector allows for the separation and extraction of the projectile and target contributions to the pion yield both in longitudinal and in transverse momentum.     

π− Production in16O +27Al at 38, 65 and 93 MeV/u

Negative pion production cross-sections are measured at 38, 65 and 93 MeV per nucleon in O + Al reaction. Rough estimations of the total cross sections are given and compared to previous neutral pion data. Double differential cross sections at 93 and 65 MeV/u show enhancement for pions with velocity close to the beam. At variance no effect is observed at 38 MeV, where π^? and π⁰ distributions are identical. Fewπ ⁺ detected at 38 MeV support this result. This indicates that at the lowest incident energy nearly the whole projectile participates in the production reaction.     

LowpT phenomena in A+A and p+A collisions at mid-rapidity

CERN experiment NA44 measures pion and kaon distributions atpT=0–320 MeV/c at midrapidity in p+A and A+A collisions at 450 and 200A GeV/c, respectively. Pion production from p+Pb and A+A is slightly enhanced at lowpT relative to p+Be, but less than observed at target rapidity. The lowpT behavior can be understood in the context of the RQMD model as arising from baryonic resonance decays.     

Pion condensation in neutron star matter: (II). Nuclear forces and stability

This paper presents several stable models of charged-pion condensed neutron star matter. The non-relativistic limit of the chirally symmetric Weinberg Lagrangian is used to describe interactions of the condensed pion field with the nucleons, as well as the pi-pi interactions of the condensed field. In the absence of nucleon-nucleon interactions, matter in this model is unstable, tending to ever-increasing baryon density and condensate wave vector. The connection of this model of condensation with the σ-model is shown.A general framework for including nuclear forces is then laid out. Results are given for a simple model in which the nuclear forces are assumed to produce an interaction energy V(ρ) dependent only on the total baryon density, independent of the degree of pion condensation, and also to produce a constant G-matrix element g in the nucleon-nucleon charge exchange channel. In the absence of condensation the equation of state reduces to that of interacting normal matter. We also consider effects of beta equilibrium and form factors in the p-wave pion-nucleon interaction. The condensed models are stable. Depending on the choice of parameters the models exhibit first- or second-order pion condensation phase transitions, or both.     

Charged particle production in proton-, deuteron-, oxygen- and sulphur-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon

The transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of net protons and negatively charged hadrons have been measured for minimum bias proton–nucleus and deuteron–gold interactions, as well as central oxygen–gold and sulphur–nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon. The rapidity density of net protons at midrapidity in central nucleus–nucleus collisions increases both with target mass for sulphur projectiles and with the projectile mass for a gold target. The shape of the rapidity distributions of net protons forward of midrapidity for d+Au and central S+Au collisions is similar. The average rapidity loss is larger than 2 units of rapidity for reactions with the gold target. The transverse momentum spectra of net protons for all reactions can be described by a thermal distribution with ‘temperatures’ between MeV (p+S interactions) and MeV (central S+Au collisions). The multiplicity of negatively charged hadrons increases with the mass of the colliding system. The shape of the transverse momentum spectra of negatively charged hadrons changes from minimum bias p+p and p+S interactions to p+Au and central nucleus-nucleus collisions. The mean transverse momentum is almost constant in the vicinity of midrapidity and shows little variation with the target and projectile masses. The average number of produced negatively charged hadrons per participant baryon increases slightly from p+p, p+A to central S+S,Ag collisions. Received: 28 October 1997 / Published online: 10 March 1998     

Neutral transverse momentum spectra in 60 and 200A·GeV16O+nucleus and proton+nucleus reactions

Transverse momentum (p _T) distributions fo inclusive photons and neutral pions at midrapidity are measured with a lead glass calorimeter in 60 and are measured with a lead glass calorimeter in 60 and 200A·Gev¹⁶O+nucleus and and proton+nucleus reactions. Inclusive photon distributions are compared for central and peripheral reactions. The degree of centrality is determined either from the charged particle multiplicity or from the remaining projectile energy in the forward direction. Deviations from a nucleus+nucleus interaction model based upon linear extrapolation from p+p reactions are observed in central¹⁶O+Au data. The variation of theaverage transverse momentum is investigated as function of centrality. The target-mass and energy dependence of π⁰ p _T distributions are presented. For¹⁶O+Au a change of slope in these distributions is observed atp _t ≈0.8 GeV/c compatible with hydrodynamic expansion models.     

Low p T phenomena in A+A and p+A collisions at mid-rapidity

CERN experiment NA44 measures pion and kaon distributions at p _T = 0–320 MeV/c at midrapidity in p+A and A+A collisions at 450 and 200A GeV/c, respectively. Pion production from p+Pb and A+A is slightly enhanced at low p _T relative to p+Be, but less than observed at target rapidity. The low p _T behavior can be understood in the context of the RQMD model as arising from baryonic resonance decays.     

The p + p → d + π+ reaction with a polarised proton beam

The differential cross section and analysing power of the $\text{p}\text{+ p → d + π}{}^{\mathrm{+}}$ reaction were measured at a number of proton energies between 305 and 425 MeV using a polarised proton beam extracted from the TRIUMF cyclotron, and a 50 cm Browne-Buechner magnetic spectograph for detecting the pions. The results clearly display the existence of d-wave pion production for pion momenta (cms) as low as 0.5m_πc.     

