Measurement of the light mesons by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

Abstract

The PHENIX experiment at RHIC measured inclusive production of light neutral mesons (K0S, η, ω, ϕ) in p + p, d + Au and Au + Au collisions at and 200 GeV. Different hadronic and di-electron decay channels of the mesons produce consistent results. This paper presents meson yields, particle ratios and nuclear modification factors measured in d + Au and Au + Au collisions at different centralities.

Measurement of light mesons at RHIC by the PHENIX experiment

“…As compared to the previously reported Au+Au results [8] obtained with the "two kaons PID" approach, the new "no PID" analysis extends the range of the measurements to higher p T up to 7 GeV/c. In turn, the new "one kaon PID" analysis of p+p data extends the range of the "no PID" measurements reported in [9] to lower p T down to 0.9 GeV/c. In spite of the very different sources of systematic uncertainties, the results of the "no PID" analysis are in good agreement with the results of "one kaon PID" and "two kaons PID" in p+p and Au+Au collisions, respectively.…”

“…In p+p collisions, meson-to-meson ratios (η/π 0 , K/π 0 , η ′ /π 0 , ω/π 0 , φ/π 0 , φ/K) derived using a parameterization of the π 0 invariant p T spectra [10] exhibit a universal flat behavior above p T = 2.5 GeV/c [9] indicating that the measured transverse momentum spectra for all light mesons have the same slope at high-p T . Similarly to p+p results, η/π 0 , K 0 S /π 0 and ω/π 0 ratios in d+Au collisions are also found to be flat in the same p T range.…”

Light vector mesons

“…3.1. Different sets of published and preliminary PHENIX data extracted from publications [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] are shown with different symbols. The STAR data [28][29][30][31][32] are shown with stars and crosses (red online).…”

“…The data ware measured using Run3-Run5 event samples and in different decay channels. The data are taken from references [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. The published STAR data shown top-to-bottom for π , K, ρ, K * and φ (red online) are extracted from references [28][29][30][31][32].…”

“…The high transverse momentum data from the PHENIX experiment seem to indicate that the R φ AA could reach the same level of The answer to the question may come from the systematic investigation of the suppression patterns of other identified particles measured at RHIC. Preliminary data on the ω-meson was presented by the PHENIX experiment [25]. The ω-meson has a mass smaller, but comparable to φ, and has no strange quark content.…”