STAR Experiment Research Articles

Study of net-baryon higher moments in PNJL model and their expectation for net-proton using the subensemble acceptance method for the search of QCD critical point

The critical point is one of the most important aspects of the QCD phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. The nonmonotonic behavior of the higher-order moments of conserved quantities like net-baryon (ΔB), net-charge (ΔQ), and net-strangeness (ΔS) are believed to be the signatures of the QCD critical point as a function of energy. We study the effect of the QCD critical point on moments of net-baryon in the Polyakov loop enhanced Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model of QCD with six-quark and eight-quark interactions for finite and infinite volume systems. The study is performed at energies similar to Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider beam energy scan. Experimentally measuring conserved quantities is difficult due to systematic limitations. Therefore, net-proton, net-pion, and net-kaon are measured as the proxy of ΔB, ΔQ, and ΔS. Recent studies in the subensemble acceptance method on the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model show the dependency of the measured higher-order moment on the experimental acceptance. We applied the subensemble acceptance method to analyze the behavior of κσ2 of net-baryon distribution within the subvolume system for various acceptance fractions. These results can be directly mapped to the subvolume (particle) percentage of the total volume (conserved quantities). Our findings are compared to the solenoidal tracker at RHIC (STAR) net-proton and proton data with different energies to investigate the presence of the critical point. Additionally, these results are also compared with the ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD), HRG model, and available lattice data. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Analysis of transverse momentum spectra of protons, deuterons, and tritons in symmetric heavy-ion collisions at √(s_NN ) = 200 GeV at the RHIC

Abstract The blast wave model with Tsallis statistics is used to analyze the transverse momentum spectra of the protons (p), deuteron (d), and triton (t) in √(s_NN ) = 200 GeV gold-gold (Au-Au) collisions at RHIC in various centrality bins. In particular transverse momentum ranges, model results closely match experimental data from the PHENIX (p) and STAR (d and t) Collaborations. The data is compared with protons obtained in Cu+Cu collisions and deuteron and triton in Ru+Ru collisions at 200 GeV, center of mass energy from STAR collaboration. Particle spectra are used to derive the kinetic freeze-out temperatures, transverse flow velocities, and freeze-out volumes. According to the findings, the kinetic freeze-out temperature rises as one goes from the central to peripheral collisions. In this transition, the transverse flow velocity and the freeze-out volume both drop. In the collisions of both Collaborations, this work reveals mass-dependent kinetic freeze-out temperature and differential volume possibilities. On the whole, the non-extensivity parameter q decreases with increasing centrality of the studied heavy-ion collisions, and heavier mass particles have smaller values of q, which implies higher degrees of thermalization and equilibrium in more central collisions and for heavier particles.

Strangeness-correlations on the pseudocritical line in ( 2+1 )-flavor QCD

We present some lattice QCD results on first (χ1i) and second (χ2i) cumulants of and correlations (χ11ij) among net baryon-number (B), strangeness (S) and electric charge (Q) along the pseudocritical line [Tpc(μB)] in the temperature (T)–baryon chemical potential (μB) phase diagram of (2+1)-flavor QCD. We point out that violations of sum rules among second order cumulants, which hold in the isospin symmetric limit of vanishing electric charge chemical potential, are small along the Tpc(μB) for the entire range of μB covered in the RHIC beam energy scan. For the strangeness neutral matter produced in heavy-ion collisions this leads to a close relation between χ11BS and χ11QS. We compare lattice QCD results for χ11BS/χ2S along the Tpc(μB) line with preliminary experimental measurements of χ11BS/χ2S for collision energies 7.7 GeV≤sNN≤62.4 GeV. While we find good agreements for sNN≥39 GeV, differences are sizeable at smaller values of sNN. Moreover, we compare lattice QCD results for the ratio of the strangeness (μS) to baryon (μB) chemical potentials, which define a strangeness neutral system with fixed electric charge to baryon number density, with experimental results obtained by the STAR collaboration for μS/μB using strange baryon yields on the freeze-out line. Finally, we determine the baryon chemical potential at the freeze-out (μBf) by comparing χ1B/χ2B along the Tpc(μB) with the experimentally measured net-proton cumulants χ1p/χ2p. We find that {μBf,Tpc(μBf)} are consistent with the freeze-out parameters of the statistical-model fits to experimentally measured hadron yields for sNN≥11.5 GeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Observation of the antimatter hypernucleus .

