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First measurements of deuteron production spectra in p+p collisions at beam momentum of 158 GeV/c at NA61/SHINE

Anirvan Shukla

Abstract

The NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) scans particle production in collisions of nuclei with various sizes at a set of energies covering the SPS energy range towards various physics goals. This paper presents the first differential production measurements of deuterons at energies relevant for cosmic-ray studies, produced in inelastic p+p interactions at incident projectile momentum of 158 GeV/c ($\sqrt{s}$ = 17.3 GeV). The double-differential spectra are presented as functions of rapidity and transverse momentum and are compared to predictions of the thermal and coalescence models. These measurements are essential for improving our understanding of cosmic (anti)nuclei production, as detecting cosmic antinuclei can be a breakthrough approach to identifying dark matter. The primary source of cosmic antinuclei background is interactions between cosmic-ray protons and interstellar hydrogen gas. Gaining a deeper insight into the deuteron production mechanism in p+p interactions is an essential first step in modeling cosmic antinuclei production.

First measurements of deuteron production spectra in p+p collisions at beam momentum of 158 GeV/c at NA61/SHINE

Abstract

The NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) scans particle production in collisions of nuclei with various sizes at a set of energies covering the SPS energy range towards various physics goals. This paper presents the first differential production measurements of deuterons at energies relevant for cosmic-ray studies, produced in inelastic p+p interactions at incident projectile momentum of 158 GeV/c ( = 17.3 GeV). The double-differential spectra are presented as functions of rapidity and transverse momentum and are compared to predictions of the thermal and coalescence models. These measurements are essential for improving our understanding of cosmic (anti)nuclei production, as detecting cosmic antinuclei can be a breakthrough approach to identifying dark matter. The primary source of cosmic antinuclei background is interactions between cosmic-ray protons and interstellar hydrogen gas. Gaining a deeper insight into the deuteron production mechanism in p+p interactions is an essential first step in modeling cosmic antinuclei production.
Paper Structure (11 sections, 4 equations, 3 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 11 sections, 4 equations, 3 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Experimental Setup
  3. Data Selection
  4. Data Analysis
  5. Particle Identification Based on Time of Flight and Energy Loss Measurement
  6. Deuteron Identification using m2 Distributions
  7. Deuteron Yields with the Probability Method
  8. Estimation of Systematic and Statistical Uncertainties
  9. Validation of Methods
  10. Results
  11. Summary and Outlook

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Schematic layout of the NA61/ SHINE facility at the CERN SPS used for p+p data taking Abgrall:2014fa (horizontal cut, not to scale). The beam instrumentation is sketched in the inset. The nominal beam direction is along the $z$ axis. The magnetic field bends charged particle trajectories in the $x$-$z$ plane. The electron drift direction in the TPCs is along the $y$ (vertical) axis.
  • Figure 2: Two example phase space bins with data-driven pion-mass templates to fit the kaon, proton and deuteron peaks.
  • Figure 3: Left: Preliminary transverse momentum spectra in rapidity slices for deuterons in inelastic p+p interactions at 158 $\text{GeV}/c$. Solid lines show the overlaid two-parameter thermal model with the shape parameter fixed to $T=150$ MeV (from Ref. Aduszkiewicz:2017sei). Only the amplitude parameter was fitted to the data. Right: Preliminary deuteron transverse momentum spectra in rapidity slices compared to the coalescence model predictions from Refs. Gomez-Coral:2018yukShukla:2020bql.