arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R. Kotte.
We present phase space distributions and multiplicities of K+, K- and phi mesons produced in Ar+KCl reactions at a kinetic beam energy of 1.756 AGeV and measured with the HADES spectrometer. The inverse slope parameters and yields of kaons supplement the systematics of previous measurements. The percentage of K- mesons coming fromphi decay is found to be 18+- 7%.
The emission of e+e- pairs from C+C collisions at an incident energy of 1 GeV per nucleon has been investigated. The measured production probabilities, spanning from the pi0-Dalitz to the rho/omega! invariant-mass region, display a strong excess above the cocktail of standard hadronic sources. The bombarding-energy dependence of this excess is found to scale like pion production, rather than like eta production. The data are in good agreement with results obtained in the former DLS experiment.
Small-angle correlations of pairs of protons emitted in central collisions of Ca + Ca, Ru + Ru and Au + Au at beam energies from 400 to 1500 MeV per nucleon are investigated with the FOPI detector system at SIS/GSI Darmstadt. Dependences on system size and beam energy are presented which extend the experimental data basis of pp correlations in the SIS energy range substantially. The size of the proton-emitting source is estimated by comparing the experimental data with the output of a final-state interaction model which utilizes either static Gaussian sources or the one-body phase-space distribution of protons provided by the BUU transport approach. The trends in the experimental data, i.e. system-size and beam energy dependences, are well reproduced by this hybrid model. However, the pp correlation function is found rather insensitive to the stiffness of the equation of state entering the transport model calculations.
Detailed studies of the azimuthal dependence of the mean fragment and flow energies in the Au+Au and Xe+CsI systems are reported as a function of incident energy and centrality. Comparisons between data and model calculations show that the flow energy values along different azimuthal directions could be viewed as snapshots of the fireball expansion with different exposure times. For the same number of participating nucleons more transversally elongated participant shapes from the heavier system produce less collective transverse energy. Good agreement with BUU calculations is obtained for a soft nuclear equation of state.
The $ϕ$-meson production cross section is measured for the first time at a sub-threshold energy of 1.93 AGeV in \nuc{58}{Ni}+\nuc{58}{Ni} central collisions. The $ϕ$ data were obtained within the acceptance of the CDC/Barrel subsystem of FOPI. For a sample of $4.7\cdot 10^6$ central events, after background subtraction, 23 candidates were observed. Extensive GEANT simulations of the detector performance are shown in a thorough comparison to the real response, aiming at a good understanding of the apparatus and at a trustable determination of the efficiencies, production probability and possible systematic errors. A filter procedure is elaborated, which is meant to facilitate the comparison of any theoretical calculation or new data with the current ones. How to extrapolate the present value to a $ϕ$-meson cross section in $4π$ is also discussed. This result on pseudo-vector mesons can now be compared to existing experimental knowledge for the same reaction at the same incident energy for various outgoing channels, $K^+$ and $K^-$ included. A significant fraction (at least 20%) of the $K^-$-mesons is originating in the decay of the $ϕ$, supporting the statement that the two channels are strongly correlated.
The preliminary experimental data on $ϕ$ production in the reaction Ni(1.93 AGeV) + Ni point to a puzzling high $ϕ$ yield which can not be reproduced with present transport codes. We survey the experimental situation and present prospects for dedicated measurements of the $ϕ$ multiplicities with the $K^+ K^-$ and $e^+ e^-$ channels at HADES and FOPI.
Small-angle correlations of pairs of nonidentical light charged particles produced in central collisions of heavy ions in the A=100 mass region at a beam energy of 400 AMeV are investigated with the FOPI detector system at GSI Darmstadt. The difference of longitudinal correlation functions with the relative velocity parallel and anti-parallel to the center-of-mass velocity of the pair in the central source frame is studied. This method allows extracting the apparent space-time differences of the emission of the charged particles. Comparing the correlations with results of a final-state interaction model delivers quantitative estimates of these asymmetries. Time delays as short as 1 fm/c or - alternatively - source radius differences of a few tenth fm are resolved. The strong collective expansion of the participant zone introduces not only an apparent reduction of the source radius but also a modification of the emission times. After correcting for both effects a complete sequence of space-time emission points of p, d, t, 3He, alpha particles is presented for the first time.
Charged pion spectra measured in 58Ni-58Ni collisions at 1.06, 1.45 and 1.93 AGeV are interpreted in terms of a thermal model including the decay of Delta resonances. The transverse momentum spectra of pions are well reproduced by adding the pions originating from the Delta-resonance decay to the component of thermal pions, deduced from the high transverse momentum part of the pion spectra. About 10 and 18% of the nucleons are excited to Delta states at freeze-out for beam energies of 1 and 2 AGeV, respectively.