Study of in-medium $\omega$ meson properties in Ap, pA and AA collisions

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental study of the in-medium properties of $oldsymbol{ extomega}$ mesons in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the ITEP accelerator, aiming to observe mass modifications and width changes at different nuclear densities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental approach using inverse kinematics and electromagnetic calorimetry to investigate $ extomega$ meson properties in nuclear matter at various densities.

Findings

Feasibility demonstrated through model calculations and simulations.

Potential to collect large statistics with current ion beam intensities.

Expected to clarify $ extomega$ meson mass and width modifications in nuclear medium.

Abstract

We propose to investigate the in-medium properties of vector $\omega$ mesons at the normal nuclear density in Ap(pA) collisions and at higher density in AA collisions at the ITEP accelerator facility TWAC. Using of the inverse Ap kinematics will permit us to study the $\omega$ meson production in a wide momentum interval included the not yet explored range of small meson momenta relative to the projectile nuclei where the mass modification effect in nuclear matter is expected to be the strongest. Momentum dependence of the in-medium $\omega$ meson width will be studied in the traditional pA kinematics. We intend to use the electromagnetic calorimeter for reconstruction of the $\omega$ meson invariant mass by detecting photons from the $\omega \to \pi^{0}\gamma \to 3\gamma$ decay. The model calculations and simulations with RQMD generator show feasibility of the proposed experiment. Available now intensity of the ion beams provides a possibility to collect large statistics and make decisive conclusion about the $\omega$ meson properties at density of normal nuclei. At the second stage of the investigation the $\omega$ meson properties will be studied in AA collisions at higher density. Interpretation of these measurements will be based on the results obtained in Ap(pA) interactions. Further investigation of the in-medium properties of light unflavored and charmed mesons can be performed at ITEP and at GSI(FAIR) where higher ion energies will be accessible in near future.