Abstract. The NA61/SHINE experiment studies hadron production in hadron+hadron, hadron+nucleus and nucleus+nucleus collisions. The strong interactions program has two main purposes: study the properties of the onset of deconfinement and search for the signatures of the critical point of strongly interacting matter. This aim is pursued by performing a two-dimensional scan of the phase diagram by varying the energy/momentum (13A-158A GeV/c) and the system size (p+p, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, Xe+La) of the collisions. This publication reviews recent results from p+p, Be+Be and Ar+Sc interactions. Measured particle spectra are discussed and compared to NA49 results from Pb+Pb collisions. The results illustrate the progress towards scanning the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter.
The NA61/SHINE facilityThe layout of the NA61/SHINE detector [1] is presented in Fig. 1. It consists of a large acceptance hadron spectrometer with excellent capabilities in charged particle momentum measurements and identification by a set of five Time Projection Chambers as well as Time-of-Flight detectors. The high resolution forward calorimeter, the Projectile Spectator Detector, measures energy flow around the beam direction, which in nucleus-nucleus reactions is primarily a measure of the number of spectator (non-interacted) nucleons and is thus related to the centrality of the collision. An array of beam detectors identifies beam particles and measures precisely their trajectories. Primary and secondary hadron as well as ion beams are used by the experiment.
Particle ratios in inelastic p+p collisions and inverse slope parameter TThe excellent particle identification based on the Time-off-Flight (ToF) and energy loss (dE/dx) measurements allows to calculate the ratio of yields K + /π + . The energy dependence of the K + /π + ratio at midrapidity for inelastic p+p interactions and central Pb+Pb/Au+Au collisions is presented in Fig. 2 (left). The NA61/SHINE data suggest that even in inelastic p+p interactions the energy dependence of the K + /π + ratio exhibits rapid changes in the SPS energy range. However, the horn structure [2] observed in central Pb+Pb collisions is reduced to a step. Data obtained beyond the SPS energy range, namely at RHIC and LHC [3][4][5][6][7], continue the trend seen at the SPS. a e-mail: s.pulawski@cern.ch On behalf of the NA61/Shine Collaboration