Abstract
In the study of hot and dense nuclear matter, created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, dilepton measurements play an essential role. Leptons, when compared to hadrons, have only little interaction with the strongly interacting system. Thus, dileptons provide ideal penetrating probes that allow the study of such a system throughout its space-time evolution. In the low mass range (Mll < 1.1 GeV/c2), the dominant source of dileptons originates from the decay of vector mesons which may see effects from chiral symmetry restoration. In the intermediate mass range (1.1 < Mll < 3.0 GeV/c2), the main contributions to the mass spectrum are expected to originate from the thermal radiation of a quark-gluon plasma as well as the decays of charm mesons. In the high mass range (Mll > 3.0 GeV/c2), dilepton measurements are expected to see contributions from primordial processes involving heavy quarks, and Drell-Yan production.With the introduction of the Time-of-Flight detector, the STAR detector has been able to perform large acceptance, high purity electron identification. In this contribution, we will present STAR's recent dielectron measurements in the low and intermediate mass range for RHIC beam energies ranging between 19.6 and 200 GeV. Compared to electrons, muon measurements have the advantage of reduced bremsstrahlung radiation in the surrounding detector materials. With the upcoming detector upgrades, specifically the muon detector (MTD), STAR will be able to include such measurements in its (di-)lepton studies. We will discuss the future dilepton program at STAR and the physics cases for these upgrades.
Highlights
Dileptons have long been proposed as one of the more crucial probes in the study of the hot and dense matter [1]
Dilepton contributions originate from vector mesons, open heavy-flavor decays, and thermal radiation emitted from a quark-gluon plasma (QGP)
The subsequent stages in the evolution of a hot and dense nuclear system can be identified with certain ranges in the dilepton invariant mass spectrum
Summary
Dileptons have long been proposed as one of the more crucial probes in the study of the hot and dense matter [1]. We will present STAR’s recent dielectron measurements in the low and intermediate mass range for RHIC beam energies ranging between 19.6 and 200 GeV. At SPS energies, the observed low-mass dilepton enhancement observed in both the CERES dielectron [3, 4] and NA60 dimuon data [5] could be explained in terms of in-medium effects on the spectral shape of the ρ meson.
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