At the origin of the Universe, an asymmetry between the amount of created matter and antimatter led to the matter-dominated Universe as we know it today. The origins of this asymmetry remain unknown so far. High-energy nuclear collisions create conditions similar to the Universe microseconds after the Big Bang, with comparable amounts of matter and antimatter1-6. Much of the created antimatter escapes the rapidly expanding fireball without annihilating, making such collisions an effective experimental tool to create heavy antimatter nuclear objects and to study their properties7-14, hoping to shed some light on the existing questions on the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. Here we report the observation of the antimatter hypernucleus , composed of a , an antiproton and two antineutrons. The discovery was made through its two-body decay after production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider15,16. In total, 15.6 candidate antimatter hypernuclei are obtained with an estimated background count of 6.4. The lifetimes of the antihypernuclei and are measured and compared with the lifetimes of their corresponding hypernuclei, testing the symmetry between matter and antimatter. Various production yield ratios among (anti)hypernuclei(hypernuclei and/or antihypernuclei) and (anti)nuclei(nuclei and/or antinuclei) are also measured and compared with theoretical model predictions, shedding light on their production mechanisms.

STAR Experiment Results from BES Program

STAR Experiment Results from BES Program

Baryon-number — flavor separation in the topological expansion of QCD

Gauge invariance of QCD dictates the presence of string junctions in the wave functions of baryons. In high-energy inclusive processes, these baryon junctions have been predicted to induce the separation of the flows of baryon number and flavor. In this paper we describe this phenomenon using the analog-gas model of multiparticle production proposed long time ago by Feynman and Wilson and adapted here to accommodate the topological expansion in QCD. In this framework, duality arguments suggest the existence of two degenerate junction-antijunction glueball Regge trajectories of opposite C\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{C} $$\\end{document}-parity with intercept close to 1/2. The corresponding results for the energy and rapidity dependence of baryon stopping are in reasonably good agreement with recent experimental findings from STAR and ALICE experiments. We show that accounting for correlations between the fragmenting strings further improves agreement with the data, and outline additional experimental tests of our picture at the existing (RHIC, LHC, JLab) and future (EIC) facilities.

Bulk properties of the system in Au–Au collisions at 3 GeV and their dependence on collision centrality and particle rapidity

We analyze the transverse momentum spectra of proton (p), deuteron (d), triton (t), and helium (3He and 4He) in different centrality intervals in various rapidity slices in gold–gold (Au–Au) collisions at sNN=3 GeV. We apply the blast-wave model with Tsallis statistics (TBW) to transverse momentum spectra of the particles, which fits well the data of STAR Collaboration. The freezeout parameters such as kinetic freezeout temperature, transverse flow velocity, and kinetic freezeout volume are extracted. Our findings reveal that central collisions exhibit higher values for the kinetic freezeout temperature, transverse flow velocity, and kinetic freezeout volume (which means that the central collisions are more hot and expansive), and observed that they decrease from central to peripheral collisions, and the former two parameters decrease from backward rapidity regions to mid-rapidity. This indicates a rapid expansion of the system in central collisions and in backward rapidities. The above parameters are mass-dependent, and the former increases, while the latter two decrease for heavier particles, reflecting the multiple kinetic freezeout and volume differential freezeout scenarios. Besides, the entropy parameter (q) is extracted, and it increases from peripheral to central and from backward to mid-rapidity regions.

Upper limit on the chiral magnetic effect in isobar collisions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider

The chiral magnetic effect (CME) is a phenomenon that arises from the QCD anomaly in the presence of an external magnetic field. The experimental search for its evidence has been one of the key goals of the physics program of the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider. The STAR Collaboration has previously presented the results of a blind analysis of isobar collisions (Ru4496+Ru4496, Zr4096+Zr4096) in the search for the CME. The isobar ratio (Y) of CME-sensitive observable, charge separation scaled by elliptic anisotropy, is close to but systematically larger than the inverse multiplicity ratio, the naive background baseline. This indicates the potential existence of a CME signal and the presence of remaining nonflow background due to two- and three-particle correlations, which are different between the isobars. In this postblind analysis, we estimate the contributions from those nonflow correlations as a background baseline to Y, utilizing the isobar data as well as Heavy Ion Jet Interaction Generator simulations. This baseline is found consistent with the isobar ratio measurement, and an upper limit of 10% at 95% confidence level is extracted for the CME fraction in the charge separation measurement in isobar collisions at sNN=200 GeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

How far can we see back in time in high-energy collisions using charm hadrons?

We use open charm production to estimate how far we can see back in time in high-energy hadron-hadron collisions. We analyze the transverse momentum distributions of the identified D mesons from pp, p–Pb and A–A collisions at the ALICE and STAR experiments covering the energy range from sNN=200GeV up to 7 TeV. Within a non-extensive statistical framework, the common Tsallis parameters for D mesons represent higher temperature and more degrees of freedom than that of light-flavour hadrons. Assuming Bjorken-expansion, the production of D mesons corresponds to a significantly earlier proper time, τ D = (0.18 ± 0.06)τ LF.

