Nuclear-like effects in proton–proton collisions at high energy

We show that several effects considered nuclear effects are not nuclear in the sense that they do not only occur in nucleus–nucleus and hadron–nucleus collisions but, as well, they are present in hadron–hadron (proton–proton) collisions. The matter creation mechanism in hh, hA and AA collision is always the same. The p _T suppression of particles produced in large multiplicity events compared to low multiplicity events, the elliptic flow and the Cronin effect are predicted to occur in pp collisions at LHC energies as a consequence of the high density partonic medium obtained.     

Proton and Λ hyperon production in nucleus-nucleus collisions

Experimental data obtained by the NA35 Collaboration for the difference of the p and \(\bar p\) spectra and the difference of the Λ and \(\bar \Lambda\) spectra (net proton and Λ-hyperon spectra), as well as the inclusive Λ and \(\bar \Lambda\) spectra measured by the NA49, NA57, and STAR Collaborations, are compared with the predictions of the quark-gluon string model. The contribution of string-junction diffusion is calculated, and interaction with nuclear clusters is taken into account along with the corrections for inelastic screening. The level of numerical agreement with experimental data is between 20 and 30%. The predictions for the LHC energy are given.     

Nuclear effects on J/ψ production in proton–nucleus collisions

The study of nuclear effects for J/ψ production in proton–nucleus collisions is crucial for a correct interpretation of the J/ψ suppression patterns experimentally observed in heavy-ion collisions. By means of three representative sets of nuclear parton distribution, the energy loss effect in the initial state and the nuclear absorption effect in the final state are taken into account in the uniform framework of the Glauber model. A leading order phenomenological analysis is performed on J/ψ production cross-section ratios R _W/Be (x _F) for the E866 experimental data. The J/ψ suppression is investigated quantitatively due to the different nuclear effects. It is shown that the energy loss effect with resulting in the suppression on R _W/Be (x _F) is more important than the nuclear effects on parton distributions in high x _F region. The E866 data in the small x _F keep out the nuclear gluon distribution with a large anti-shadowing effect. However, the new HERA-B measurement is not in support of the anti-shadowing effect in the nuclear gluon distribution. It is found that the J/ψ–nucleon inelastic cross section $\sigma^{J/\psi}_{\mathrm{abs}}$ depends on the kinematical variable x _F, and increases as x _F in the region x _F>0.2.     

Prompt photon production in proton–nucleus collisions at LHC: a comparison among color dipole models

The nuclear modification factor for prompt photon production in proton–nucleus collisions is investigated within color dipole formalism. By means of the Glauber–Gribov approach, the nuclear effects are studied in various rapidity bins with the evolution equation-based saturation models and the phenomenological dipole models. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental data provided by PHENIX, ATLAS and CMS Collaborations. At forward rapidity and midrapidity, a reasonable agreement...     

φ production in In–In collisions at 158 A GeV

The NA60 experiment has measured muon pair production in In–In collisions at 158 AGeV at the CERN SPS. This paper presents a high statistics measurement of φ→μ μ meson production. Differential spectra, yields, mass and width are measured as a function of centrality and compared to previous measurements in other colliding systems at the same energy. The width of the rapidity distribution is found to be constant as a function of centrality, compatible with previous results. The decay muon polar angle distribution is measured in several reference frames. No evidence of polarization is found as a function of transverse momentum and centrality. The analysis of the p _T spectra shows that the φ has a small radial flow, implying a weak coupling to the medium. The T _eff parameter measured in In–In collisions suggests that the high value observed in Pb–Pb in the kaon channel is difficult to reconcile with radial flow alone. The absolute yield is compared to results in Pb–Pb collisions: though significantly smaller than measured by NA50 in the muon channel, it is found to exceed the NA49 and CERES data in the kaon channel at any centrality. The mass and width are found to be compatible with the PDG values at any centrality and at any p _T : no evidence for in-medium modifications is observed.     

Transverse spin asymmetries for W-production in proton–proton collisions

We study parity-even and parity-odd polarization observables for the process pp→l^±X$pp\to l^{\pm }X$, where the lepton comes from the decay of a W-boson. By using the collinear twist-3 factorization approach, we consider the case when one proton is transversely polarized, while the other is either unpolarized or longitudinally polarized. These observables give access to two particular quark–gluon–quark correlation functions, which have a direct relation to transverse momentum dependent parton distributions. We present numerical estimates for RHIC kinematics. Measuring, for instance, the parity-even transverse single spin correlation would provide a crucial test of our current understanding of single spin asymmetries in the framework of QCD.     

Study of ππ production in two-photon collisions at Belle

We have measured the cross section for π⁺π^－ production in two-photon collisions using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 85.9fb^－1 collected with the Belle detector. The f₀(980) resonance is observed as a peak in the energy spectrum of the cross section. We also report preliminary results for γγ→π⁰π⁰ with two-photon center-of-mass energies ranging from 0.6 to 4.0GeV, based on a 95fb^－1 data sample. We find at least four resonant structures including a peak from f₀(980). In addition, there is evidence for χ_c0 production. We also make a preliminary discussion of the angular dependence and cross section ratio of γγ→π⁺π^－ and γγ→π⁰π⁰.     

