Transcript Slide 1

K* Resonance Production in
Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at RHIC
Sadhana Dash (for the STAR Collaboration)
Institute of Physics ,Bhubaneswar ,India
PLAN
MOTIVATION
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
SUMMARY
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Features of K* Meson
Some features of Neutral -meson :
Mass : 896.10 +/- 0.27 MeV
Width : 50.70 +/- 0.60 MeV
Decay Modes : K ~ 100 %
Decay Modes for present study
K+ 
K- 
BR ~ 66%
………..
Life time : ~ 4 fm
Quark Structure : Particle d sbar
anti-particle dbar s
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Motivation : Why measure K*?
K* Mass and width modification  in-medium dynamical effects
K* lifetime ~4fm/c, comparable to lifetime of the hot dense matter
(few fm/c)  sensitive to the properties of hot dense matter
/K*  information on rescattering effect and/or strangeness
enhancement
Compared to other particles (K*/K)  information on K*
production mechanism and (timing) on chemical freeze-out
and thermal freeze-out conditions
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K* : Regeneration and Rescattering Effect

K*
K*

K K*
measure
K K*lostd

K*


K*
K
K
Chemical
freeze-out
Thermal
freeze-out
K* thermally produced at the
chemical freeze-out stage
Daughter particles’ Rescattering
Effect destroys part of K* signal
Regeneration Effect compensates
K* yield
K K*
measured
K*/K reveals timing between chemical
and thermal freeze-out
time
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Typical Invariant Mass Spectrum
Fit function :
Signal  non-relativistic
Breit-Wigner function
00202/4]
Au+Au 62GeV
STAR PRELIMINARY
0 : K* mass
0 : K* width
Background  linear function
The signal was obtained by subtracting the combinatorial
background distribution (through mixed event technique)
from the kaon-pion invariant mass distribution.
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K*0 Mass and Width Distributions
STAR PRELIMINARY
MC
PDG
K* mass shifted ~10 MeV at
low-pT
K* mass approaches PDG value
at high-pT
K* width agrees with PDG value
STAR PRELIMINARY
PDG
K* 200GeV from Phys. Rev. C 71 (2005) 064902
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K*0 Transverse Momentum Spectra
STAR PRELIMINARY
STAR PRELIMINARY
STAR PRELIMINARY
Au+Au 62.4
Cu+Cu 62.4
Cu+Cu 200
K*0 spectra fit to an exponential function
pT -exponential fit to the measured data is used for
extrapolation outside the fiducial range
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K*0 dN/dy vs. Centrality & dNch/d
STAR PRELIMINARY
STAR PRELIMINARY
K* dN/dy increases with Npart and dNch/d in both Cu+Cu
and Au+Au collision.
K* 200GeV from Phys. Rev. C 71 (2005) 064902
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Particle Ratios and <pT>
STAR PRELIMINARY
STAR PRELIMINARY
STAR PRELIMINARY
Statistical errors only
STAR PRELIMINARY
• K*0/K in Au+Au 62.4 GeV is comparable
to the Au+Au 200 value
• Φ/K*0 is lower in Au+Au 62.4 
rescattering plays a major role as we go
high in energy
• No significant centrality dependence of
<pT> for both Au+Au and Cu+Cu systems
• <pT> for Au+Au and Cu+Cu at 200 GeV is
higher than that of both systems in 62.4
GeV indicating energy dependence
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Summary
K*(896) resonance production has been measured at sNN=62.4 GeV
and sNN=200 GeV in both Au+Au and Cu+ Cu collisions at STAR
K*0 mass and width approaches the PDG value at higher pT in both
Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions.
K*0 dN /dy in Au+Au and Cu+Cu increases with number of
participants, <pT> shows no significant centrality or system size
dependence in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions.
K*0/K ratio  daughter particles’ rescattering
 /K*0  rescattering effect dominant in Au+Au colisions at 200GeV
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