Light and hyper nuclei formation at [formula omitted] 3 GeV Au+Au collisions using Wigner coalescence approach

The production of light nuclei and hyper-nuclei in heavy-ion collisions, particularly at high baryon density, is crucial for understanding the dynamical evolution of the collision system and exploring the internal state of nuclear matter of compacted stellar object. Despite being a topic of ongoing debate, an improved theoretical understanding is necessary. In this work, production of light nuclei (d, t, 3He, 4He) and hyper-nuclei (Λ3H, Λ4H) was investigated using the JAM microscopic transport model combined with an afterburner coalescence process at sNN= 3 GeV Au+Au collisions. The formation of a specific nucleus during the coalescence process is determined by its Wigner function. The comparison of the calculations for pT spectra, average pT, and rapidity distributions to the measurements from the STAR experiment was performed. We investigated the dynamic information carried by light nuclei and determined the averaged spatial distance 〈ΔR〉 and momentum difference 〈ΔP〉 of constituent nucleons (Λ) for each nucleus species.

Collective flow and fluid behavior in p/d/3He+Au collisions at GeV*

Abstract By varying the intrinsic initial geometry, p/d/3He+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provide a unique opportunity to understand the collective behavior and probe possible sub-nucleon fluctuations in small systems. In this study, we employed the hybrid model under TRENTo initial conditions to study the collective flow and fluid behavior in p/d/3He+Au collisions. With fine-tuned parameters, can describe the and data from the PHENIX and STAR collaborations. However, for certain parameter sets with initial sub-nucleon fluctuations, the hydrodynamic simulations already go beyond their limits with an average Knudsen number clearly larger than unity. Our calculations demonstrate that, for a meaningful evaluation of the fluid behavior in small systems, model simulations must also pay attention to the validity range of hydrodynamics.

Collision-energy dependence of deuteron cumulants and proton-deuteron correlations in Au+Au collisions at RHIC

We report the first measurements of cumulants, up to 4th order, of deuteron number distributions and proton-deuteron correlations in Au+Au collisions recorded by the STAR experiment in phase-I of Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Deuteron cumulants, their ratios, and proton-deuteron mixed cumulants are presented for different collision centralities covering a range of center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN=7.7 to 200 GeV. It is found that the cumulant ratios at lower collision energies favor a canonical ensemble over a grand canonical ensemble in thermal models. An anti-correlation between proton and deuteron multiplicity is observed across all collision energies and centralities, consistent with the expectation from global baryon number conservation. The UrQMD model coupled with a phase-space coalescence mechanism qualitatively reproduces the collision-energy dependence of cumulant ratios and proton-deuteron correlations.

Global quark spin correlations in relativistic heavy ion collisions

The observation of the vector meson’s global spin alignment by the STAR Collaboration reveals that strong spin correlations may exist for quarks and antiquarks in relativistic heavy-ion collisions in the normal direction of the reaction plane. We propose a systematic method to describe such correlations in the quark matter. We classify them as local and long range quark spin correlations in the system. We show in particular that the effective quark spin correlations contain the genuine spin correlations originated directly from the dynamical process as well as those induced by averaging over other degrees of freedom. We also show that such correlations can be studied by measuring the vector meson’s spin density matrix and hyperon-hyperon and hyperon-anti-hyperon spin correlations. We present the relationships between these measurable quantities and spin correlations of quarks and antiquarks. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Measurements of the Z0/γ⁎ cross section and transverse single spin asymmetry in 510 GeV p + p collisions

The differential cross section for Z0 production, measured as a function of the boson's transverse momentum (pT), provides important constraints on the evolution of the transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs). The transverse single spin asymmetry (TSSA) of the Z0 is sensitive to one of the polarized TMDs, the Sivers function, which is predicted to have the opposite sign in p+p→W/Z+X from that which enters in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering. In this Letter, the STAR Collaboration reports the first measurement of the Z0/γ⁎ differential cross section as a function of its pT in p+p collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 510 GeV, together with the Z0/γ⁎ total cross section. We also report the measurement of Z0/γ⁎ TSSA in transversely polarized p+p collisions at 510 GeV.

Centrality dependency of proton, deuteron, and triton’s temperatures in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV

The transverse momentum (pT) spectra of protons (p), deuterons (d), and tritons (t) in 200 GeV gold–gold (Au + Au) collisions at RHIC are examined across a range of centrality bins using the Levy Tsallis (TS) statistical model. The model's predictions closely match the experimental results from PHENIX (p) and STAR (d and t) Collaborations. Kinetic freeze-out temperatures of hadrons are obtained from particle spectra. The results showed that the kinetic freeze-out temperature decreases as collisions move from center to the periphery. This work found mass-dependent kinetic freeze-out temperatures, heavier particles arrive to the freeze-out phase before lighter ones. Comparison with same data fitted by blast wave function with Tsallis statistics (BWTS) showed that T0 values are increasing from central to peripheral collisions, while in case of TS function (current analysis) it decreases. This behavior puts a question mark on the reliability of using such functions for temperature extraction.

