Two-particle Azimuthal Correlations of High-pT Charged Hadrons at the CERN SPS

TL;DR

This paper presents two-particle azimuthal correlations of high-pT charged hadrons in Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS, revealing medium effects through flattened away-side peaks, and compares results across different experiments and energies.

Contribution

First NA49 results on high-pT hadron correlations in Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS, highlighting medium interactions and comparing with other experiments.

Findings

Flattened away-side peak in central collisions

Consistency with medium-interaction scenario

Comparison with CERES and PHENIX results

Abstract

Two-particle azimuthal correlations of high-pT hadrons can serve as a probe of interactions of partons with the dense medium produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. First NA49 results on such correlations are presented for central and mid-central Pb+Pb collisions at 158A GeV beam energy, for different centrality bins and charge combinations of trigger and associate particles. These results feature a flattened away-side peak in the most central collisions, which is consistent with expectations of the medium-interaction scenario. A comparison with CERES Pb+Au results at the same energy, as well as with PHENIX Au+Au results at the top RHIC energy, is provided.