In-medium properties of the ω meson in photon induced nuclear reactions

We discuss the possibility to study the in-medium changes of the properties of the ω meson in reactions on ordinary nuclei with elementary electromagnetic probes. We present a tree-level calculation of the elementary γp→ωp process which is extended to describe also the photoproduction of medium-modified ω mesons in nuclear matter. Using a semi-classical transport approach we obtain results for e⁺e_? and π ⁰γ photoproduction off heavy nuclei in the invariant mass range of the ρ and ω mesons. Both reactions are also studied experimentally and are presently being analyzed at accelerator facilities in Bonn and at Jefferson Lab. We show that the in-medium signals expected can be as large as those obtained in heavy-ion reactions.     

Azimuthal Distributions of K + Mesons in Heavy-Ion Collisions

Strange mesons are considered to be sensitive to in-medium modifications. Theory predicts a repulsive K ⁺ N potential and an attractive K ^? N potential in dense matter. A repulsive K ⁺ N potential would repel the K ⁺ mesons from the bulk of the nucleons and therefore cause a preferred out-of-plane emission of K ⁺ mesons at midrapidity and a directed flow opposite to the nucleons at target and projectile rapidity. One of observables to probe in-medium effects is the azimuthal emission pattern of K ⁺ mesons in heavy ion collisions. KaoS collaboration has measured the azimuthal distributions of K ⁺ mesons in Au + Au reactions at 1.5 A GeV and Ni + Ni reactions at 1.93 A GeV. Data show that K ⁺ mesons exhibit a pronounced enhancement at ${\phi = {90}^\circ}$ , i.e. perpendicular to the reaction plane. The data have also been fitted using the first two components of a Fourier series to get the directed flow v ₁ and elliptic flow v ₂. We used the quantum molecular dynamics model based on the covariant kaon dynamics to simulate the Au + Au collisions at 1.5 A GeV and the Ni + Ni collisions at 1.93 A GeV, to analyze the azimuthal distributions of K ⁺ mesons, and to calculate v ₁ and v ₂ of K ⁺ mesons. Calculated results with a repulsive in-medium K ⁺ N potential can reasonably describe the features of KaoS data. This indicates that the azimuthal distribution is one of sensitive probes to extract information on in-medium properties at high densities.     

Medium modifications of mesons in elementary reactions and heavy-ion collisions

Experimental searches for modifications of vector mesons in the nuclear medium are reviewed. Data on ρ,ω and Φ mesons are presented. The results have been obtained in elementary reactions with proton and photon beams as well as in heavy-ion collisions. Compared to the free particle properties, the ω and Φ mesons are found to have a drop in mass at normal nuclear matter density by 9%-14% and 3.5% whereas their widths are reported to increase by factors of about 16 and 3.6, respectively. For the ρ meson, conflicting results on in-medium mass shifts and broadening have been published. The experimental data are compared to recent model calculations.     

Evidence for in-medium modification of the phi meson at normal nuclear density

Invariant mass spectra of e(+) e(-) pairs have been measured in 12 GeV p + A reactions to detect possible in-medium modification of vector mesons. Copper and carbon targets are used to study the nuclear-size dependence of e(+) e(-) invariant mass distributions. A significant excess on the low-mass side of the phi meson peak is observed in the low betagamma(= beta/square root(1-beta(2))) region of phi mesons (betagamma < 1.25) with copper targets. However, in the high betagamma region (betagamma > 1.25), spectral shapes of phi mesons are well described by the Breit-Wigner shape when experimental effects are considered. Thus, in addition to our earlier publications on rho/omega modification, this study has experimentally verified vector meson mass modification at normal nuclear density.     

Chiral partners and their electromagnetic radiation (Ingredients for a systematic in-medium calculation)

It is argued that the chiral partners of the lowest-lying hadrons are hadronic molecules and not three-quark or quark-antiquark states, respectively. As an example the case of a₁ as the chiral partner of the ρ is discussed. Deconfinement-or as a precursor large in-medium widths for hadronic states-is proposed as a natural way to accommodate for the fact that at chiral restoration the respective in-medium spectra of chiral partners must become degenerate. Ingredients for a systematic and self-consistent in-medium calculation are presented with special emphasis on vector-meson dominance which emerges from a recently proposed systematic counting scheme for the mesonic sector including pseudoscalar and vector mesons as active degrees of freedom.     

