Open and Hidden Charm Production in 920 GeV Proton-Nucleus Collisions

The HERA-B collaboration has studied the production of charmonium and open charm states in collisions of 920 GeV protons with wire targets of different materials. The acceptance of the HERA-B spectrometer covers negative values of xF up to xF=-0.3 and a broad range in transverse momentum from 0.0 to 4.8 GeV/c. The studies presented in this paper include J/psi differential distributions and the suppression of J/psi production in nuclear media. Furthermore, production cross sections and cross section ratios for open charm mesons are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Hyperons, Charm & Beauty Hadrons (BEACH04), Chicago, IL, June 27 - July 3, 200

Determination of the muon charge sign with the dipolar spectrometers of the OPERA experiment

The OPERA long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiment has observed the direct appearance of $\nu_\tau$ in the CNGS $\nu_\mu$ beam. Two large muon magnetic spectrometers are used to identify muons produced in the $\tau$ leptonic decay and in $\nu_\mu^{CC}$ interactions by measuring their charge and momentum. Besides the kinematic analysis of the $\tau$ decays, background resulting from the decay of charmed particles produced in $\nu_\mu^{CC}$ interactions is reduced by efficiently identifying the muon track. A new method for the charge sign determination has been applied, via a weighted angular matching of the straight track-segments reconstructed in the different parts of the dipole magnets. Results obtained for Monte Carlo and real data are presented. Comparison with a method where no matching is used shows a significant reduction of up to 40\% of the fraction of wrongly determined charges.Comment: 10 pages. Improvements in the tex

Inclusive V0V^0 Production Cross Sections from 920 GeV Fixed Target Proton-Nucleus Collisions

Inclusive differential cross sections $d\sigma_{pA}/dx_F$ and $d\sigma_{pA}/dp_t^2$ for the production of \kzeros, \lambdazero, and \antilambda particles are measured at HERA in proton-induced reactions on C, Al, Ti, and W targets. The incident beam energy is 920 GeV, corresponding to $\sqrt {s} = 41.6$ GeV in the proton-nucleon system. The ratios of differential cross sections \rklpa and \rllpa are measured to be $6.2\pm 0.5$ and $0.66\pm 0.07$, respectively, for \xf $\approx-0.06$. No significant dependence upon the target material is observed. Within errors, the slopes of the transverse momentum distributions $d\sigma_{pA}/dp_t^2$ also show no significant dependence upon the target material. The dependence of the extrapolated total cross sections $\sigma_{pA}$ on the atomic mass $A$ of the target material is discussed, and the deduced cross sections per nucleon $\sigma_{pN}$ are compared with results obtained at other energies.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 5 table

Limits for the central production of Θ+ and Ξ−− pentaquarks in 920-GeV pA collisions

We have searched for Θ+(1540) and Ξ−−(1862) pentaquark candidates in proton-inducedreactions on C, Ti, and W targets at midrapidity and s√=41.6  GeV. In 2×108 inelastic eventswe find no evidence for narrow (σ≈5  MeV) signals in the Θ+→pK0S and Ξ−−→Ξ−π− channels; our 95% C.L. upper limits (UL) forthe inclusive production cross section times branching fraction B dσ/dy $y ≈0 are (4-16) μb/N for a Θ+ mass between 1521 and 1555 MeV,and 2.5μb/N for the Ξ−−. The UL of the yield ratio of Θ+/Λ(1520)<(3-12)% is significantly lower than model predictions.Our UL of B Ξ−−/Ξ(1530)0<4% is at variance with the results that have provided the first evidencefor the Ξ−−

Measurement of the J/psi production cross section in 920 GeV/c fixed-target proton-nucleus interactions

The mid-rapidity ( dσpN/dy at y=0 ) and total ( σpN ) production cross sections of Jψ mesons are measured in proton–nucleus interactions. Data collected by the HERA-B experiment in interactions of 920 GeV/c protons with carbon, titanium and tungsten targets are used for this analysis. The Jψ mesons are reconstructed by their decay into lepton pairs. The total production cross section obtained is σpNJ/ψ=663±74±46 nb/nucleon . In addition, our result is compared with previous measurements

Alignment methods for the OPERA drift tube detector

The goal of the OPERA experiment is to give the first direct evidence for neutrino oscillations in the channel νμ→ντ . The OPERA detector is designed to observe the appearance of tau neutrinos in the originally pure muon neutrino CNGS beam. An important part of the magnetic spectrometer is the Precision Tracker (PT), a drift tube detector consisting of 9504 drift tubes. Its main task is the determination of the muon charge and momentum. The alignment strategy for the PT consists of two parts: the hardware measurement by theodolite and the software alignment using long muon tracks. In this paper, the hardware and the software alignment are described, and the track-based alignment methods are explained in detail. Results of the software alignment are presented with a focus on the analysis of cosmic particles

SEARCH FOR DIRECT gamma PRODUCTION AT LOW TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM IN 63-GeV p p COLLISIONS

We have searched for direct photons of low PT (≤1.0 GeV/c) at θc.m.=90° in pp collisions at √s =63 GeV. We used two independent methods: direct detection in NaI crystals and conversion to e+e− pairs. No signal is observed; the photon spectrum is well described by the decay of hadrons. The result is consistent with a direct low-PT photon signal reported at √s =12 GeV, but excludes a rapid growth of soft-photon production with √s

Limits for the central production of Θ+ and Ξ-- pentaquarks in 920 GeV pA collsions

We have searched for Theta^+(1540) and Xi^{--}(1862) pentaquark candidates in proton-induced reactions on C, Ti and W targets at mid-rapidity and \sqrt{s} = 41.6 GeV. In 2x10^8 inelastic events we find no evidence for narrow (sigma~5 MeV) signals in the Theta^+ -> pK_s and Xi^{--} -> Xi^-pi^- channels; our 95% CL upper limits (UL) for the inclusive production cross section times branching fraction Bx(dsigma/dy)|_{y~0} are 3.7 and 2.5 microb/N. The UL of the yield ratio of [Theta^+ / Lambda(1520)] < 2.7% is significantly lower than model predictions. Our UL of [BxXi^{--} / Xi(1530)^0] < 4% is at variance with the results that have provided first evidence for the Xi^{--} signal