Dilepton mass spectra in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)= 200 GeV and the contribution from open charm

Abstract

The PHENIX experiement has measured the electron-positron pair mass spectrum from 0 to 8 GeV/c^2 in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. The contributions from light meson decays to e^+e^- pairs have been determined based on measurements of hadron production cross sections by PHENIX. They account for nearly all e^+e^- pairs in the mass region below 1 GeV/c^2. The e^+e^- pair yield remaining after subtracting these contributions is dominated by semileptonic decays of charmed hadrons correlated through flavor conservation. Using the spectral shape predicted by PYTHIA, we estimate the charm production cross section to be 544 +/- 39(stat) +/- 142(syst) +/- 200(model) μb, which is consistent with QCD calculations and measurements of single leptons by PHENIX.

375 authors from 57 institutions, 18 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to Physics Letters B. v2 fixes technical errors in matching authors to institutions. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.html

References in corpus (10)

• Measurement of high-p_T Single Electrons from Heavy-Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
• Inclusive cross section and double helicity asymmetry for π^0 production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV: Implications for the polarized gluon distribution in the proton
• J/psi Production vs Transverse Momentum and Rapidity in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
• High transverse momentum eta meson production in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Nuclear Effects on Hadron Production in d+Au and p+p Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• The total charm cross section
• Measurement of Single Muons at Forward Rapidity in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV and Implications for Charm Production
• Enhancement of the dielectron continuum in sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions
• Production of omega mesons at Large Transverse Momenta in p+p and d+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Measurement of leptonic and hadronic decays of omega- and phi-mesons at RHIC by PHENIX

Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Low mass dilepton production at ultrarelativistic energies
• Charmonium in strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma
• Heavy-flavor production in heavy-ion collisions and implications for the properties of hot QCD matter
• Dilepton production in p+p, Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at 200 AGeV
• Kinematical correlations of dielectrons from semileptonic decays of heavy mesons and Drell-Yan processes at BNL RHIC
• Soft-dielectron excess in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV
• Light Vector Mesons
• Production of $b\bar{b}$ at forward rapidity in $p$+$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV
• Dilepton production in proton-proton collisions at top RHIC energy
• Production of D and B mesons and their semileptonic decays
• Hadronic vs. partonic J/psi production in the Statistical Hadronization Model
• B Production In p-p and A-A Collisions
• Production of charm and bottom quarks in $p+p$ collisions at 200GeV