Highlights from the NA60 experiment

TL;DR

The NA60 experiment at CERN measured dimuon production in Indium-Indium and proton-nucleus collisions to study rho spectral functions, dimuon excess origins, and J/psi suppression patterns, providing new insights into nuclear collision physics.

Contribution

This paper presents new experimental results from NA60 on dimuon yields, addressing key questions in nuclear collision dynamics and spectral functions.

Findings

Rho spectral function modifications in nuclear matter

Clarification of dimuon excess sources in intermediate mass range

Observation of J/psi suppression patterns in Indium-Indium collisions

Abstract

The NA60 experiment is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS. It has measured the dimuon yield in Indium--Indium collisions with an In beam of 158 AGeV/c and in p-A collisions with a proton beam of 400 and 158 AGeV/c. The results allow to address three important physics topics, namely the study of the rho spectral function in nuclear collisions, the clarification of the origin of the dimuon excess measured by NA50 in the intermediate mass range, and the J/psi suppression pattern in a collision system different from Pb-Pb. An overview of these results will be given in this paper.