Abstract: Bose-Einstein correlations between identified charged pions are measured for p+Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV using data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 28 nb(-1). Pions are identified using ionization energy loss measured in the pixel detector. Two-particle correlation functions and the extracted source radii are presented as a function of collision centrality as well as the average transverse momentum (k(T)) and rapidity (y*(pi pi)) of the pair. Pairs are selected with a rapidity -2 < y*(pi pi) < 1 and with an average transverse momentum 0.1 < k(T) < 0.8 GeV. The effect of jet fragmentation on the two-particle correlation function is studied, and a method using opposite-charge pair data to constrain its contributions to the measured correlations is described. The measured source sizes are substantially larger in more central collisions and are observed to decrease with increasing pair k(T). A correlation of the radii with the local charged-particle density is demonstrated. The scaling of the extracted radii with the mean number of participating nucleons is also used to compare a selection of initial-geometry models. The cross term R-ol is measured as a function of rapidity, and a nonzero value is observed with 5.1 sigma combined significance for -1 < y*pi pi < 1 in the most central events.

Abstract: We study the strange vector meson (K*, (K) over bar*) dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions based on the microscopic parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach which incorporates partonic and hadronic degrees of freedom, a phase transition from hadronic to partonic matter-quark-gluon-plasma (QGP)-and a dynamical hadronization of quarks and antiquarks as well as final hadronic interactions. We investigate the role of in-medium effects on the K*, (K) over bar* meson dynamics by employing Breit-Wigner spectral functions for the K* with self-energies obtained from a self-consistent coupled-channelG-matrix approach. Furthermore, we confront the PHSD calculations with experimental data for p + p, Cu + Cu, and Au + Au collisions at energies up to root s(NN) = 200 GeV. Our analysis shows that, at relativistic energies, most of the final K* (observed experimentally) are produced during the late hadronic phase, dominantly by the K + pi -> K* channel, such that the fraction of the K* from the QGP is small and can hardly be reconstructed from the final observables. The influence of the in-medium effects on the K* dynamics at energies typical of the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is rather modest due to their dominant production at low baryon densities (but high meson densities); however, it increases with decreasing beam energy. Moreover, we find that the additional cut on the invariant-mass region of the K* further influences the shape and the height of the final spectra. This imposes severe constraints on the interpretation of the experimental results.

Abstract: The phi-meson properties in cold nuclear matter are investigated by implementing resonant phi N interactions as described in effective approaches including the unitarization of scattering amplitudes. Several N*-like states are dynamically generated in these models around 2 GeV, in the vicinity of the phi N threshold. We find that both these states and the non-resonant part of the amplitude contribute sizably to the phi collisional self-energy at finite nuclear density. These contributions are of a similar strength as the widely studied medium effects from the KK cloud. Depending on model details (position of the resonances and strength of the coupling to phi N) we report a phi broadening up to about 40-50 MeV, to be added to the phi -> KK in-medium decay width, and an attractive optical potential at threshold up to about 35 MeV at normal matter density. The phi spectral function develops a double peak structure as a consequence of the mixing of resonance-hole modes with the phi quasiparticle peak. The former results point in the direction of making up for missing absorption as reported in phi nuclear production experiments.