No abstract

The STAR Collaboration reports the first observation of exclusive rho(0) photoproduction, AuAu-->AuAurho(0), and rho(0) production accompanied by mutual nuclear Coulomb excitation, AuAu-->Au*Au*rho(0), in ultraperipheral heavy-ion collisions. The rho(0) have low transverse momenta, consistent with coherent coupling to both nuclei. The cross sections at sqrt[s(NN)]=130 GeV agree with theoretical predictions treating rho(0) production and Coulomb excitation as independent processes.

We present strange particle spectra and yields measured at midrapidity in √ s = 200 GeV proton-proton (p + p) collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We find that the previously observed universal transverse mass (m T ≡ p T 2 + m 2 ) scaling of hadron production in p + p collisions seems to break down at higher m T and that there is a difference in the shape of the m T spectrum between baryons and mesons. We observe midrapidity antibaryon to baryon ratios near unity for and baryons and no dependence of the ratio on transverse momentum, indicating that our data do not yet reach the quark-jet dominated region. We show the dependence of the mean transverse momentum p T on measured charged particle multiplicity and on particle mass and infer that these trends are consistent with gluon-jet dominated particle production. The data are compared with previous measurements made at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron and Intersecting Storage Rings and in Fermilab experiments and with leading-order and next-to-leading-order string fragmentation model predictions. We infer from these comparisons that the spectral shapes and particle yields from p + p collisions at RHIC energies have large contributions from gluon jets rather than from quark jets.

Results are presented of an analysis of proton and charged pion azimuthal distributions measured with respect to the reaction plane in Au ϩ Au collisions at a beam momentum of about 11A GeV/c. The azimuthal anisotropy is studied as a function of particle rapidity and transverse momentum for different centralities of the collisions. The triple differential ͑in rapidity, transverse momentum, and azimuthal angle͒ distributions are reconstructed. A comparison of the results with a previous analysis of charged-particle and transverse energy flow as well as with model predictions are presented. ͓S0556-2813͑97͒05711-7͔ PACS number͑s͒: 25.75.Dw

Measurements of two-particle correlations on angular difference variables η 1 − η 2 (pseudorapidity) and φ 1 − φ 2 (azimuth) are presented for all primary charged hadrons with transverse momentum 0.15 p t 2 GeV/c and |η| 1.3 from Au-Au collisions at √ s NN = 130 GeV. Large-amplitude correlations are observed over a broad range in relative angles where distinct structures appear on the same-side and away-side (i.e., relative azimuth less than π/2 or greater than π/2). The principal correlation structures include that associated with elliptic flow plus a strong, same-side peak. It is hypothesized that the latter results from correlated hadrons associated with semi-hard parton scattering in the early stage of the heavy-ion collision which produces a jet-like correlation peak at small relative angles. The width of the jet-like peak on η 1 − η 2 increases by a factor 2.3 from peripheral to central collisions, suggesting strong coupling of semi-hard scattered partons to a longitudinally-expanding medium. The new methods of jet analysis introduced here provide access to scattered partons at low transverse momentum well below the kinematic range where perturbative quantum chromodynamics and standard fragmentation models are applicable.