First results on angular distributions of thermal dileptons in nuclear collisions

R. Arnaldi, K. Banicz, J. Castor, B. Chaurand, C. Cicalò, A. Colla, P. Cortese, S. Damjanovic, A. David, A. De Falco, A. Devaux, L. Ducroux, H. En'Yo, J. Fargeix, A. Ferretti, M. Floris, A. Förster, P. Force, N. Guettet, A. GuichardH. Gulkanian, J. M. Heuser, M. Keil, L. Kluberg, C. Lourenço, J. Lozano, F. Manso, P. Martins, A. Masoni, A. Neves, H. Ohnishi, C. Oppedisano, P. Parracho, P. Pillot, T. Poghosyan, G. Puddu, E. Radermacher, P. Ramalhete, P. Rosinsky, E. Scomparin, J. Seixas, S. Serci, R. Shahoyan, P. Sonderegger, H. J. Specht, R. Tieulent, G. Usai, R. Veenhof, H. K. Wöhri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The NA60 experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron has studied dimuon production in 158AGeV In-In collisions. The strong excess of pairs above the known sources found in the complete mass region 0.2<M<2.6GeV has previously been interpreted as thermal radiation. We now present first results on the associated angular distributions. Using the Collins-Soper reference frame, the structure function parameters λ, μ, and ν are measured to be zero, and the projected distributions in polar and azimuth angles are found to be uniform. The absence of any polarization is consistent with the interpretation of the excess dimuons as thermal radiation from a randomized system.

Original languageEnglish
Article number222301
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume102
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jun 2009
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'First results on angular distributions of thermal dileptons in nuclear collisions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this