Vector meson production and nuclear effects in FNAL E866
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); and others
Fermilab E866/NUSEA is a fixed-target experiment which has made a number of measurements of the production of vector mesons by 800 GeV protons. These include the nuclear dependence of J/{psi}, {psi}{prime} and {phi} over very broad ranges in x{sub F} and p{sub T}, and the J/{psi} decay angular distribution at very large x{sub F}. Preliminary results from measurements on Be, Fe and W targets are presented and discussed in the context of nuclear effects such as energy loss and multiple scattering of the partons, absorption of the produced c{anti c} pairs, and shadowing. Production mechanisms involving color-singlet or color-octet states for the c{anti c} pair which eventually forms a J{psi} or {psi}{prime} have implications on the strength of absorption in the nucleus and on the angular distribution of the decay muons. Preliminary results on the angular distributions versus x{sub F} and p{sub T} indicate some transverse polarization of the J/{psi} as predicted by models of production through the color octet state. Measurements of dimuons in the 1 to 3 GeV region explore the nuclear dependence of the {phi} meson and also the composition of the continuum between the {phi} and the J/{psi}. These studies of vector meson production and its nuclear dependence are critical in furthering their understanding of these processes towards future measurements at RHIC and new results from NA50 at CERN, where J/{psi} suppression is predicted to be an important signature of the creation of quark-gluon plasma in heavy-ion collisions.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 314127
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-99-74; CONF-980878-; ON: DE99001753; TRN: 99:003265
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 14. international seminar on high energy physics problems, Dubna (Russian Federation), 17-22 Aug 1998; Other Information: PBD: [1999]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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