ρ/ω properties from dilepton spectra in pA reactions at 12 GeV

Abstract

The dilepton production from $pC$ and $pCu$ collisions at $T_{lab}=12$ GeV is calculated using the semi-classical BUU transport model, that includes the off-shell propagation of vector mesons nonperturbatively and calculates the width of the vector mesons dynamically. It is found that the collisional broadening of the vector meson width and dropping vector meson masses lead to a small enhancement of the dilepton yield below the $\omega$ meson mass pole in $p Cu$ collisions compared to $p C$, which is, however, not sufficient to explain the enhanced production of dileptons as observed in the experiment by the KEK-PS E325 collaboration. It is argued that such in-medium effects are expected to be small due to kinematical reasons -- the dominant part of vector mesons radiate dileptons and decay outside the nucleus due to the finite formation time for $\rho$ and $\omega$ mesons, which is large by Lorentz covariance since the produced vector mesons move with high velocity relative to the target nucleus.