Full jet reconstruction in heavy-ion collisions is a promising tool for the quantitative study of properties of the dense medium produced at RHIC. Measurements of d+Au collisions are important to disentangle initial state nuclear effects from medium-induced kT broadening and jet quenching. Study of jet production and properties in d+Au in combination with similar studies in p+p is an important baseline measurement needed to better understand heavy-ion results. We present mid-rapidity inclusive jet pT spectra and di-jet correlations (kT) in 200 GeV p+p and d+Au collisions from the 2007-2008 RHIC run. We discuss the methods used to correct the data for detector effects and for background in d+Au collisions.
Exciting results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have been presented at this Workshop. However, fundamental questions remain to be addressed in the future regarding whether the system is deconfined, chiral symmetry is restored, a color glass condensate exists in the initial state, and how the system evolves through eventual hadronization. Jets, heavy flavors and electromagnetic probes are sensitive to the initial high density stage of RHIC collisions, and should provide new insight. Significant additional capabilities will be added with a luminosity upgrade of RHIC (to RHIC II)…
Latest results from the PHENIX experiment at RHIC on these topics will be presented. Results will be shown for Au+Au compared to p-p collisions as well as compared to results from fully reconstructed jets at LHC.
Full jet reconstruction in heavy-ion collisions enables a complete study of the modification of jet structure due to energy loss in hot and dense QCD matter, but is challenging due to the high multiplicity environment. The STAR and PHENIX collaborations at RHIC have recently presented measurements of fully reconstructed jets from p+p, Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 200 \mathrm{GeV}$. We review the first results on inclusive jet spectra, di-jets and fragmentation functions and discuss their implications on understanding of jet quenching.
The hot and dense medium created at RHIC, called Quark and Gluon Plasma (QGP) has been a hot topic in the last ten years. Due to the high multiplicities in such heavy-ion collision events, particle correlations using either trigger particles, or fully-reconstructed jets, become not only useful but necessary, in addition to the single particle observables. In this paper the most recent work studying this medium will be shown, including both on bulk properties and tagged events.
To precisely measure jets over a large background such as pile up in high luminosity p+p collisions at LHC, a new generation of jet reconstruction algorithms is developed. These algorithms are also applicable to reconstruct jets in the heavy ion environment where large event multiplicities are produced. Energy loss in the medium created in heavy ion collisions are already observed indirectly via inclusive hadron distributions and di-hadron correlations. Jets can be used to study this energy loss in detail with reduced biases. We review the latest results on jet-medium interactions as seen in A…
We present recent results for heavy flavor and jets produced in $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200$ GeV p-p, d-Au, Cu-Cu and Au-Au collisions at at RHIC. We find J/$ψ$ production is suppressed in Au-Au, but high energy J/$ψ$ are not suppressed in d-Au or Cu-Cu. Non-photonic electrons from D and B mesons are both suppressed in Au-Au. We study jets using two-particle 2D angular correlations as well as jet reconstruction algorithms. We find that jets show little if any suppression, but are highly modified in central Au-Au, becoming elongated in the $η$ direction and having fewer high-$p_t$ particles but many m…
Jets in hadron collisions are very complicated with a long learning curve replete with errors. In relativistic heavy ion (RHI) collisions, it is likely that jets will be much more complicated with an even longer and more difficult learning curve. Hard scattering is more easily observed via single particle and few particle correlation measurements. The main advantage of jets is higher rate at large $p_T$, plus the possibility of detailed studies of soft fragmentation if the soft fragments can be separated from the background. A critical review of the possibility of using jets as a probe of hard…
Jet quenching in the matter created in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions provides a tomographic tool to probe the medium properties. Recent experimental results on jet production at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) are reviewed. Jet properties in p+p and d+Au collisions have been measured, establishing the baseline for studying jet modification in heavy-ion collisions. Current progress on detailed studies of high transverse momentum production in Au+Au collisions is discussed, with an emphasis on dihadron correlation measurements.
