Phys. Rev. C 71, 064902 (2005) [15 pages]

K(892)* resonance production in Au+Au and p+p collisions at sqrt[sNN]=200  GeV

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J. Adams et al. STAR Collaboration
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Received 9 December 2004; published 6 June 2005

The short-lived K(892)* resonance provides an efficient tool to probe properties of the hot and dense medium produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We report measurements of K* in sqrt[sNN]=200  GeV Au+Au and p+p collisions reconstructed via its hadronic decay channels K(892)*0Kπ and K(892)KS0π± using the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The K*0 mass has been studied as a function of pT in minimum bias p+p and central Au+Au collisions. The K*  pT spectra for minimum bias p+p interactions and for Au+Au collisions in different centralities are presented. The K*/K yield ratios for all centralities in Au+Au collisions are found to be significantly lower than the ratio in minimum bias p+p collisions, indicating the importance of hadronic interactions between chemical and kinetic freeze-outs. A significant nonzero K*0 elliptic flow (v2) is observed in Au+Au collisions and is compared to the KS0 and Λ v2. The nuclear modification factor of K* at intermediate pT is similar to that of KS0 but different from Λ. This establishes a baryon-meson effect over a mass effect in the particle production at intermediate pT (2<pT≤4  GeV/c).


©2005 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevC.71.064902
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.71.064902
PACS: 25.75.Dw, 13.75.Cs

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