Emergence of a nonuniform pion condensate in the (1 + 1)-dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model

The (1 + 1)-dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model describing the system of two-flavor quarks is studied in the limit of a large number of colors in the presence of a baryon chemical potential µ and an isospin chemical potential µ _I . The possible formation of a nonuniform pion condensate in dense quark matter is considered for the cases of both the massive and the massless model.     

Baryon yields, isospin effects and strangeness production in elementary hadronic interactions

New NA49 data from hadron+proton and hadron+Pb interactions are used to extract detailed information on projectile isospin effects and baryon, baryon pair and strangeness production. Consequences for the interpretation of hadron production and strangeness enhancement in nuclear collisions are discussed.     

Multiple soft pion production in nonlinear chiral sigma model

Multiple soft pion production in the baryon scattering reactions is considered in the framework of chiral nonlinear sigma model neglecting the pion mass. Treating baryons in the eikonal approximation as classical sources, a set of analytical solutions for the pion field is found. A tree S-matrix is constructed on the basis of these solutions describing the emission (or absorption) of any number of soft pions. Then the contribution of soft virtual pions is taken into account in a closed form. It is shown that the loop corrections strongly suppress the pion radiation, and for the two limiting cases of nonrelativistic and ultra-relativistic baryon scatterings there is no pion emission from the “ends”. Thus, the mechanism similar to the soft photon bremsstrahlung in the quantum electrodynamics seems to be unable to create a state with a large number of the soft pions.     

Study of the diffractive production of baryon states and search for cryptoexotic baryons with hidden strangeness

The reactions of baryon diffractive productionp+N→(pK ⁺ K ^?)+N, p+N→(p?)+N, p+N→[Λ(1520)K ⁺]+N p+N→[Σ(1385) ^o K ⁺]+N in the 70 GeV proton beam were studied. Very sensitive upper limits for the production cross sections of heavy narrow cryptoexotic baryon resonances with hidden strangeness were obtained.     

Strange baryons production and projectile fragmentation in p−A collisions at the AGS

Experiment 910 (E910) has studied proton-nucleus collisions at 12.3 and 17.5 GeV incident energies using a variety of targets. Centrality selection is provided via “grey” track multiplicity which can be statistically related to ν, the number of scatterings of the proton in the target nucleus. Previously published semi-inclusive measurements of Ν production are discussed and preliminary measurements of “leading” Ν production in 17.5 GeV p-Au collisions are presented as a function of ν. The data indicate that the probability for the projectile to fragment into a strange baryon increases significantly with increasing ν for ν≤3; an extrapolation of the E910 data to nucleus-nucleus collisions can reproduce most of the enhancement in Ν production observed in Pb-Pb collisions at 40, 80 and 160 A. GeV. Preliminary measurements of Ξ^? production in 17.5 GeV p-Au collisions show a rapid increase in yield with increasing ν. The data are discussed in the context of the Van Hove fragmentation model. Preliminary proton and pion spectra are presented for 12.3 GeV p-Be collisions. The data show a rapid degradation of outgoing proton momenta with increasing N _grey while only modest changes are observed in the pion fragmentation spectra.     

Coincidence π electroproduction in the second resonance region

The reaction e⁻ + p → e⁻ + p + π^o has been studied in the region of the second pion nucleon resonance. Two sets of data have been taken and analysed at nominal values of the squared four momentum transfer to the pion nucleon system of 0.4 and 0.6 (GeV/c)². A phenomenological interpretation of the data is presented. Our results are compared with the predictions of fixed-t dispersion relation calculations and with the symmetric quark model.     

Pion and chiral density waves in a (1 + 1)-dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model

A (1 + 1)-dimensional massless Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model is investigated in the limit of a large number of colors. The model describes a system with two quark flavors if μ baryon and μ _I isospin chemical potentials occur. The question of whether spatially inhomogeneous chiral and pion condensates can form in a dense quark environment is also examined.     

On radiative corrections to the strangeness-conserving β-decay of free baryons

In the work presented, the effect of electromagnetic interactions on the strangeness-conserving β-decay of baryons: neutron, $n \to p + e^ - + \bar \nu + \gamma $ , and hyperon, $\Sigma ^ \pm \to \Lambda ^0 + e^ \pm + \nu (\bar \nu ) + \gamma $ , is visualized. The polarized baryon decay studied, the total decay probability modification, as well as the modifications of the e ^± spectrum and the angular distribution with respect to the polarization vector ξ of the initial baryon (coefficient A), have been calculated. Dependence of the results on the value of the ultraviolet cut-off parameter Λ is elucidated. The spectrum and yield of the γ-radiation accompanying the β-decay is acquired, with special attention being paid to the infrared (soft-photon) radiation. The photon radiation of pions constituting the baryon's “pion cloud” is investigated. The radiative corrections to the total β-decay probability and to the electron energy and angular distributions found in this work proves to be of pivotal importance for obtaining the main characteristics of the weak interaction from experimental data processing.