The relationship between jet properties and the underlying geometry of the medium produced in heavy ion collisions can be explored through a measurement of the correlation between the axes of reconstructed jets and the reaction plane, defined as "jet v2." Such a measurement provides information on the pathlength dependence of medium-induced parton energy loss and may also be used to assess biases in jet-finding methods. We present first measurements of jet v2 in sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions in the STAR experiment at RHIC. In order to reduce the artificial jet - event plane bias, which …
Hard scattering in p-p collisions, discovered at the CERN ISR in 1972 by the method of leading particles, proved that the partons of Deeply Inelastic Scattering strongly interacted with each other. Further ISR measurements utilizing inclusive single or pairs of hadrons established that high pT particles are produced from states with two roughly back-to-back jets which are the result of scattering of constituents of the nucleons as desribed by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), which was developed during the course of these measurements. These techniques, which are the only practical method to study…
Experimental evidence from RHIC indicates that matter having an energy density far in excess of the value required for the creation of a deconfined phase is produced in ultrarelativistic Au+Au collisions at a center of mass energy of 200 GeV. This matter thermalizes rapidly, is strongly interacting, and displays hydrodynamic properties akin to a fluid with very low viscosity. Studies of the interaction of hard scattered partons with this matter provide an important probe of its properties. In fact, studies of the suppression of high-p_T hadrons have been one of the key arguments used by the RH…
Hard scattering in p-p collisions, discovered at the CERN ISR in 1972 by the method of leading particles, proved that the partons of Deeply Inelastic Scattering strongly interacted with each other. Further ISR measurements utilizing inclusive single or pairs of hadrons established that high pT particles are produced from states with two roughly back-to-back jets which are the result of scattering of constituents of the nucleons as described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), which was developed during the course of these measurements. These techniques, which are the only practical method to stud…
We review the current status of jet measurements in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We discuss how the current measurements provide information about the quark-gluon plasma and discuss near future opportunities at both RHIC and the LHC.
We present an update to the analysis of fully reconstructed jets in heavy ion collisions by the STAR Collaboration at RHIC. We analyse the response of the anti-$k_{T}$ algorithm in the presence of background, and present a new observable for the measurement of inclusive jet production that is expected to be more robust against background model assumptions than previous jet analyses at RHIC and LHC.
Jets are studied in A-A collisions at RHIC and LHC with the goal to understand how they are affected by the medium and how they affect the medium. It is widely believed that hard-scattered partons lose energy when propagating through a medium before hadronizing. Partons losing enough energy may not even make it out of the medium as identifiable jets (although the momentum will be shared among whatever particles are emitted). "Full" jet reconstruction attempts to determine the partonic energy loss as well as possible changes in jet shape. Heavy ion collisions typically produce many unrelated pa…
We present preliminary results of Non-Photonic Electron (NPE) production, NPE-hadron azimuthal correlation as well as NPE elliptic flow studies at midrapidity using a data set with high statistics and low photon conversion background from $Au+Au$ collisions at $\sqrt {S_{NN}} = 200$ GeV collected at RHIC in Run 2010.
We report the measurement of azimuthal anisotropy $v_{n}$ for n = 1-5 as a function of transverse momentum $p_{T}$ and centrality in U+U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 193 GeV, recorded with the STAR detector at RHIC. We also present results on $v_{2}$ and azimuthal correlator related to charge separation across the reaction plane due to local parity violation(LPV) in the ultra-central collisions.
Transverse momentum spectra up to 4.5 GeV/c were measured around midrapidity in Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}}=17.3 GeV, for pi^{+/-}, p, pbar and K^{+/-}, by the NA49 experiment. The nuclear modification factors R_{AA}, R_{AA/pA} and R_{CP} were extracted and are compared to RHIC results at sqrt{s_{NN}}=200 GeV. The modification factor R_{AA} shows a rapid increase with transverse momentum in the covered region. The modification factors R_{AA/pA} and R_{CP} shows a saturation well below unity in the pi^{+/-} channel. The extracted R_{CP} values follow the 200 GeV RHIC results closely in the…
Three-dimensional source images for mid-rapidity, low transverse momentum kaon and pion pairs have been extracted from central Au+Au collisions data at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The pion source function displays significant non-Gaussian features implying a finite pion emission duration. On the other hand, the kaon source function is essentially Gaussian, consistent with instantaneous emission from the fireball.
The first measurement of the dielectron continuum at RHIC energies was performed by the PHENIX experiment for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 200 GeV. Mass spectra for different centralities are presented and compared with the expectations from hadron decays.
We measure the relative abundances of strange mesons, baryons, and anti-baryons correlated with high-$p_T$ trigger particles in $^{197}$Au + $^{197}$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. Particle yields and ratios are extracted on the near-side and away-side of the trigger particle. The associate-particle ratios are studied as a function of the angle relative to the trigger particle azimuth $Δϕ$. Such studies should help elucidate the origin of the previously observed correlations and their strong modifications in Au+Au collisions relative to p+p collisions. We discuss how these measurem…
Recent progress in full jet reconstruction in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC makes it a promising tool for the quantitative study of the QCD at high energy density. Measurements in d+Au collisions are important to disentangle initial state nuclear effects from medium-induced k_T broadening and jet quenching. Furthermore, comparison to measurements in p+p gives access to cold nuclear matter effects. Inclusive jet p_T spectra and di-jet correlations (k_T) in 200 GeV p+p and d+Au collisions from the 2007-2008 RHIC run are presented.
Two-particle azimuthal correlations have allowed detailed study of the modification to di-jets in the hot, dense medium created in RHIC collisions. Light can be shed by such correlations on many novel effects discovered at RHIC such as the enhanced p/pi ratio and conical structure of events with energy loss. Using pi0 triggers to reduce the effect of recombination we utilize high-pT correlations to explore the away-side structure.
During RHIC 2010 run, STAR has collected a large amount of minimum-bias, central and high $p_{T}$ trigger data in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 39$, 62.4 and 200 GeV with detector configuration for minimum photonic conversion background. In this article we report on a new high precision measurement of non-photonic electron mid-rapidity invariant yield, improved nuclear modification factor and $v_{2}$ in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200$ GeV. We also present measurements of mid-rapidity invariant yield at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 62.4$ and $v_{2}$ at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 39$ and 62.4 GeV.
We present data-driven methods for the full reconstruction of jets in heavy ion collisions, for inclusive and co-incidence jet measurements at both RHIC and LHC. The complex structure of heavy ion events generates a large background of combinatorial jets, and smears the measured energy of the true hard jet signal. Techniques to correct for these background effects can induce biases in the reported jet distributions, which must be well controlled for accurate measurement of jet quenching. Using model studies, we evaluate the proposed methods for measuring jet distributions accurately while mini…
We present first results on event-by-event elliptic flow fluctuations in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV obtained with the PHOBOS detector. Over the measured range in centrality, large relative fluctuations of 40--50% are found. The elliptic flow fluctuations are well described as being proportional to fluctuations in the shape of the initial collision region, as estimated event-by-event with the participant eccentricity using Glauber Monte Carlo.
We report the measurement of first (\textit {n} = 1) and higher order(\textit{n} = 2-5) harmonic coefficients ($v_{n}$) of the azimuthal anisotropy in the distribution of the particles produced in U+U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ =193 GeV, recorded with the STAR detector at RHIC. The differential measurement of $(v_{n})$ is presented as a function of transverse momentum ($p_{T}$) and centrality. We also present $v_{n}$ measurement in the ultra-central collisions. These data may provide strong constraints on the theoretical models of the initial condition in heavy ion collisions and the transp…
Two-pion correlation functions in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 130$ GeV have been measured by the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC) detector. The source size extracted by fitting the correlations grows with event multiplicity and decreases with transverse momentum. Anomalously large sizes or emission durations, which have been suggested as signals of quark-gluon plasma formation and rehadronization, are not observed. The HBT parameters display a weak energy dependence over a broad range in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$.
We report on the first measurement of Mutual Coulomb Dissociation in heavy ion collisions. We employ forward calorimeters to measure neutron multiplicity at beam rapidity in peripheral collisions. The cross-section for simultaneous electromagnetic breakup of Au nuclei at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=130$ GeV is $σ_{MCD}=3.67\pm 0.25$ barns in good agreement with calculations.
Neutral pions ($π^0$) in $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 200 GeV and 62.4 GeV Au+Au collisions were measured at RHIC-PHENIX Year-4 Run. In $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 200 GeV, $π^0$ specta are measured up to p$_\mathrm{T}$ = 20 GeV/$c$. %PHENIX extended the p$_\mathrm{T}$ region of A strong suppression by a factor of $\sim$ 5 is observed and stays almost constant up to 20 GeV/$c$.
Production of W bosons in longitudinally polarized pp collisions provides an excellent tool to probe the flavor-dependence of sea quark polarizations in the polarized proton. Current status and future plans for the W physics program with the STAR detector at RHIC are presented along with remarks concerning our knowledge of the nature and origin of the partonic sea.
