Coherence Time in High Energy Proton-Nucleus Collisions

Journal Article · Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 1999 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.1636· OSTI ID:321544

Gale, C ^[1]; Jeon, S; Kapusta, J ^[2]

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1. Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T8 (CANADA)
2. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 (United States)

Precisely measured Drell-Yan cross sections for 800thinspthinspGeV protons incident on a variety of nuclear targets exhibit a deviation from linear scaling in the atomic number A . We show that this deviation can be accounted for by energy degradation of the proton as it passes through the nucleus if account is taken of the time delay of particle production due to quantum coherence. We infer an average proper coherence time of 0.4{plus_minus}0.1 fm/c , corresponding to a coherence path length of 8{plus_minus}2 thinspthinspfm in the rest frame of the nucleus. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society }

• Research Organization: Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-87ER40328
• OSTI ID: 321544
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 82, Issue 8; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1999
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
PROTON BEAMS
PROTON REACTIONS
ATOMIC NUMBER
SCALING LAWS
ENERGY LOSSES
PROTON-NUCLEON INTERACTIONS