We report the measurement of Gamma and Gamma bar yields and inverse slope parameters in d+Au collisions at sqrt sNN = 200 GeV at forward and backward rapidities (y = +-2.75), using data from the STAR forward time projection chambers. The contributions of different processes to baryon transport and particle production are probed exploiting the inherent asymmetry of the d+Au system. Comparisons to model calculations show that baryon transport on the deuteron side is consistent with multiple collisions of the deuteron nucleons with gold participants. On the gold side, HIJING-based models without a hadronic rescattering phase do not describe themeasured particle yields, while models that include target remnants or hadronic rescattering do. The multichain model can provide a good description of the net baryon density in d+Au collisions at energies currently available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and the derived parameters of the model agree with those from nuclear collisions at lower energies.

We present measurements of the near side of triggered di-hadron correlations using neutral strange baryons (Λ,Λ) and mesons (KS0) at intermediate transverse momentum (3 < pT <6 GeV/c) to look for possible flavor and baryon-meson dependence. This study is performed in d+Au, Cu+Cu, and Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The near-side di-hadron correlation contains two structures, a peak which is narrow in azimuth and pseudorapidity consistent with correlations from jet fragmentation, and a correlation in azimuth which is broad in pseudorapidity. The particle composition of the jet-like correlation is determined using identified associated particles. The dependence of the conditional yield of the jet-like correlation on the trigger particle momentum, associated particle momentum, and centrality for correlations with unidentified trigger particles are presented. The neutral strange particle composition in jet-like correlations with unidentified charged particle triggers is not well described by PYTHIA. However, the yield of unidentified particles in jet-like correlations with neutral strange particle triggers is described reasonably well by the same model.

We present the first measurements of the ρ(770)0,K*(892), Δ(1232)++,Σ(1385), and Λ(1520) resonances in d+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV, reconstructed via their hadronic decay channels using the STAR detector (the solenoidal tracker at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider). The masses and widths of these resonances are studied as a function of transverse momentum pT. We observe that the resonance spectra follow a generalized scaling law with the transverse mass mT. The pT of resonances in minimum bias collisions are compared with the pT of π,K, and p̄. The ρ0/π-,K*/K-,Δ++/p,Σ(1385)/Λ, and Λ(1520)/Λ ratios in d+Au collisions are compared with the measurements in minimum bias p+p interactions, where we observe that both measurements are comparable. The nuclear modification factors (RdAu) of the ρ0,K*, and Σ* scale with the number of binary collisions (Nbin) for pT 1.2 GeV/c. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

We report on the observed differences in production rates of strange and multistrange baryons in Au+Au collisions at sqrt sNN = 200 GeV compared to p+p interactions at the same energy. The strange baryon yields in Au+Au collisions, when scaled down by the number of participating nucleons, are enhanced relative to those measured in p+p reactions. The enhancement observed increases with the strangeness content of the baryon, and it increases for all strange baryons with collision centrality. The enhancement is qualitatively similar to that observed at the lower collision energy sqrt sNN = 17.3 GeV. The previous observations are for the bulk production, while at intermediate pT , 1 < pT < 4 GeV/c, the strange baryons even exceed binary scaling from p+p yields.

In particle collider experiments, elementary particle interactions with large momentum transfer produce quarks and gluons (known as partons) whose evolution is governed by the strong force, as described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD)¹. These partons subsequently emit further partons in a process that can be described as a parton shower², which culminates in the formation of detectable hadrons. Studying the pattern of the parton shower is one of the key experimental tools for testing QCD. This pattern is expected to depend on the mass of the initiating parton, through a phenomenon known as the dead-cone effect, which predicts a suppression of the gluon spectrum emitted by a heavy quark of mass m_Q and energy E, within a cone of angular size m_Q/E around the emitter³. Previously, a direct observation of the dead-cone effect in QCD had not been possible, owing to the challenge of reconstructing the cascading quarks and gluons from the experimentally accessible hadrons. We report the direct observation of the QCD dead cone by using new iterative declustering techniques^4,5 to reconstruct the parton shower of charm quarks. This result confirms a fundamental feature of QCD. Furthermore, the measurement of a dead-cone angle constitutes a direct experimental observation of the non-zero mass of the charm quark, which is a fundamental constant in the standard model of particle physics.