The STAR detector is well suited for investigating jet production at RHIC. It has a large acceptance for both charged particles and electromagnetic radiation, so that reconstructed jets contain a large fraction of the particles descending from an initial hard scattered parton. Inclusive jets can be used to measure $j_T$, which characterizes the transverse jet shape. Di-jet angular distributions in d+Au and p+p collisions at RHIC provide a determination of intrinsic and nuclear $k_{T}$. The most recent results from this analysis based on year 2003 d+Au and p+p data are presented and compared to…
Direct photon production in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV has been measured in the $p_T$ range of 1$<$$p_T$$<$5 GeV/$c$. The yield as acfunction of centrality is in agreement with published data of the RHIC 2002 run, and with results from a new method that explores very low mass dileptons. The result is compared to several theoretical calculations, and it is found that the measurement is not inconsistent with calculations including thermal photon contributions.
Two particle azimuthal correlations with strange trigger particles ($K^0_S,Λ,Ξ$) are presented in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV in STAR at RHIC. The near-side associated yield is investigated as a function of centrality, $p_T$, and strangeness content of the trigger to investigate possible flavour or meson/baryon differences. The system size dependence of both the jet-like correlations and the long range pseudorapidity correlations is studied to give insight into the origin of these two components.
Open charm spectra at mid-rapidity from direct reconstruction of $D^{0}\to Kπ$ and indirect electron/positron measurements via charm semileptonic decay in p+p and d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}}$ = 200 GeV are reported. The combined spectra cover open charm transverse momentum range $0.1{}^{<}_{\sim}p_{T}{}^{<}_{\sim}6$ GeV/$c$. The electron spectra show approximate binary scaling between p+p and d+Au collisions. From these two independent analyses, the differential cross section per nucleon-nucleon interaction at mid-rapidity for open charm production at RHIC is $dσ^{NN}_{c\bar{c}}/d…
For the past decade, measurements of semi-inclusive single identified particle spectra and two particle correlations in p-p and A+A collisions at RHIC have produced a treasure trove of results which indicate that the medium produced in Au+Au collisions is a strongly interacting quark gluon liquid in which both light and heavy quarks are suppressed, presumably by energy loss in the hot, dense medium. These results have been confirmed in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC along with the addition of measurements of jets and di-jets. Results and methods at RHIC and LHC are compared which leads to some in…
We present charged particle densities as a function of pseudorapidity and collision centrality for the 197Au+197Au reaction at Sqrt{s_NN}=200 GeV. For the 5% most central events we obtain dN_ch/deta(eta=0) = 625 +/- 55 and N_ch(-4.7<= eta <= 4.7) = 4630+-370, i.e. 14% and 21% increases, respectively, relative to Sqrt{s_NN}=130 GeV collisions. Charged-particle production per pair of participant nucleons is found to increase from peripheral to central collisions around mid-rapidity. These results constrain current models of particle production at the highest RHIC energy.
The production of Lambda(1520) in p+p and Au+Au collisions provided by the RHIC at sqrt{s_NN}=200 GeV are investigated using the STAR detector. A preliminary Sigma(1385) signal is also shown. Models predict that a late rescattering phase in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions should lower the measured yields of these resonances. This reduction is presently confirmed through the Lambda(1520)/Lambda ratio which has been calculated for p+p collisions and compared with Au+Au collisions.
We present the preliminary results on direct photon interferometry measurements in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 62.4 and 200 GeV using the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC) detector. Photons are reconstructed via $e^+/e^-$ conversions in STAR Time Projection Chamber(TPC) and energy deposited by photons in STAR Barrel Electromagnetic Calorimeter(BEMC). The two-photon correlations are measured using (1) both photons measured using BEMC; (2) one photon from conversions and the other measured with BEMC. Both the methodologies and the possible constraints in the correlation function m…
Hard scattered partons are predicted to be well calibrated probes of the hot and dense medium produced in heavy ion collisions. Interactions of these partons with the medium w ill result in modifications of internal jet structure in Au+Au events compared to that observed in the p+p/d+Au reference. Full jet reconstruction is a promising tool to measu re these effects without the significant biases present in measurements with high-$\pT$ hadrons. One of the most significant challenges for jet reconstruction in the heavy ion environment comes from the correct characterization of the background fl…
Thermal photons can provide information on the temperature of the new state of matter created at RHIC. In the p_T region of 1--3 GeV/c thermal photons are expected to be the dominant direct photon source. Therefore, a possible excess compared to a pure decay photon signal due to a thermal photon contribution should be seen in the double ratio (gamma/gamma(pi^0))_{Measured}/(gamma/gamma(pi^0))_{Simulated}, if sufficient accuracy can be reached. We present a method to reconstruct direct photons by measuring e^+e^- pairs from external photon conversions.
The hyperon-hyperon and hyperon-nucleon interactions are important in search for exotic hadrons such dibaryon as a bound state of two baryons. $Λ$-$Λ$ correlation has been measured in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV at RHIC-STAR experiment using high statistics data recently taken, which has been found to clearly show the anti-correlation. The first measurements of p-$Ξ$ and $Ξ$-$Ξ$ correlations in Au+Au collisions have been shown. The p-$Ξ$ correlation function shows the strong attractive interaction, which is consistent with HAL QCD calculation. $Ξ$-$Ξ$ correlation has als…
I present an overview of some of the recent results on jets and jet-like correlation measurements from the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Jets are produced in the initial hard scatterings of an event and can therefore be exploited as probes of the hot and dense medium produced in heavy-ion collisions. Previous RHIC results indicate that this medium, the Quark Gluon Plasma (sQGP), is strongly coupled, with partonic degrees of freedom. High pT colored partons passing through the sQGP are therefore believed to suffer energy loss via induced gluon radiati…
One of the primary goals of high-energy heavy-ion collisions is to establish the QCD phase diagram and search for possible phase boundaries. The planned RHIC energy scan program will explore this exciting physics topic using heavy-ion collisions at various center of mass energies. The first test run with Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 9.2 GeV took place in early 2008. We present the results on identified particle ratios, azimuthal anisotropy parameters (v1 and v2) and HBT at midrapidity using data from this run. These results are compared to data for both lower and higher center of mass…
When heavy ions with high energy collide, a hot and dense matter is produced. As the matter expands, the matter undergoes cross-over phase transition from partonic matter to hadronic matter. Jets are created by high pT partons in the early phase of the collisions. Leptons and photons can penetrate the matter without strong interaction. For that reason, jets, leptons and photons are good probes to study the partonic matter in the early phase of the collisions. We report about two probes associated with photon and their results for PHENIX.
Particle correlations at small relative velocities can be used to study the space-time evolution of hot and expanding system created in heavy ion collisions. Baryon and antibaryon source sizes extracted from baryon-baryon correlations complement the information deduced from the correlation studies of identical pions. Correlations of non-identical particles are sensitive also to the space-time asymmetry of their emission. High statistics data set of STAR experiment allows us to present the results of baryon-baryon correlation measurements at various centralities and energies, as well as to take…
Azimuthal anisotropy ($v_2$) and two-particle angular correlations of high $p_T$ charged hadrons have been measured in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=130 GeV for transverse momenta up to 6 GeV/c, where hard processes are expected to contribute significantly. The two-particle angular correlations exhibit elliptic flow and a structure suggestive of fragmentation of high $p_T$ partons. The monotonic rise of $v_2(p_T)$ for $p_T<2$ GeV/c is consistent with collective hydrodynamical flow calculations. At $\pT>3$ GeV/c a saturation of $v_2$ is observed which persists up to $p_T=6$ GeV/c.
In non-central nuclear collisions, the created matter should exhibit strong vorticity, which induces spin polarization. Global polarization is a good tool to investigate the dynamics of the system. Global polarization of $Λ$ and $\barΛ$ hyperons has been measured at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.4 GeV - 5.02 TeV in various experiments. We have measured the global polarization of $Λ$ hyperons in Au+Au collisions with fixed-target configuration at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 7.2 GeV at RHIC-STAR experiment. The non-zero signal is observed and it follows the global trend of $Λ$ global polarization …
The results on directed and elliptic flow for Pb + Pb at the full energy of the SPS (158 GeV/A) and from the first year of Au + Au at RHIC (sqrt{s_{_{NN}}=130 GeV) are reviewed. The different experiments agree well and a consistent picture has emerged indicating early time thermalization at RHIC.
A current focus at RHIC is the Beam Energy Scan to study the QCD phase diagram -- temperature ($T$) vs. baryon chemical potential ($μ_{B}$). The STAR experiment has collected data for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 7.7 GeV, 11.5 GeV, and 39 GeV in the year 2010. We present midrapidity results on rapidity density, average transverse mass, and particle ratios for identified hadrons from the STAR experiment. Collision dynamics are studied in the framework of chemical and kinetic freeze-out conditions.
Thermal photons can provide information on the temperature of the new state of matter created at RHIC. In the p_T region of 1--3 GeV/c thermal photons are expected to be the dominant direct photon source. Therefore, a possible excess compared to a pure decay photon signal due to a thermal photon contribution should be seen in the double ratio (γ/γ(π^{0}))_{Measured}/(γ/γ(π^{0}))_{Simulated}, if sufficient accuracy can be reached. We present a method to reconstruct direct photons by measuring e^{+}e^{-}--pairs from external photon conversions.