Study of K~*(892)~0 and ?(1020) meson production in proton–proton and Pb–Pb collisions at ■=2.76 TeV

In this paper, we describe a study of charged particle yield as a function of pTfor K~*(892)~0 and ?(1020) mesons in proton–proton(pp) and Pb–Pb collisions at ■=?2.76 Te V in the central rapidity region of |y|0.5, in a pTrange of ?pT15 Ge V c~(-1) in pp collisions and in a pT range of 0??pT??20 Ge V c~(-1) in Pb-Pb collisions. We also investigated a very important ratio,the nuclear modification factor, to study the effects of the medium in the most central region, i.e.0%–5% centrality. For data simulation, we used the EPOS-LHC and EPOS-1.99 models. To check the validity of these models' simulations, we compared the data obtained from these Monte Carlo simulation programs with ALICE experimental data for ■=?2.76 Te V. It was concluded that the models' predictions for the ?-meson in pp and for the most central Pb-Pb collisions disagreed with the ALICE data, and that the difference increased with pT. This may be connected with the essential role of collective parton behaviors which could not have been taken into account by the models. For K~(*0) mesons, both programs gave almost the same predictions,and with pTin the interval pT??3 Ge V c~(-1), the predictions were very close to the experimental data. Both models gave higher predictions for the soft pTinterval and lower predictions for the hard interactions. The values of the RAAdistributions were lower than unity and both models were very close to the ALICE data. It is very interesting that the models were not able to describe the pTdistributions, but they gave good predictions for their ratios. This may possibly be due to parton collective behaviors. We observed some additional suppression of K~(*0) at low values of pT with respect to f-mesons, which may be related to the role of the masses of the particles in soft interactions. The rising trend for R_(AA) in the region from pT=?10 Ge V c~(-1) to 20 Ge V c~(-1) observed by the ALICE experiment was absent for the f-mesons.     

Study of ππ production in two-photon collisions at Belle

We have measured the cross section for π+π- production in two-photon collisions using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 85.9 fb-1 collected with the Belle detector. The f0(980) resonance is observed as a peak in the energy spectrum of the cross section. We also report preliminary results for γγ→π0π0 with two-photon center-of-mass energies ranging from 0.6 to 4.0 GeV, based on a 95 fb-1 data sample. We find at least four resonant structures including a peak from f0(980). In addition, there is evidence for Xc0 production. We also make a preliminary discussion of the angular dependence and cross section ratio of γγ→π+π- and γγ→π0π0.     

Proton–proton,anti-proton–anti-proton,proton–anti-proton correlations in Au + Au collisions measured by STAR at RHIC

The analysis of two-particle correlations provides a powerful tool to study the properties of hot and dense matter created in heavy-ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. Applied to identical and non-identical hadron pairs, it makes the study of space-time evolution of the source in femtoscopic scale possible. Baryon femtoscopy allows extraction of the radii of produced sources which can be compared to those deduced from identical pion studies, providing complete information about the source characteristics. In this paper we present the correlation functions obtained for identical and non-identical baryon pairs of protons and anti-protons. The data were collected recently in Au+Au collisions at  =62 GeV and  =200 GeV by the STAR detector at the RHIC accelerator. We introduce corrections to the baryon–baryon correlations taking into account: residual correlations from weak decays, particle identification probability and the fraction of primary baryons. Finally we compare our results to theoretical predictions. PACS 25.75.-q; 25.75.Gz     

Cross section for the Drell–Yan process in proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

The cross sections for the Drell–Yan process at the c.m. collision energy of \(\sqrt s \) = 13 TeV were calculated, and the results of these calculations are presented. The systematic errors associated with the uncertainties in the quark and gluon distributions and with the choice of scale for factorization and for the running QCD coupling constant are considered.     

Elastic and large t rapidity gap vector meson production in ultraperipheral proton–ion collisions

We evaluate the cross sections for the production of vector mesons in exclusive ultraperipheral proton–ion collisions at LHC. We find that the rates are high enough to study the energy and momentum transfer dependence of vector meson (ρ,?$\rho ,?$, J/ψ$J/\psi$, ?) photoproduction in γp scattering in a wide energy range. This would extend the measurements which were performed at HERA providing new information about interplay of soft and hard physics in diffraction. Also, we calculate the contributions to the vector meson yield due to production of vector mesons off nuclear target by photons emitted by proton. We find, that at least in the case of ? production it is feasible to observe simultaneously both these processes. Such measurements would increase the precision with which the A-dependence of exclusive onium production can be determined. This would also enable one to estimate the amount of nuclear shadowing of generalized gluon distributions at much smaller x than that is possible in AA collisions and to measure the cross sections for photoproduction processes in a significantly wider energy range than that achieved in experiments with fixed nuclear targets. We also present the cross section for vector meson production in pA collisions at RHIC. In addition, we consider production of vector mesons off protons with large rapidity gaps and large t. These processes probe small x dynamics of the elastic interaction of small dipoles at high energies and large but finite t  , that is in the kinematics where DGLAP evolution is strongly suppressed. We estimate that this process could be studied at LHC up to W∼1 TeV$W\sim 1\text{TeV}$ with detectors which will be available at LHC.