Signatures of baryon junctions in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

Local gauge invariance of the baryon wave function leads to the emergence of a baryon junction, where three (or N, in SU(N) gauge theory) string operators merge. The existence of baryon junction dramatically affects the dynamics of baryon stopping at high energies, and the corresponding predictions are supported by the recent data from STAR Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Here we outline the ways in which the baryon junctions can be tested in semi-inclusive deep inelasttic scattering at Jefferson Laboratory and the future Electron Ion Collider.

Two-Pion Bose–Einstein Correlations in Au+Au Collisions at sNN = 3 GeV in the STAR Experiment

The correlation femtoscopy technique makes it possible to estimate the geometric dimensions and lifetime of the particle emission region after the collision of ions. Measurements of the emission region characteristics not only at midrapidity but also at backward (forward) rapidity can provide new information about the source and make it possible to impose constraints on the heavy-ion collision models. This work is devoted to revealing the dependence of the spatial and temporal parameters of the emission region of identical pions in Au+Au collisions at sNN = 3 GeV from the fixed-target program of the STAR experiment. The extracted femtoscopic radii, Rout, Rside, Rlong, Rout−long2, and the correlation strength, λ, are presented as a function of collision centrality, pair rapidity, and transverse momentum. Physics implications will be discussed.

Results on elastic cross sections in proton–proton collisions at [formula omitted] GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC

We report results on an elastic cross section measurement in proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy s=510 GeV, obtained with the Roman Pot setup of the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The elastic differential cross section is measured in the four-momentum transfer squared range 0.23≤−t≤0.67 GeV2. This is the only measurement of the proton-proton elastic cross section in this t range for collision energies above the Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR) and below the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) colliders. We find that a constant slope B does not fit the data in the aforementioned t range, and we obtain a much better fit using a second-order polynomial for B(t). This is the first measurement below the LHC energies for which the non-constant behavior B(t) is observed. The t dependence of B is also determined using six subintervals of t in the STAR measured t range, and is in good agreement with the phenomenological models. The measured elastic differential cross section dσ/dt agrees well with the results obtained at s=540 GeV for proton–antiproton collisions by the UA4 experiment. We also determine that the integrated elastic cross section within the STAR t-range is σelfid=462.1±0.9(stat.)±1.1(syst.)±11.6(scale)μb.

Extracting Kinetic Freeze-Out Properties in High-Energy Collisions Using a Multisource Thermal Model

We study the transverse momentum (pT) spectra of neutral pions and identified charged hadrons produced in proton–proton (pp), deuteron–gold (d–Au), and gold–gold (Au–Au) collisions at the center of mass energy sNN=200 GeV. The study is made in the framework of a multisource thermal model used in the partonic level. It is assumed that the contribution to the pT-value of any hadron comes from two or three partons with an isotropic distribution of the azimuthal angle. The contribution of each parton to the pT-value of a given hadron is assumed to obey any one of the standard (Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac, and Bose-Einstein) distributions with the kinetic freeze-out temperature and average transverse flow velocity. The pT spectra of the final-state hadrons can be fitted by the superposition of two or three components. The results obtained from our Monte Carlo method are used to fit the experimental results of the PHENIX and STAR Collaborations. The results of the present work serve as a suitable reference baseline for other experiments and simulation studies.

Nuclear Modification Factor of Inclusive Charged Particles in Au+Au Collisions at sNN = 27 GeV with the STAR Experiment

The Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at RHIC aims to explore the QCD phase diagram, including the search for the evidence of the 1st order phase transition from hadronic matter to Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) and the location of the QCD critical point. One of the features previously observed in the study of QGP is the effect of suppression of particle production with high transverse momenta pT (>2 GeV/c) at energies sNN = 62.4–200 GeV, which was deduced from the charged-particle nuclear modification factor (RCP) measured using the data from Beam Energy Scan Program Phase I (BES-I) of STAR experiment. In 2018, STAR has collected over 500 million events from Au+Au collisions at sNN = 27 GeV as a part of the STAR BES-II program, which is about a factor of 10 higher than BES-I 27 GeV data size. In this report, we present new measurements of charged particle production and the nuclear modification factor RCP, from this new 27 GeV data set and compare them with the BES-I results. The new measurements extend the previous BES-I results to higher transverse momentum range, which allows better exploration of the jet quenching effects at low RHIC energies, and may help to understand the effects of the formation and properties of QGP at these energies.