Charged Kaon Ratios and Yields Measured with the STAR Detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion
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Charged Kaon Ratios and Yields Measured with the STAR Detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider By C.L. Kunz B.S. Chemistry, McPherson College, 1997 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Chemistry Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 September 2003 This thesis is dedicated to my parents for their guidance and support. They have long been two of my best friends. Without them, I would not be here. ii © Copyright 2003 by Christopher Lee Kunz All Rights Reserved iii Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ...............................................................................................IV LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ VII LIST OF FIGURES .....................................................................................................VIII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... X ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... XII SECTION 1........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 SECTION 2........................................................................................................................ 4 2.1 QUARK DECONFINEMENT .......................................................................................... 4 2.2 SPACE-TIME EVOLUTION OF RELATIVISTIC HEAVY ION COLLISIONS ........................ 5 2.2.1 Pre-Equilibrium Processes - Possible Formation of the QGP.......................... 6 2.2.2 Mixed QGP and Hadrons .................................................................................. 8 2.2.3 Hadron Gas and Free Hadrons ......................................................................... 8 2.3 SIGNALS OF THE QUARK-GLUON PLASMA ................................................................. 9 2.3.1 Kinematic Probes............................................................................................... 9 2.3.2 Strangeness Enhancement ............................................................................... 10 2.3.3 JΨ Suppression ............................................................................................ 10 2.3.4 Photon Production........................................................................................... 10 2.3.5 Jet Quenching .................................................................................................. 11 2.3.6 Event-by-Event Fluctuations............................................................................ 11 2.4 KAON PRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 12 SECTION 3...................................................................................................................... 14 3.1 THE RELATIVISTIC HEAVY ION COLLIDER............................................................... 14 3.1.1 Accelerator Complex ....................................................................................... 14 3.1.2 RHIC Operations ............................................................................................. 15 3.1.3 RHIC Experiments ........................................................................................... 16 3.2 THE STAR DETECTOR............................................................................................. 18 3.2.1 Time Projection Chamber................................................................................ 18 3.2.2 Other STAR Detectors...................................................................................... 19 3.2.3 STAR Beam Pipe.............................................................................................. 21 SECTION 4...................................................................................................................... 23 4.1 TPC RECONSTRUCTION ........................................................................................... 23 4.1.1 Cluster Finding................................................................................................ 23 4.1.2 Track Finding................................................................................................... 25 4.1.3 Event Vertex..................................................................................................... 27 4.1.4 Primary Track Fitting...................................................................................... 28 SECTION 5...................................................................................................................... 31 5.1 PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION....................................................................................... 31 iv 5.1.1 Ionization Distribution..................................................................................... 32 5.1.2 Bethe-Bloch Relation ....................................................................................... 33 5.2 CALIBRATION........................................................................................................... 34 5.2.1 Gas Density...................................................................................................... 34 5.2.2 Gas Concentrations ......................................................................................... 35 5.2.3 Electron Attachment......................................................................................... 35 5.2.4 Baseline and Pedestal Shifts ............................................................................ 36 SECTION 6...................................................................................................................... 37 6.1 KAON ANALYSIS...................................................................................................... 37 6.2 EVENT SELECTION ................................................................................................... 37 6.2.1 Event Triggering .............................................................................................. 37 o Au+Au............................................................................................................... 37 o pp....................................................................................................................... 38 6.2.2 Centrality Definitions....................................................................................... 39 o Au+Au............................................................................................................... 39 o pp....................................................................................................................... 40 6.2.3 Primary Vertex................................................................................................. 41 o Au+Au............................................................................................................... 41 o pp....................................................................................................................... 42 6.3 TRACK SELECTION................................................................................................... 43 6.3.1 Fit Points.......................................................................................................... 43 6.3.2 Goodness of Helix Fit ...................................................................................... 43 6.3.3 Fit Points over Max Points .............................................................................. 44 6.3.4 Distance of Closest Approach.......................................................................... 45 6.4 Z – VARIABLE .......................................................................................................... 45 6.4.1 Fitting z – Variable.......................................................................................... 46 6.5 ABSORPTION CORRECTION ...................................................................................... 48 6.6 ELECTRON CONTAMINATION ................................................................................... 49 6.7 CALCULATING THE RATIO AND STATISTICAL ERROR............................................... 50 6.8 ESTIMATING THE SYSTEMATIC ERROR..................................................................... 51 6.9 KAON YIELD IN AU+AU COLLISIONS....................................................................... 52 6.9.1 Electron Contamination................................................................................... 53 6.9.2 Absorption, Acceptance, Decay, and Efficiency Corrections.......................... 53 6.10 CORRECTED KAON YIELDS .................................................................................... 54 SECTION 7...................................................................................................................... 57 7.1 KAON RATIO RESULTS............................................................................................. 57 7.1.1 Ratio versus Rapidity ....................................................................................... 57 7.1.2 Ratio versus Transverse Momentum................................................................ 58 7.1.3 Ratio versus Centrality ...................................................................................