PHENIX Data Research Articles

Analysis of [formula omitted] spectra for [formula omitted] mesons in [formula omitted]–[formula omitted] collisions at 200 GeV, using PYTHIA and Tsallis function

The ϕ(1020)0 mesons produced by asymmetric Cu–Au collisions at sNN=200GeV in the pseudorapidity region of |η|<0.35 is studied in relation to the transverse momentum (pT). The nuclear modification factor (RAB) is also calculated for ϕ(1020)0 mesons. To validate the model’s predictions, the simulations are compared to the experimental data from PHENIX using the PYTHIA8 and tuned to color reconnection mode. A systematically close relationship exists between PYTHIA8 predictions and the PHENIX data. PYTHIA CR1 mode predictions do not agree well with PHENIX experimental data. In addition to the RAB predictions, we investigated the ratio between the production of ϕ(1020)0 mesons to K∗(892)0 mesons and Λ baryons in Cu–Au collisions at sNN=200GeV. A comparison of the ϕ(1020)0 mesons yield produced by symmetric Au–Au and Cu–Cu collisions at sNN=200GeV are conducted using PYTHIA8 for comparison against asymmetric Cu–Au collisions. In this study, we also fit thermodynamically consistent Tsallis distribution functions for ϕ(1020)0 mesons onto experimental RHIC (PHENIX) pT spectra obtained from Cu–Au collisions at sNN=200GeV energy.

Measuring K*(892) Mesons in Cu + Au Collisions at 200 GeV

Invariant transverse momentum spectra and nuclear modification factors of K*(892) mesons are measured in Cu + Au collisions at the energy of 200 GeV. The measurements are performed in five centrality bins in the transverse momentum range of 2.0 to 5.75 GeV c–1 in the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. The nuclear modification factors are compared to the earlier PHENIX data obtained for symmetric Cu + Cu systems at $$\sqrt {{{s}_{{NN}}}} $$ = 200 GeV. The nuclear modification factors of K* mesons in Cu + Cu and Cu + Au collisions at identical Npart (number of participants) have a similar shape.

Centrality dependence of photon yield and elliptic flow from gluon fusion and splitting induced by magnetic fields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We compute the photon yield and elliptic flow coefficient in relativistic heavy-ion collisions from gluon fusion and splitting processes induced by a magnetic field for different centralities. The calculation accounts for the intense magnetic field and the high gluon occupation number at early times. The photon production induced by these process represents an excess contribution over calculations without magnetic field effects. We compare this excess to the difference between PHENIX data and recent hydrodynamic calculations for the photon transverse momentum distribution and elliptic flow coefficient $v_2$. The time evolution of the field strength and reaction volume is computed using UrQMD. We show that with reasonable values for the saturation scale, the calculation helps to better describe the experimental results obtained at RHIC energies for the lowest part of the transverse photon momentum at different centralities.

Single-spin asymmetries in p^uparrow p rightarrow J/psi +X within a TMD approach: role of the color octet mechanism

We calculate the transverse single-spin asymmetry (SSA) for J/psi production in proton-proton collisions, within non-relativistic QCD, employing the transverse momentum dependent, generalized parton model, which includes both spin and intrinsic motion effects. In particular, we study the role of the color octet mechanism in accessing the gluon Sivers function. In doing that, we also show, within this approach, how the singularities coming from color octet terms in the low-P_T region can be handled, leading to finite cross sections. Predictions for both unpolarized cross sections and SSAs are given and compared against PHENIX data. Estimates for LHCb in the fixed target mode are also presented.

Two-particle azimuthal harmonics in pA collisions

We compute two-particle production in pA collisions and extract azimuthal harmonics, using the dilute-dense formalism in the Color Glass Condensate framework. The multiple scatterings of the partons inside the projectile proton on the dense gluons inside the target nucleus are expressed in terms of Wilson lines. They generate interesting correlations, which can be partly responsible for the signals of collectivity measured at RHIC and at the LHC. Most notably, while gluon Wilson loops yield vanishing odd harmonics, quark Wilson loops can generate sizable odd harmonics for two particle correlations. By taking both quark and gluon channels into account, we find that the overall second and third harmonics lie rather close to the recent PHENIX data at RHIC.

