Recent results from NA61/SHINE

TL;DR

NA61/SHINE at CERN has advanced understanding of hadron production, charm production, and phase space coverage, providing new insights into strong interactions and neutrino physics since 2022.

Contribution

The paper presents new measurements of open charm production, differences in meson production, and emphasizes baseline effects in critical point searches, expanding knowledge beyond previous results.

Findings

First direct measurement of open charm in nucleus-nucleus collisions at SPS energies

Observed differences between charged and neutral meson production in Ar+Sc reactions

Highlighted the role of baseline effects in critical point searches

Abstract

The NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS is a multipurpose fixed-target spectrometer for charged and neutral hadron measurements. Its research program includes studies of strong interactions as well as reference measurements for neutrino and cosmic-ray physics. A significant advantage of NA61/SHINE over collider experiments is its extended coverage of phase space available for hadron production. This includes the nearly entire forward hemisphere for charged hadrons and additionally, a large part of the backward hemisphere for specific neutrals. This paper summarizes a selected set of new results, obtained by NA61/SHINE since the last SQM conference (Busan, 2022). Particular attention is devoted to (1) the first-ever direct measurement of open charm production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at SPS energies (2) the difference observed between charged and neutral meson production in Ar+Sc reactions, up to now not understood by existing models, and (3) the importance of baseline effects in the search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter.