Observation of charge-dependent azimuthal correlations and possible local strong parity violation in heavy-ion collisions Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Parity (P)-odd domains, corresponding to nontrivial topological solutions of the QCD vacuum, might be created during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These domains are predicted to lead to charge separation of quarks along the orbital momentum of the system created in noncentral collisions. To study this effect, we investigate a three-particle mixed-harmonics azimuthal correlator which is a P-even observable, but directly sensitive to the charge-separation effect. We report measurements of this observable using the STAR detector in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sNN=200 and 62GeV. The results are presented as a function of collision centrality, particle separation in rapidity, and particle transverse momentum. A signal consistent with several of the theoretical expectations is detected in all four data sets. We compare our results to the predictions of existing event generators and discuss in detail possible contributions from other effects that are not related to P violation. 2010 The American Physical Society.

published proceedings

  • PHYSICAL REVIEW C

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Abelev, B. I., Aggarwal, M. M., Ahammed, Z., Alakhverdyants, A. V., Anderson, B. D., Arkhipkin, D., ... Zuo, J. X.

citation count

  • 246

complete list of authors

  • Abelev, BI||Aggarwal, MM||Ahammed, Z||Alakhverdyants, AV||Anderson, BD||Arkhipkin, D||Averichev, GS||Balewski, J||Barannikova, O||Barnby, LS||Baumgart, S||Beavis, DR||Bellwied, R||Benedosso, F||Betancourt, MJ||Betts, RR||Bhasin, A||Bhati, AK||Bichsel, H||Bielcik, J||Bielcikova, J||Biritz, B||Bland, LC||Bnzarov, I||Bonner, BE||Bouchet, J||Braidot, E||Brandin, AV||Bridgeman, A||Bruna, E||Bueltmann, S||Burton, TP||Cai, XZ||Caines, H||Sanchez, M Calderon de la Barca||Catu, O||Cebra, D||Cendejas, R||Cervantes, MC||Chajecki, Z||Chaloupka, P||Chattopadhyay, S||Chen, HF||Chen, JH||Chen, JY||Cheng, J||Cherney, M||Chikanian, A||Choi, KE||Christie, W||Chung, P||Clarke, RF||Codrington, MJM||Corliss, R||Cormier, TM||Cosentino, MR||Cramer, JG||Crawford, HJ||Das, D||Dash, S||Daugherity, M||De Silva, LC||Dedovich, TG||DePhillips, M||Derevschikov, AA||de Souza, R Derradi||Didenko, L||Djawotho, P||Dzhordzhadze, V||Dogra, SM||Dong, X||Drachenberg, JL||Draper, JE||Dunlop, JC||Mazumdar, MR Dutta||Efimov, LG||Elhalhuli, E||Elnimr, M||Engelage, J||Eppley, G||Erazmus, B||Estienne, M||Eun, L||Fachini, P||Fatemi, R||Fedorisin, J||Feng, A||Filip, P||Finch, E||Fine, V||Fisyak, Y||Gagliardi, CA||Gangadharan, DR||Ganti, MS||Garcia-Solis, EJ||Geromitsos, A||Geurts, F||Ghazikhanian, V||Ghosh, P||Gorbunov, YN||Gordon, A||Grebenyuk, O||Grosnick, D||Grube, B||Guertin, SM||Guimaraes, KSFF||Gupta, A||Gupta, N||Guryn, W||Haag, B||Hallman, TJ||Hamed, A||Harris, JW||Heinz, M||Heppelmann, S||Hirsch, A||Hjort, E||Hoffman, AM||Hoffmann, GW||Hofman, DJ||Hollis, RS||Huang, HZ||Humanic, TJ||Huo, L||Igo, G||Iordanova, A||Jacobs, P||Jacobs, WW||Jakl, P||Jena, C||Jin, F||Jones, CL||Jones, PG||Joseph, J||Judd, EG||Kabana, S||Kajimoto, K||Kang, K||Kapitan, J||Kauder, K||Keane, D||Kechechyan, A||Kettler, D||Khodyrev, V