A Modified Pion-Rho-Omega Mesonic Lagrangian in Nuclear Matter

We present an in-medium modified effective Lagrangian which describes the pion, rho- and omega mesons and the corresponding soliton properties in nuclear matter. We discuss possible modifications of ρ- and ω-meson properties in nuclear matter. In particular, the masses of vector mesons are shown to decrease about 30% at normal nuclear matter density within the present approach.     

Calculations of K± and ϕ production in near-threshold proton-nucleus collisions

K^± and ? meson production in proton-nucleus (pA) collisions has been calculated within a BUU transport model. It is shown that the nucleon-hyperon strangeness transfer channel is essential. The role of three-body reactions has been investigated within the medium. The target mass dependence of ? production is predicted to give important information on the in-medium properties of all three mesons.     

Nuclear effects on open charm production in p+A reactions

We calculate and resum the nuclear enhanced power corrections from the final state partonic scattering in nuclear matter to open charm production and correlations. In p+A reactions, we find that single and double inclusive D mesons can be suppressed as much as the neutral pions from the dynamical high twist shadowing. Effects of initial state energy loss in p+A collisions are also investigated and may lead to significantly weaker transverse momentum dependence of the nuclear suppression.     

In-Medium Kaon Potential and Nuclear Equation of State Measured in Nucleus–Nucleus Collisions

The kaon production in heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies provides a sensitive probe to study the in-medium properties and nuclear equation of state of hadrons. Properties of kaons in dense hadronic matter are important for a better understanding of both, the possible restoration of chiral symmetry in dense hadronic matter and the properties of nuclear matter at high densities. We investigated the in-medium kaon potential and nuclear equation of state by transverse mass spectra of K ⁺ mesons in heavy ion collisions. We use quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) models based on covariant kaon dynamics to simulate ${_{28}^{58}Ni +_{28}^{58}Ni}$ collisions at 1.93 A GeV, to analyze the transverse mass spectra of K ⁺. Calculated results with a repulsive in-medium K ⁺N potential can reasonably describe the features of KaoS data. They also shown that the transverse mass spectrum of K ⁺ mesons is a sensitive observable to probe the kaon in-medium potential in dense nuclear matter.     

Diffractive production of vector mesons in lepton-nucleon reactions

We calculate cross sections for the production of vector mesons V in reactions if ? + N → ?' + V + N, ?, ?' = ν, e, μ, taking into account all presently known information from electroproduction of ?'s. This leads to considerable differences in results from previous calculations, often more than an order of magnitude. The results for the ? are then largely a translation of electroproduction data into ν predictions and they will provide a direct test of the relation of weak and electromagnetic currents. The y or Q² distributions for the ? are instructive. The prediction for the A₁ provides a direct test of the existence of the A₁ and of whether vector and axial vector currents materialize into particles in the same way. The detection of a B meson would provide direct evidence for second-class currents and a measurement of their strength. We estimate all F¹ production will account for at most 2% of the total ν cross section at FNAL energies, which must be multiplied by the muon semi-leptonic branching ratio (and possibly a factor of 2 for an axial vector F¹) to calculate its contribution to the dimuon event rate.     

Antikaon production in proton-nucleus reactions and the K− properties in nuclear matter

We calculate the momentum-dependent potentials for K⁺ and K⁻ mesons in a dispersion approach at nuclear density ϱ₀ using the information from the vacuum K⁺N and K⁻N scattering amplitudes, however, leaving out the resonance contributions for the in-medium analysis. Whereas the K⁺ potential is found to be repulsive (≈ + 25 MeV) and to show only a moderate momentum dependence, the K⁻ self-energy at normal nuclear matter density turns out to be ≈ − 140 ± 25 MeV at zero momentum roughly in line with K⁻ atomic data, however, decreases rapidly in magnitude for higher momenta. The antikaon production in p + A reactions is calculated within a coupled channel transport approach and compared to the data at KEK including different assumptions for the antikaon potentials. Furthermore, detailed predictions are made for p+¹²C and p+²⁰⁷Pb reactions at 2.5 GeV in order to determine the momentum-dependent antikaon potential experimentally.     

