Leptonic and charged kaon decay modes of the $\varphi$ meson measured in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN SPS

Abstract

We report a measurement of $\varphi$ meson production in central Pb+Au collisions at E${}_{lab}$/A=158 GeV. For the first time in heavy-ion collisions, $\varphi$ mesons were reconstructed in the same experiment both in the K${}^{+}$K${}^{-}$ and the dilepton decay channel. Near mid-rapidity, this yields rapidity densities, corrected for production at the same rapidity value, of 2.05 +- 0.14(stat) +- 0.25(syst) and 2.04 +- 0.49(stat)+-{0.32}(syst), respectively. The shape of the measured transverse momentum spectra is also in close agreement in both decay channels. The data rule out a possible enhancement of the $\varphi$ yield in the leptonic over the hadronic channel by a factor larger than 1.6 at 95% CL.

11 pages, 4 figures,submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

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• Nuclear-matter modification of decay widths in the $\varphi \to e^{+}{e}^{-}$ and $\varphi \to K^{+}{K}^{-}$ channels
• $\varphi$ Production in In-In Collisions at 158 AGeV
• Electromagnetic Probes
• Cherenkov gluons (predictions and proposals)
• Medium effects on phi decays to dilepton and kaon-antikaon pairs in relativistic heavy ion reactions
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• $\varphi$ Meson Production in In-In Collisions and the $\varphi$ Puzzle
• Catalytic phi meson production in heavy-ion collisions
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• Strange Particle Production and Elliptic Flow from CERES
• Phi meson production in In-In collisions at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}$=158$A$ GeV: evidence for relics of a thermal phase
• Strangeness, Charm and Beauty in Quark Matter: SQM 2007 Experimental Overview
• Highlights from NA60
• ${\eta }^{\prime }$ Production in Nucleus-Nucleus collisions as a probe of chiral dynamics
• NA60 results on phi production in the hadronic and leptonic channels in In-In collisions at 158 GeV
• Dileptons and Direct Photons at SPS