Yu||Kikola, DP||Kiryluk, J||Kisiel, A||Klein, SR||Knospe, AG||Kocoloski, A||Koetke, DD||Konzer, J||Kopytine, M||Koralt, I||Korsch, W||Kotchenda, L||Kouchpil, V||Kravtsov, P||Kravtsov, VI||Krueger, K||Krus, M||Kumar, L||Kurnadi, P||Lamont, MAC||Landgraf, JM||LaPointe, S||Lauret, J||Lebedev, A||Lednicky, R||Lee, C-H||Lee, JH||Leight, W||LeVine, MJ||Li, C||Li, N||Li, Y||Lin, G||Lindenbaum, SJ||Lisa, MA||Liu, F||Liu, H||Liu, J||Liu, L||Ljubicic, T||Llope, WJ||Longacre, RS||Love, WA||Lu, Y||Ludlam, T||Ma, GL||Ma, YG||Mahapatra, DP||Majka, R||Mall, OI||Mangotra, LK||Manweiler, R||Margetis, S||Markert, C||Masui, H||Matis, HS||Matulenko, Yu A||McDonald, D||McShane, TS||Meschanin, A||Milner, R||Minaev, NG||Mioduszewski, S||Mischke, A||Mohanty, B||Morozov, DA||Munhoz, MG||Nandi, BK||Nattrass, C||Nayak, TK||Nelson, JM||Netrakanti, PK||Ng, MJ||Nogach, LV||Nurushev, SB||Odyniec, G||Ogawa, A||Okada, H||Okorokov, V||Olson, D||Pachr, M||Page, BS||Pal, SK||Pandit, Y||Panebratsev, Y||Pawlak, T||Peitzmann, T||Perevoztchikov, V||Perkins, C||Peryt, W||Phatak, SC||Pile, P||Planinic, M||Ploskon, MA||Pluta, J||Plyku, D||Poljak, N||Poskanzer, AM||Potukuchi, BVKS||Prindle, D||Pruneau, C||Pruthi, NK||Pujahari, PR||Putschke, J||Raniwala, R||Raniwala, S||Ray, RL||Redwine, R||Reed, R||Ridiger, A||Ritter, HG||Roberts, JB||Rogachevskiy, OV||Romero, JL||Rose, A||Roy, C||Ruan, L||Russcher, MJ||Sahoo, R||Sakai, S||Sakrejda, I||Sakuma, T||Salur, S||Sandweiss, J||Schambach, J||Scharenberg, RP||Schmitz, N||Seele, J||Seger, J||Selyuzhenkov, I||Semertzidis, Y||Seyboth, P||Shahaliev, E||Shao, M||Sharma, M||Shi, SS||Shi, X-H||Sichtermann, EP||Simon, F||Singaraju, RN||Skoby, MJ||Smirnov, N||Sorensen, P||Sowinski, J||Spinka, HM||Srivastava, B||Stanislaus, TDS||Staszak, D||Strikhanov, M||Stringfellow, B||Suaide, AAP||Suarez, MC||Subba, NL||Sumbera, M||Sun, XM||Sun, Y||Sun, Z||Surrow, B||Symons, TJM||de Toledo, A Szanto||Takahashi, J||Tang, AH||Tang, Z||Tarini, LH||Tarnowsky, T||Thein, D||Thomas, JH||Tian, J||Timmins, AR||Timoshenko, S||Tlusty, D||Tokarev, M||Tram, VN||Trentalange, S||Tribble, RE||Tsai, OD||Ulery, J||Ullrich, T||Underwood, DG||Van Buren, G||Van Nieuwenhuizen, G||Vanfossen, JA Jr||Varma, R||Vasconcelos, GMS||Vasiliev, AN||Videbaek, F||Viyogi, YP||Vokal, S||Voloshin, SA||Wada, M||Walker, M||Wang, F||Wang, G||Wang, H||Wang, JS||Wang, Q||Wang, X||Wang, XL||Wang, Y||Webb, G||Webb, JC||Westfall, GD||Whitten, C Jr||Wieman, H||Wissink, SW||Witt, R||Wu, Y||Xie, W||Xu, N||Xu, QH||Xu, Y||Xu, Z||Yang, Y||Yepes, P||Yip, K||Yoo, I-K||Yue, Q||Zawisza, M||Zbroszczyk, H||Zhan, W||Zhang, S||Zhang, WM||Zhang, XP||Zhang, Y||Zhang, ZP||Zhao, Y||Zhong, C||Zhou, J||Zhu, X||Zoulkarneev, R||Zoulkarneeva, Y||Zuo, JX

publication date

  • May 2010