SU(3) implications of the observation of the A1 and C mesons

A new determination of the Q_A?Q_B mixing angle and of the antisymmetric coupling for the vector-pseudoscalar decay of the axial vector mesons is presented. This uses information from the decay rates of the A₁ and C mesons found in the study of baryon exchange processes in K^?p interactions at 4.2 GeV/c combined with the decay rate B → ωπ. The consistency between the results obtained from backward produced A₁ and C and diffractively produced Q₁ and Q₂ is discussed.     

Nuclear-matter modification of decay widths in the phi-->e+e- and phi-->K+K- channels

The invariant mass spectra of phi-->K+K- are measured in 12 GeV p+A reactions in order to search for the in-medium modification of phi mesons. The observed K+K- spectra are well reproduced by the relativistic Breit-Wigner function with a combinatorial background shape in three betagamma regions between 1.0 and 3.5. The nuclear mass number dependence of the yields of the K+K- decay channel is compared to the simultaneously measured e+e- decay channel for carbon and copper targets. We parameterize the production yields as sigma(A)=sigma0Aalpha and obtain alphaphi-->K+K- -alphaphi-->e+e- to be 0.14+/-0.12. Limits are obtained for the partial decay widths of the phi mesons in nuclear matter.     

Properties of light mesons in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is designed for studying the new state of nuclear matter, which is presumably created in central ultrarelativistic collisions of heavy nuclei: the so-called quark-gluon plasma. Light mesons are an important tool in this research. This paper reviews the recent experimental results on the light meson invariant yields, nuclear modification factors, and the yield ratios for the vector and pseudoscalar mesons in the p + p, d + Au, and Au + Au collisions at the energy of √s _NN = 200 GeV.     

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.     

Elliptic flow of ν ands <Emphasis Type="Italic">π</Emphasis><Superscript>0</Superscript> mesons in heavy-ion collisions at 2 <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis> GeVmesons in heavy-ion collisions at 2 <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis> GeV

Elliptic flow of ν and π ⁰ mesons emitted at midrapidity are studied in collisions of 1.9 A GeV ⁵⁸Ni+⁵⁸Ni and 2 A GeV ⁴⁰Ca+^natCa. The observed anisotropy corresponds to a negative elliptic flow signal for ν mesons, indicating a preferred emission perpendicular to the reaction plane. In contrast, only small azimuthal anisotropies are observed for π ⁰ mesons. This may indicate that ν mesons freeze out earlier from the central interaction region than pions.     

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 influence of Isospin Dependence of In-Medium NN Cross Sections on the Ratio of Emitted Neutrons to Protons in HICs

The influence of isospin dependence of in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections on the nip ratios for emitted nucleons in reactions 96Zr-j-96Zr and 96Ru-j-96RH at Eb z 400 AMeV is investigated by means of an improved quantum molecular dynamics model. Our results show that the high energy part of the spectra of the n//p ratios for emitted nucleons is sensitive to the isospin dependence of in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections for neutron-rich reaction systems. Therefore, we propose that the nip ratio of emitted high energy nucleons in a very neutron-rich reaction system at several hundreds of AMeV can be taken as sensitive observables to constrain the isospindependence of in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections.     

Vector mesons in strongly interacting matter

Properties of hadrons in strongly interacting matter provide a link between quantum chromodynamics in the strong coupling regime and experimental observables. QCD sum rules show that changes in chiral and higher-order condensates, partially associated with a restoration of chiral symmetry in the nuclear medium, will lead to significant changes in the low-energy spectrum of hadrons. Heavy-ion collisions and reactions with elementary probes have been used to extract experimental information on in-medium properties of hadrons. Results on the light vector mesons ρ, ω, and ϕ, are summarized and compared. Almost all experiments report a softening of the spectral functions with increases in width depending on the density and temperature of the hadronic environment. No evidence for mass shifts is found in majority of the experiments. Remaining inconsistencies among experimental results demonstrate the need for further measurements with higher statistics and inrceased acceptance in particular for low-momentum vector mesons.