Rate estimates for vector-meson and Drell-Yan pair production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Journal Article · Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-640X(92)90038-J· OSTI ID:5166244

Vogt, R ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

Some of the most interesting probes of the high-density matter produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are the lepton pairs produced by the decay of vector-meson resonances. Vector mesons such as {phi}, J/{psi}, and {Upsilon} decay to lepton pairs through heavy quark-antiquark, A {bar Q}, annihilation, that is J/{psi} {r arrow} {mu}{sup +}, {mu}{sup {minus}}, producing a peak in the invariant-mass spectrum at the meson mass. The Drell-Yan mechanism produces muon pairs by light quark-antiquark, q{bar q}, annihilation to a virtual photon that then decays to a muon pair, q{bar q} {r arrow}{gamma}*{r arrow}{mu}{sup +}, {mu}{sup {minus}}, to form a continuum of massive muon pairs, a major background to the resonance peaks. Before vector-meson production can be used as a quark-fluon plasma probe, their properties in a hadronic medium must be understood. The study of vector-meson resonances and the Drell-Yan mechanism alone can reveal fundamental properties of QCD.

• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5166244
• Journal Information: Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables; (United States), Vol. 50:2; ISSN 0092-640X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
PAIR PRODUCTION
QUARK MATTER
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
BROOKHAVEN RHIC
COMPILED DATA
CROSS SECTIONS
DRELL MODEL
PARTICLE DECAY
PHOTOPRODUCTION
PROBES
PROTON REACTIONS
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
RESONANCE PARTICLES
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM
VECTOR MESONS
ACCELERATORS
BARYON REACTIONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BOSONS
CHARGED-PARTICLE REACTIONS
DATA
DECAY
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FIELD THEORIES
HADRON REACTIONS
HADRONS
HEAVY ION ACCELERATORS
INFORMATION
INTERACTIONS
LINEAR MOMENTUM
MATTER
MESONS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEON REACTIONS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
STORAGE RINGS
663450* - Heavy-Ion-Induced Reactions & Scattering- (1992-)
663430 - Nucleon-Induced Reactions & Scattering- (1992-)
662220 - Quantum Electrodynamics- (1992-)
662390 - Electromagnetic Processes & Properties- (1992-)