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Intermediate-Mass Dilepton Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions at 200{ital A} GeV

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794 (United States)
Through the analysis of HELIOS-3 data obtained at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), we demonstrate the importance of secondary processes for dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions in the intermediate invariant mass region. We find that while the dilepton spectra between 1 and 2.5thinspthinspGeV from proton-induced reactions can be attributed to the decay of primary vector mesons, charmed hadrons, and initial Drell-Yan processes, the strong enhancement seen in the heavy-ion data comes mainly from secondary processes. Furthermore, we find {pi}a{sub 1}{r_arrow}l{bar l} to be the most important process in this mass region, as was found by thermal rate calculations. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}
Research Organization:
New York State University Research Foundation
DOE Contract Number:
FG02-88ER40388
OSTI ID:
641557
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 81; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English