Azimuthal Charged-Particle Correlations and Possible Local Strong Parity Violation

Journal Article · Fri Dec 18 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.251601· OSTI ID:21370906

Abelev, B I; Barannikova, O; Betts, R R; Garcia-Solis, E J; Hofman, D J; Hollis, R S; Iordanova, A; Kauder, K; Suarez, M C ^[1]; Aggarwal, M M; Bhati, A K; Kumar, L; Pruthi, N K ^[2]; Ahammed, Z; Chattopadhyay, S; Dutta Mazumdar, M R; Ganti, M S; Ghosh, P; Mohanty, B; Nayak, T K ^[3]

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1. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607 (United States)
2. Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014 (India)
3. Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata 700064 (India)

Parity-odd domains, corresponding to nontrivial topological solutions of the QCD vacuum, might be created during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These domains are predicted to lead to charge separation of quarks along the system's orbital momentum axis. We investigate a three-particle azimuthal correlator which is a P even observable, but directly sensitive to the charge separation effect. We report measurements of charged hadrons near center-of-mass rapidity with this observable in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sq root(s{sub NN})=200 GeV using the STAR detector. A signal consistent with several expectations from the theory is detected. We discuss possible contributions from other effects that are not related to parity violation.

• OSTI ID: 21370906
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 25; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.251601; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
CENTER-OF-MASS SYSTEM
CHARGED PARTICLES
GEV RANGE 100-1000
HADRONS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONS
PARITY
PARTICLE RAPIDITY
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUARKS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
TOPOLOGY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GEV RANGE
MATHEMATICS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY