Momentum distributions of neutral pions in heavy ion reactions at the CERN-SPS

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6699359

Loehner, H; Albrecht, R; Awes, T C; Baktash, C; Beckmann, P; Berger, F; Bock, R; Claesson, G; Dragon, L; Ferguson, R L

A systematic study of nucleus/plus/nucleus reactions at ultrarelativistic energies has been started in 1986 with oxygen beams of 60 and 200 A/center dot/GeV in the CERN-SPS in order to investigate nuclear matter under extreme conditions of density and excitation energy. According to QCD lattice calculations a first or second order transition to the deconfined phase of quarks and gluons, the quark-gluon-plasma (QGP), may occur in a finite volume of hadronic matter at energy densities larger than the energy density inside the nucleon. First experimental results from /sup 16/O /plus/ nucleus reactions show that, in the most central events, energy densities above 2 GeV/fm/sup 3/ are reached. Up to now, cosmic ray data have been the only source of information and the observed rise of their transverse momenta with energy density has been interpreted as due to QGP effects. Since the signature of the QGP is not well established, p /plus/ nucleus data have been taken for comparison to the nucleus/plus/nucleus data at the same incident energy per nucleon in order to observe in the heavy ion induced reactions any deviation in the distribution of transverse momenta. 29 refs., 7 figs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 6699359
• Report Number(s): CONF-8806225-2; ON: DE89003181
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

651320 -- Nuclear Properties & Reactions
A=6-19
Experimental
651920* -- Nuclear Properties & Reactions
A=190-219
Experimental
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
BOSONS
CARBON
CHARGED-PARTICLE REACTIONS
CROSS SECTIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ETA MESONS
GOLD 197 TARGET
HADRONS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
INTERACTIONS
LINEAR MOMENTUM
MASS SPECTRA
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MESONS
NONMETALS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
OXYGEN 16 REACTIONS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PHOTONS
PIONS
PIONS NEUTRAL
PSEUDOSCALAR MESONS
QUARK-GLUON INTERACTIONS
SPECTRA
TARGETS
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM