Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-10-2019

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevD.99.072003

Abstract

PHENIX reports differential cross sections of μμ pairs from semileptonic heavy-flavor decays and the Drell-Yan production mechanism measured in p+p collisions at √s=200  GeV at forward and backward rapidity (1.2<|η|<2.2). The μμ pairs from c¯c, b¯b, and Drell-Yan are separated using a template fit to unlike- and like-sign muon pair spectra in mass and pT. The azimuthal opening angle correlation between the muons from c¯c and b¯b decays and the pair-pT distributions are compared to distributions generated using pythia and powheg models, which both include next-to-leading order processes. The measured distributions for pairs from c¯c are consistent with pythia calculations. The c¯c data present narrower azimuthal correlations and softer pT distributions compared to distributions generated from powheg. The b¯b data are well described by both models. The extrapolated total cross section for bottom production is 3.75±0.24(stat)±0.350.50(syst)±0.45(global)  [μb], which is consistent with previous measurements at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in the same system at the same collision energy and is approximately a factor of 2 higher than the central value calculated with theoretical models. The measured Drell-Yan cross section is in good agreement with next-to-leading-order quantum-chromodynamics calculations.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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