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arXiv · 1505.06766

Nucleon-Gold Collisions at 200 AGeV Using Tagged d+Au Interactions in PHOBOS

Abstract

Forward calorimetry in the PHOBOS detector has been used to study charged hadron production in d+Au, p+Au and n+Au collisions at sqrt(s_nn) = 200 GeV. The forward proton calorimeter detectors are described and a procedure for determining collision centrality with these detectors is detailed. The deposition of energy by deuteron spectator nucleons in the forward calorimeters is used to identify p+Au and n+Au collisions in the data. A weighted combination of the yield of p+Au and n+Au is constructed to build a reference for Au+Au collisions that better matches the isospin composition of the gold nucleus. The p_T and centrality dependence of the yield of this improved reference system is found to match that of d+Au. The shape of the charged particle transverse momentum distribution is observed to extrapolate smoothly from pbar+p to central d+Au as a function of the charged particle pseudorapidity density. The asymmetry of positively- and negatively-charged hadron production in p+Au is compared to that of n+Au. No significant asymmetry is observed at mid-rapidity. These studies augment recent results from experiments at the LHC and RHIC facilities to give a more complete description of particle production in p+A and d+A collisions, essential for the understanding the medium produced in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions.

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B. B. Back, M. D. Baker, M. Ballintijn, D. S. Barton, B. Becker, R. R. Betts, A. A. Bickley, R. Bindel, W. Busza, A. Carroll, M. P. Decowski, E. García, T. Gburek, N. George, K. Gulbrandsen, S. Gushue, C. Halliwell, J. Hamblen, A. S. Harrington, C. Henderson, D. J. Hofman, R. S. Hollis, R. Hołyński, B. Holzman, A. Iordanova, E. Johnson, J. L. Kane, N. Khan, P. Kulinich, C. M. Kuo, J. W. Lee, W. T. Lin, S. Manly, A. C. Mignerey, R. Nouicer, A. Olszewski, R. Pak, I. C. Park, H. Pernegger, C. Reed, C. Roland, G. Roland, J. Sagerer, P. Sarin, I. Sedykh, W. Skulski, C. E. Smith, P. Steinberg, G. S. F. Stephans, A. Sukhanov, M. B. Tonjes, A. Trzupek, C. Vale, G. J. van Nieuwenhuizen, R. Verdier, G. I. Veres, F. L. H. Wolfs, B. Wosiek, K. Woźniak, B. Wysłouch, J. Zhang. 2015-05-25. Nucleon-Gold Collisions at 200 AGeV Using Tagged d+Au Interactions in PHOBOS. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevc.92.034915

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