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Excess electron pairs from heavy-ion collisions at CERN and more complete picture of thermal production

Journal Article · · Bulletin of the American Physical Society
OSTI ID:255485
The low mass dielectron signal from heavy-ion collisions at the CERN-SPS reported by the CERES collaboration is in excess of estimated contributions from hadronic decays and has been suggested as coming simply from two-pion annihilation. Yet the largest discrepancy between observation and estimated decay occurs in mass where the annihilation is not expected to be strong. However, Compton-like scattering ({pi}p {r_arrow}{pi}e{sup +}e{sup -}) provides favorable kinematics to enhance theoretical prediction for masses between 2m{sub {pi}} and m{sub {rho}}. Choosing conditions reasonable for a fire cylinder produced in central collisions at SPS energies, the resulting mass distribution is consistent with the one observed from S+Au reactions at 200 GeV/u.
OSTI ID:
255485
Report Number(s):
CONF-9510116--
Journal Information:
Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Physical Society Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 40; ISSN BAPSA6; ISSN 0003-0503
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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