Pi ^{0} and eta meson production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s}=8 TeV

An invariant differential cross section measurement of inclusive pi ^{0} and eta meson production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at sqrt{s}=8 TeV was carried out by the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The spectra of pi ^{0} and eta mesons were measured in transverse momentum ranges of 0.3<p_{ text{ T }} <35 text{ GeV/c } and 0.5<p_{ text{ T }} <35 text{ GeV/c }, respectively. Next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations using fragmentation functions DSS14 for the pi ^{0} and AESSS for the eta overestimate the cross sections of both neutral mesons, although such calculations agree with the measured eta /pi ^0 ratio within uncertainties. The results were also compared with PYTHIA 8.2 predictions for which the Monash 2013 tune yields the best agreement with the measured neutral meson spectra. The measurements confirm a universal behavior of the eta /pi ^0 ratio seen for NA27, PHENIX and ALICE data for pp collisions from sqrt{s}=27.5 GeV to sqrt{s}=8 TeV within experimental uncertainties. A relation between the pi ^{0} and eta production cross sections for pp collisions at sqrt{s}=8 TeV is given by m_{ text{ T }} scaling for p_{ text{ T }} >3.5 text{ GeV/c }. However, a deviation from this empirical scaling rule is observed for transverse momenta below p_{ text{ T }} <3.5 text{ GeV/c } in the eta /pi ^0 ratio with a significance of 6.2sigma .

Transverse single spin asymmetry in p+p↑→J/ψ+X

We present estimates of transverse single spin asymmetry (TSSA) in $p+p^\uparrow \rightarrow J/\psi+X$ within the colour evaporation model of charmonium production in a generalized parton model (GPM) framework, using the recently obtained best fit parameters for the gluon Sivers function (GSF) extracted from PHENIX data on TSSA in $p+p^\uparrow \to \pi^0+X$ at midrapidity. We calculate asymmetry at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV, and compare the results with PHENIX data on TSSA in the process $p + p^\uparrow \to J/\psi+X$. We also present estimates for asymmetry at $\sqrt{s} = 115 $ GeV corresponding to the proposed fixed target experiment AFTER@LHC and at $\sqrt{s} = 500$ GeV corresponding to the higher RHIC energy. Finally, we investigate the effect of the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) evolution of the densities involved, on the asymmetry.

QCD equation of state for heavy ion collisions**Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11447121, 11475085, 11535005, 11690030), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (020414380074), Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Research Funds (1501035B) and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20130078, BK20130387)

In this work, we calculate the equation of state (EoS) of quark gluon-plasma (QGP) using the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis (CJT) effective action. We get the quark propagator by using the rank-1 separable model within the framework of the Dyson-Schwinger equations (DSEs). The results from CJT effective action are compared with lattice QCD data. We find that, when μ is small, our results generally fit the lattice QCD data when T > Tc, but show deviations at and below Tc. It can be concluded that the EoS of CJT is reliable when T > Tc. Then, by adopting the hydrodynamic code UVH2+1, we compare the CJT results of the multiplicity and elliptic flow ν2 with the PHENIX data and the results from the original EoS in UVH2+1. While the CJT results of multiplicities generally match the original UVH2+1 results and fit the experimental data, the CJT results of ν2 are slightly larger than the original UVH2+1 results for centralities smaller than 40% and smaller than the original UVH2+1 results for higher centralities.

Solving the [formula omitted] puzzle with x and scale dependence

We present here a possible resolution of the jet quenching parameter qˆ puzzle by exploring the momentum fraction x and scale Q2 dependence of qˆ, in addition to temperature dependence. We explore the momentum broadening of the jet due to Glauber gluon exchange with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). This has led us to define the momentum fraction x for the partons in the QGP. We also show here, for the first time, possible forms of the parton distribution function (PDF) of the QGP. The QGP-PDF as input in qˆ has been used to fit the PHENIX and CMS data simultaneously. We observe that the scale evolution of the QGP-PDF and the energy of the jet are the missing ingredients responsible for the enhancement of qˆ at the same temperature in RHIC collisions compared to LHC collisions.

Prompt photon yield and elliptic flow from gluon fusion induced by magnetic fields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We compute photon production at early times in semi-central relativistic heavy-ion collisions from non-equilibrium gluon fusion induced by a magnetic field. The calculation accounts for the main features of the collision at these early times, namely, the intense magnetic field and the high gluon occupation number. The gluon fusion channel is made possible by the magnetic field and would otherwise be forbidden due to charge conjugation invariance. Thus, the photon yield from this process is an excess over calculations without magnetic field effects. We compare this excess to the difference between PHENIX data and recent hydrodynamic calculations for the photon transverse momentum distribution and elliptic flow coefficient $v_2$. We show that with reasonable values for the saturation scale and magnetic field strength, the calculation helps to better describe the experimental results obtained at RHIC energies for the lowest part of the transverse photon momentum.

Anisotropic flow of thermal photons at energies available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

We calculate elliptic and triangular flow parameters of thermal photons using an event-by-event hydrodynamic model with fluctuating initial conditions at 200A GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC and at 2.76A TeV Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC for three different centrality bins. The photon elliptic flow shows strong centrality dependence where $v_2(p_T)$ increases towards peripheral collisions both at RHIC and at the LHC energies. However, the triangular flow parameter does not show significant dependence to the collision centrality. The elliptic as well as the triangular flow parameters found to underestimate the PHENIX data at RHIC by a large margin for all three centrality bins. We calculate $p_T$ spectrum and anisotropic flow of thermal photons from 200A GeV Cu+Cu collisions at RHIC for 0--20\% centrality bin and compare with the results with those from Au+Au collisions. The production of thermal photon is found to decrease significantly for Cu+Cu collisions compared to Au+Au collisions. However, the effect of initial state fluctuation is found to be more pronounced for anisotropic flow resulting in larger $v_2$ and $v_3$ for Cu+Cu collisions. We study the correlation between the anisotropic flow parameters and the corresponding initial spatial anisotropies from their event by event distributions at RHIC and at the LHC energies. The linear correlation between $v_2$ and $\epsilon_2$ is found be stronger compared to the correlation between $v_3$ and $\epsilon_3$. In addition, the correlation coefficient is found to be larger at LHC than at RHIC.

Hydrodynamic approach to the centrality dependence of di-hadron correlations

Measurements of di-hadron azimuthal correlations at different centralities for Au+Au collisions at 200 AGeV were reported by the PHENIX Collaboration. The data were presented for different ranges of transverse momentum. In particular, it was observed that the away-side correlation evolves from double- to a single-peak structure when the centrality decreases. In this work, we show that these features naturally appear as due to an interplay between the centrality-dependent smooth background elliptic flow and the one produced by event-by-event fluctuating peripheral tubes. To compare with the PHENIX data, we also carry out numerical simulations by using a hydrodynamical code NeXSPheRIO, and calculate the correlations by both cumulant and the ZYAM method employed by PHENIX Collaboration. It is shown that our results are in reasonable agreement with the data. A brief discussion on the physical content of the present model and its difference from other viewpoint is also presented.

Challenges of direct photon production at forward rapidities and large pT

Direct photons produced in interactions with nuclear targets represent a cleaner probe for investigation of nuclear effects than hadrons, since photons have no final state interaction and no energy loss or absorption is expected in the produced hot medium. Therefore, besides the Cronin enhancement at medium-high transverse momenta pT and isospin effects at larger pT, one should not expect any nuclear effects. However, this fact is in contrast to the PHENIX data providing an evidence for a significant large-pT suppression at mid rapidities in central d + Au and Au + Au collisions that cannot be induced by coherent phenomena (gluon shadowing, Color Glass Condensate). We demonstrate that such an unexpected results is subject to deficit of energy induced universally by multiple initial state interactions (ISI) towards the kinematic limits (large Feynman xF and/or large ). For this reason, in order to enhance the effects of coherence, one should be cautious going to forward rapidities and higher energies. In the LHC kinematic region ISI corrections are irrelevant at mid rapidities but cause rather strong suppression at forward rapidities and large pT. Numerical calculations of invariant pT spectra and the nuclear modification factor were performed within two different models, the color dipole formalism and the model based on kT-factorization, which are successfully confronted with available data from the RHIC and LHC collider experiments. Finally, we perform also predictions for a strong onset of ISI corrections at forward rapidities and corresponding expected suppression can be verified by the future measurements at LHC.

