Photon and neutral pion production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 130 GeV

Abstract

We report the first inclusive photon measurements about mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 130 GeV at RHIC. Photon pair conversions were reconstructed from electron and positron tracks measured with the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) of the STAR experiment. With this method, an energy resolution of Delta(E)/E = 2% at 0.5 GeV has been achieved. Reconstructed photons have also been used to measure the transverse momentum (pt) spectra of pi0 mesons about mid-rapidity (|y|<1) via the pi0 -> photon photon decay channel. The fractional contribution of the pi0 -> photon photon decay to the inclusive photon spectrum decreases by 20% +/- 5% between pt = 1.65 GeV/c and pt = 2.4 GeV/c in the most central events, indicating that relative to pi0 -> photon photon decay the contribution of other photon sources is substantially increasing.

13 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. C

References in corpus (2)

• The STAR Time Projection Chamber: A Unique Tool for Studying High Multiplicity Events at RHIC
• Photon interferometry and size of the hot zone in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Measurements of $D^0$ and $D^{\ast }$ Production in $p$ + $p$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV
• Extensive Particle Identification with TPC and TOF at the STAR Experiment
• Measurement of the Bottom contribution to non-photonic electron production in $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 GeV
• Direct real photons in relativistic heavy ion collisions
• Inclusive pi^0, eta, and direct photon production at high transverse momentum in p+p and d+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Neutral Pion Production in Au+Au Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV
• Yoctosecond photon pulses from quark-gluon plasmas
• Open charm production in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV Au+Au collisions
• Performance of the ALICE Electromagnetic Calorimeter
• Reeconstructing Sigma0 decays in STAR
• Reconstructing Sigma0 decays in STAR
• Azimuthal flow of decay photons in relativistic nuclear collisions
• Non-photonic electron-hadron correlations and non-photonic electron $v_2$ at STAR/RHIC