Dilepton Measurements at STAR

Abstract

In the study of hot and dense nuclear matter, created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, dilepton measurements play an essential role. Leptons, when compared to hadrons, have only little interaction with the strongly interacting system. Thus, dileptons provide ideal penetrating probes that allow the study of such a system throughout its space-time evolution. In the low mass range ($M_{ll}<1.1$ GeV/$c^2$), the dominant source of dileptons originates from the decay of vector mesons which may see effects from chiral symmetry restoration. In the intermediate mass range ($1.1 3.0$ GeV/$c^2$), dilepton measurements are expected to see contributions from primordial processes involving heavy quarks, and Drell-Yan production. With the introduction of the Time-of-Flight detector, the STAR detector has been able to perform large acceptance, high purity electron identification. In this contribution, we will present STAR's recent dielectron measurements in the low and intermediate mass range for RHIC beam energies ranging between 19.6 and 200 GeV. Compared to electrons, muon measurements have the advantage of reduced bremsstrahlung radiation in the surrounding detector materials. With the upcoming detector upgrades, specifically the muon detector (MTD), STAR will be able to include such measurements in its (di-)lepton studies. We will discuss the future dilepton program at STAR and the physics cases for these upgrades.