Strong Parity Violation: A Summary of STAR Charge Separation Measurements

par Prof. Jim Thomas (Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab)

mardi 28 sept. 2010, 10:30 → 12:00 Europe/Paris

amphi Gruenewald (IPHC/DRS)

Seminaire par Jim Thomas (Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab) ___________________________________________________________ Parity-odd domains, corresponding to nontrivial topological solutions of the QCD vacuum, may be created during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These domains are predicted to lead to charge separation of quarks along the system's orbital momentum axis. We investigated a three-particle azimuthal correlator which is a P even observable, but directly sensitive to the charge separation effect. We have made measurements with charged hadrons near center-of-mass rapidity with this observable in AuAu and CuCu collisions at rootS 200 GeV using the STAR detector. A signal consistent with several expectations from the theory is detected. I will discuss possible contributions from other effects that are not related to parity violation.