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SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) • Introduction • Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3) • Present heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA60 • What remains to be learned ? • Conclusions
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SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Jan 02, 2016

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Page 1: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium)measurements

E. ScomparinINFN Torino (Italy)

• Introduction• Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)• Present heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA60• What remains to be learned ?• Conclusions

Page 2: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Heavy quarkonia• Matsui and Satz prediction (1986) at the origin of the whole field

• No experiment was explicitly intended for charmonia detection• Even NA38 (proposed in March 1985) was aiming at the study of thermal dimuon production• Experimental facts

• Relatively small cross section (@ s=20 GeV, BµµJ/~10 nb)• J/µµ channel relatively clean• Need large luminosities and a very selective trigger

• NA38 happened to be in a very good situation to study charmonium (its ancestor, NA10, studied high mass Drell-Yan and production)

Page 3: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Charmonium production:nuclear collisions at fixed target

•Study carried out by NA38/NA50/NA60 at the SPS from 1986 until today•Basic facts

•Essentially the same experiment, although with very significant upgrades•Large set of results with very good statistics•(Lots of) systems studied, including:

•p-p, p-d, p-Be, p-C, p-Al, p-Cu, p-Ag, p-W, p-Pb, p-U, O-Cu, O-U, S-U, In-In, Pb-Pb

•Similar (but not identical) energy/kinematical domain between various data sets

•Very significant contributions (in a slightly higher energy range) by: •E866 •HERA-B

•The question to be answered by studying charmonium in heavy-ion collisions at the SPS

Is (at least part of the) suppression of charmonia that we observein the data NOT due to usual hadronic processes ?

Page 4: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

The NA38/NA50/NA60 experimentsBased on the same muon spectrometer (inherited by NA10)

no apparatus-dependent systematics

Many updates in the target region, in parallel with the availability of radiation hard detectors

NA50

MUON FILTER

BEAMTRACKER

TARGETBOX

VERTEX TELESCOPE

Dipole field2.5 T

BEAM

IC

not on scale

NA60

Page 5: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

pA collisions: the reference

• Glauber fit to BµµJ/ at 400-450 GeV• J/

abs= 4.48 0.42 mb

Main problem:extrapolation to 158 GeV/c

• S-U data (200 GeV) should not be used (absorption sources different wrt pA might be present)

• Obtain normalization (J/pp)

at 200 GeV • using only pA data • assuming J/

abs does not depend on s

• High statistics 400/450 data: J//DY ratios• Obtain J/

abs= 4.18 0.35 mb

Page 6: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Expected (J/)/DY at 158 GeV

• As it is well known, NA50 uses Drell-Yan as a reference process to study J/ suppression• Is (J/)/DY equivalent to J/ cross section per N-N collision ? Yes, Drell-Yan A-dependence measured DY = 0.995 0.016 (stat.) 0.019 (syst.)

• Start from J/ pp/DY

pp @ 450 GeV (1.4% error)

• Rescale to 200 GeV• J/ see previous page (7.8% error, SU not used)• DY LO calculation (2.5 % error)

• Rescale to 158 GeV• J/ fit a la Schuler to measured J/ cross sections (1.5% error)• DY LO calculation (negligible error)

• Use Glauber (with neutron halo) to calculate centrality dependence of expected J/ /DY

• Include experimental smearing on centrality determination (ET, EZDC, Nch)

Direct measurement of J/ /DY at 158 GeV would significantly decrease such errors (NA60)

Page 7: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

J/ /DY in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV

• Final NA50 set of data

Old reference(include S-U in the determination)

New reference (only p-A collisions are used)

Page 8: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Compatibility of data sets

• Older data sets considered not as reliable as recent ones• 1996 high statistic data: biased by reinteractions (thick target)

Page 9: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Study of various centrality estimators

• Pattern consistent with ET-based analysis• Departure from normal nuclear absorption at mid-centrality• Suppression increases with centrality

Page 10: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

What about S-U ?

•Absorption curve calculated using p-A data only

• S-U data found to be in agreement (once rescaling are performed) with

• p-A extrapolation• Peripheral Pb-Pb collisions

• No indication for a sizeable extra-absorption in S-U wrt p-A

Page 11: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Study the J/ suppression patternas a function of different centrality variables, including data from different collision systems

Study collisions between other systems, such as Indium-Indium

• Which is the variable driving the suppression?

• Is the anomalous suppression also present in lighter nuclear systems?

Study the nuclear dependence of c production in p-A

• What is the impact of the c feed-down on the observed J/ suppression pattern?