Prompt photon production and photon-hadron jet correlations with POWHEG

We present a calculation of direct photon production at next-to-leading order of QCD and a matching of this calculation with parton showers using POWHEG BOX. Based on simulations with POWHEG+PYTHIA, we perform a detailed phenomenological analysis of PHENIX data on prompt photon production and photon-hadron jet correlations in pp collisions at RHIC, considerably improving the description of these data with respect to previous calculations, and we suggest additional interesting analyses.

Effects of kinematic cuts on net electric charge fluctuations

The effects of kinematic cuts on electric charge fluctuations in a gas of charged particles are discussed. We consider a very transparent example of an ideal pion gas with quantum statistics, which can be viewed as a multi-component gas of Boltzmann particles with different charges and masses. Cumulants of net-electric charge fluctuations $\chi_n^Q$ are calculated in a static and expanding medium with flow parameters adjusted to the experimental data. We show that the transverse momentum cut, $p_{t_\text{min}}\leq p_t\leq p_{t_\text{max}}$, weakens the effects of Bose statistics, i.e. contributions of effectively multi-charged states to higher order moments. Consequently, cuts in $p_t$ modify the experimentally measured cumulants and their ratios. We discuss the influence of kinematic cuts on the ratio of mean and variance of electric charge fluctuations in a hadron resonance gas, in the light of recent data of the STAR and PHENIX Collaborations. We find that the different momentum cuts of $p_{t_\text{min}}=0.2$~GeV (STAR) and $p_{t_\text{min}}=0.3$~GeV (PHENIX) are responsible for more than 30\% of the difference between these two data sets. We argue that the $p_t$ cuts imposed on charged particles will influence the normalized kurtosis {$\kappa_Q\sigma_Q^2 = \chi_4^Q/\chi_2^Q$} of the electric charge fluctuations. In particular, the reduction of $\kappa_Q\sigma_Q^2$ with increasing $p_{t_\text{min}}$ will lead to differences between PHENIX and STAR data of ${\cal O}(6\%)$ which currently are buried under large statistical and systematic errors. We furthermore introduce the relation between momentum cut-off and finite volume effects, which is of relevance for the comparison between experimental data and lattice QCD calculations.

η meson production of high-energy nuclear collisions at NLO

The transverse momentum spectrum of η meson in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is studied at the Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) within the perturbative QCD, where the jet quenching effect in the QGP is incorporated with the effectively medium-modified η fragmentation functions using the higher-twist approach. We show that the theoretical simulations could give nice descriptions of PHENIX data on η meson in both p+p and central Au + Au collisions at the RHIC, and also provide numerical predictions of η spectra in central Pb + Pb collisions with sNN=2.76 TeV at the LHC. The ratios of η/π0 in p+p and in central Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV are found to overlap in a wide pT region, which matches well the measured ratio η/π0 by PHENIX. We demonstrate that, at the asymptotic region when pT→∞ the ratios of η/π0 in both Au + Au and p+p are almost determined only by quark jets fragmentation and thus approach to the one in e+e− scattering; in addition, the almost identical gluon (quark) contribution fractions to η and to π result in a rather moderate variation of η/π0 distribution at intermediate and high pT region in A+A relative to that in p+p; while a slightly higher η/π0 at small pT in Au + Au can be observed due to larger suppression of gluon contribution fraction to π0 as compared to the one to η. The theoretical prediction for η/π0 at the LHC has also been presented.