The PHENIX experiment at RHIC measured $ω$, $η$ and $K_{S}^{0}$-meson production at high $p_{T}$ in $p+p$, $d+Au$ and $Au+Au$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ $GeV$. Measurements performed in different hadronic decay channels give consistent results. The measured ratios of all three mesons to $π^{0}$ are found to be flat as a function of $p_{T}$ in $p+p$ collisions and equal to $ω/π^{0}=0.81\pm0.02\pm0.07$, $η/π^{0}=0.48\pm0.02\pm0.02$ and $K_{S}^{0}/π^{0}=0.45\pm0.01\pm0.05$. Nuclear modification factor measured for $ω$-mesons in central Au+Au collisions is $R_{AA}=0.4\pm0.15$.
Measurements from the RHIC experiments show strong suppression of high-pT hadrons in central Au+Au collisions. The PHENIX experiment has observed strong suppression of $π^0$ and charged hadron yields in central Au+Au collisions for pT > 5 GeV/c regardless of pT and particle species. The observed suppression is interpreted in terms of energy loss of quarks in a high-density medium. The PHENIX Year-4 Au+Au measurements have extended the pT reach of the $π^0$ spectra to 20 GeV/c. And the PHENIX Year-5 Cu+Cu measurements performed for the study of particle production in a lighter system and they c…
Full jet reconstruction in heavy-ion collisions is expected to provide more sensitive measurements of jet quenching in hot QCD matter at RHIC. In this paper we review recent studies of jets utilizing modern jet reconstruction algorithms and their corresponding background subtraction techniques.
New results from the 2010 RHIC low energy program show a substantial suppression of neutral pions in central Au+Au collisions at both sqrt{s_NN}=39 and 62.4 GeV c.m.s. energies. At high pT the 62.4 GeV and 200 GeV data follow the same suppression pattern. On the other hand, otherwise successful pQCD predictions do not describe the 39 GeV data. These observations indicate that initial state effects may play a dominant role at smaller c.m.s. energies and at lower pT . The azimuthal dependence of the nuclear modification factor R_AA is strongly correlated with the (approximately elliptical) geome…
The measurement of direct photons in s(NN)**1/2 = 200 GeV p+p and Au+Au collisions is presented. The signal is compared to NLO pQCD calculations, which, in case of Au+Au, are scaled with the number of underlying nucleon-nucleon collisions. The agreement of the calculation with the data in both cases confirms the scaling of hard processes with the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions and supports the explanation of the earlier-observed pion suppression as a final-state effect.
The pi0 meson has been a crucial proble for observing jet quenching in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. Measurements of the eta meson in the same collisions have also shed light on a possible dependence of the observed suppression on the particle species. The preliminary pi0 nuclear modification factor R_AA from the 2004 RHIC run allowed a first systematic comparison between a precise measurement with high statistics and theoretical calculations, constraining model parameters such as the initial gluon density dN^g/dy, and the transport coefficient qhat. The final pi0 spectra and…
We report new results on $v_2(p_T)$ for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV for charged hadrons, pions, kaons, (anti)protons, $K^0_s$, and $Λ$. The analysis is extended to $p_T=12$ GeV/c for charged hadrons and $p_T=4$ GeV/c for identified particles. A comparison of the azimuthal anisotropy of charged hadrons measured at \sqrtsNN=130 and 200 GeV is presented. The $p_T$-dependence of baryon versus meson elliptic flow is discussed.
The non-Abelian feature of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) results in the gluons losing more energy than quarks in the medium formed in high energy heavy-ion collisions. Experimental results in p+p collisions when compared to NLO pQCD calculations show that at high transverse momentum (pT) the produced protons+anti-protons are dominantly from gluon jets and charged pions have substantial contribution from quark jets. If such a scenario is applied to heavy-ion collisions at RHIC, one would expect the difference in quark and gluon energy loss to have an effect on measured observables, such as high …
We present the observation of the \Heebar nucleus, the heaviest antinucleus observed to date. In total, 18 \Heebar counts were detected at the STAR experiment at RHIC in 10$^{9}$ recorded Au+Au collisions at beam energies of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV and 62 GeV. The background has been estimated, and the misidentification probability is found to be lower than 10$^{-11}$.
