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

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Physical Review, C

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.53.R2606· OSTI ID:284813

Haglin, K L ^[1]

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1. National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 (United States)

The low-mass dielectron signal from heavy-ion collisions at the CERN{endash}SPS reported by the CERES Collaboration is in excess of estimated hadronic decays, suggesting a possible contribution from two-pion annihilation or other hadronic reactions. In the absence of dramatic medium modifications, annihilation alone is unable to account for the data. We explore the role of pion plus resonance scattering [{pi}{rho}{r_arrow}{ital a}{sub 1}(1260){r_arrow}{pi}{ital e}{sup +}{ital e}{sup {minus}}], which has favorable kinematics to populate masses between 2{ital m}{sub {pi}} and {ital m}{sub {rho}}. While it seems to account for some of the remaining excess beyond annihilation, it fails to allow quantitative interpretation of data. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

• OSTI ID: 284813
• Journal Information: Physical Review, C, Journal Name: Physical Review, C Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 53; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
ANNIHILATION
CERN
ELECTRONS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
MASS
PAIR PRODUCTION
RESONANCE SCATTERING
WEAK HADRONIC DECAY