New information on photon fragmentation functions

Thermal photons radiated in heavy-ion collisions represent an important signal for a recently discovered new state of matter, the deconfined quark–gluon plasma. However, a clean identification of this signal requires precise knowledge of the prompt photons produced simultaneously in hard collisions of quarks and gluons, mostly through their fragmentation. In this paper, we demonstrate that PHENIX data on photons produced in proton–proton collisions with low transverse momenta allow one to extract new information on this fragmentation process. While existing data do not yet convincingly favor one parameterization (BFG II) over the two other frequently used photon fragmentation functions (BFG I and GRV NLO), the data sets recorded by PHENIX and STAR at BNL RHIC in 2013 with tenfold higher statistics should allow for such an analysis.

Inclusive double-helicity asymmetries in neutral-pion and eta-meson production inp→+p→collisions ats=200 GeV

Results are presented from data recorded in 2009 by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider for the double-longitudinal spin asymmetry, $A_{LL}$, for $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ production in $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions. Comparison of the $\pi^0$ results with different theory expectations based on fits of other published data showed a preference for small positive values of gluon polarization, $\Delta G$, in the proton in the probed Bjorken $x$ range. The effect of adding the new 2009 \pz data to a recent global analysis of polarized scattering data is also shown, resulting in a best fit value $\Delta G^{[0.05,0.2]}_{\mbox{DSSV}} = 0.06^{+0.11}_{-0.15}$ in the range $0.05<x<0.2$, with the uncertainty at $\Delta \chi^2 = 9$ when considering only statistical experimental uncertainties. Shifting the PHENIX data points by their systematic uncertainty leads to a variation of the best-fit value of $\Delta G^{[0.05,0.2]}_{\mbox{DSSV}}$ between $0.02$ and $0.12$, demonstrating the need for full treatment of the experimental systematic uncertainties in future global analyses.

Disentangling coherent and incoherent quasielastic $$J/\psi $$ J / ψ photoproduction on nuclei by neutron tagging in ultraperipheral ion collisions at the LHC

We consider $J/\psi$ photoproduction in ion--ion ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) at the LHC and RHIC in the coherent and incoherent quasielastic channels with and without accompanying forward neutron emission and analyze the role of nuclear gluon shadowing at small $x$, $x=10^{-4}-10^{-2}$, in these processes. We find that despite the good agreement between large nuclear gluon shadowing and the ALICE data in the coherent channel, in the incoherent channel, the leading twist approximation predicts the amount of nuclear suppression which is by approximately a factor of $1.5$ exceeds that seen in the data. We hypothesize that part of the discrepancy can be accounted for by the incoherent inelastic process of $J/\psi$ photoproduction with nucleon dissociation. To separate the high-photon-energy and low-photon-energy contributions to the $d \sigma_{AA\to AAJ/\psi}(y)/dy$ cross section, we consider ion--ion UPCs accompanied by neutron emission due to electromagnetic excitation of one or both colliding nuclei. We describe the corresponding PHENIX data and make predictions for the LHC kinematics. In addition, in the incoherent quasielastic case, we show that the separation between the low-photon-energy and high-photon-energy contributions can be efficiently performed by measuring the correlation between the directions of $J/\psi$ and the emitted neutrons.

Centrality dependence of light (anti)nuclei and (anti)hypertriton production in Au+Au collisions atsNN=200GeV

We present, using the dynamically constrained phase-space coalescence model, to investigate the centrality dependence of light (anti)nuclei and (anti)hypertriton production based on the $6.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ hadronic final states generated by the paciae model in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{{s}_{NN}}=200$ GeV in $|y|&lt;1$ and ${p}_{T}&lt;5$ acceptances. We found that the yields of light (anti)nuclei and (anti)hypertriton strongly depend on the centrality, i.e., their yields decrease rapidly with the increase of centrality bins; but their yield ratios are independent of centrality. These theoretical results are consistent with STAR and PHENIX data. Furthermore, we found that the yields of light (anti)nuclei and (anti)hypertriton per participant nucleon increase linearly with the increase of the number of participants, and this distribution property depends on the mass number of the matter produced.