New charmonium studies : NA60

Study J/ production in p-A collisions at 158 GeV

• What is the normal nuclear absorption cross-section at the energy of the heavy ion data?

S-U

In-In

Pb-Pb

Npart

L (f

m)

pure Glauber calculation

Page 12: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

NA60: In-In collisions

• 5-week long run in 2003 – In-In @ 158 GeV/nucleon• ~ 4×1012 ions on target• ~ 2×108 dimuon triggers collected

Set ASet B

Raw +-

invariant massspectrum

mµµ (GeV/c2)

Events

/50

MeV

• Centrality selection: use• spectator energy in the ZDC• charged multiplicity in the vertex spectrometer

• Two muon spectrometer settings• Set A (low ACM current)

• Good acceptance at low mass• Used for LMR and IMR analysis

• Set B (high ACM current)• Good resolution at high mass• Used for J/ suppression, together with set A

Page 13: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

• Multi-step fit a) M > 4.2 GeV : normalize DY

b) 2.2 < M < 2.5 GeV: normalize the charm (with DY fixed)

c) 2.9 < M < 4.2 GeV: get the J/y yield (with DY & charm fixed)

• Combinatorial background from and K decays estimated from the measured like-sign pairs (<3% contribution under the J/)

• Signal mass shapes from MC• PYTHIA and GRV 94 LO p.d.f.• GEANT 3.21 for detector simulation • reconstructed as the measured data

• Acceptances from Monte Carlo simulation: J/ : 12.4 % (setB); 13.8 % (setA) DY : 13.2 % (setB); 14.1 % (setA) (in mass window 2.9–4.5 GeV)

J/

DY

Background

Charm

without matching6500 data setno centrality selection

The J/ / DY analysis (NA50-like)

Page 14: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

• Normal absorption curve based on the NA50 results• Uncertainty (~ 8%) at 158 GeV dominated by the extrapolation from the 400 and 450 GeV data

Comparison with NA38/NA50 results

“anomalous suppression” present in Indium-Indium

How to get a more accurate suppression pattern ? Do not use Drell-Yan

Page 15: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Study of the J/ centrality distribution

• Compare the centrality distribution of the measured J/ sample with the distribution expected in case of pure nuclear absorption

• Main advantage Much smaller statistical errors

• Main drawback No intrinsic normalization, if

absolute cross sections are not known

• Use matched J/ sample

EZDC (GeV)

dNJ/

/d

EZ

DC

εvertex dimuon > 99.5 %

ε ver

tex

• Inefficiencies introduced by the cuts, used in the event selection, affect in a negligible way the J/ sample (or are not centrality dependent)

Work in progress to obtain dJ//dEZDC

Page 16: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Comparison with expected yield• Data are compared with a calculated J/ centrality distribution• Use J/

abs= 4.18 0.35 mb

• Onset of anomalous suppression in the range 80 < Npart < 100• Saturation at large Npart

Nuclearabsorption

• Ratio (Measured / Expected) normalized to the standard analysis (~7% error)

EZDC(TeV)

Page 17: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Comparison with previous results

The S-U, In-In and Pb-Pb data points do not overlap

in the L variable

The J/ suppression patterns are in fair agreement in the

Npart variable

S-U most central point ?

Page 18: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Other variables related to centrality

NA50 Pb-PbNA60 In-In

NA50 Pb-PbNA60 In-In

• A more significant comparison requires Pb-Pb points with reduced errors

very

preliminaryBjorken energy density, estimated using VENUS

• Work in progress inside NA50 to have a non-DY analysis for the 2000 data Results expected soon

Page 19: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Comparison with theoretical models

• Good accuracy of NA60 data quantitative comparisons possible

• J/ absorption by produced hadrons (comovers) Capella and Ferreiro, hep-ph/0505032

• J/ suppression in the QGP and hadronic phases (including thermal regeneration and in-medium properties of open charm and charmonium states) Grandchamp, Rapp, Brown, Nucl.Phys. A715 (2003) 545; Phys.Rev.Lett. 92 (2004) 212301; hep-ph/0403204

• c suppression by deconfined partons when geometrical percolation sets in Digal, Fortunato and Satz, Eur.Phys.J.C32 (2004) 547.

• Consider models • formulating specific predictions for In-In collisions• previously tuned on the p-A, S-U and Pb-Pb suppression patterns obtained by NA38 and NA50

Page 20: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Comparison with theoretical models

Satz, Digal, FortunatoRapp, Grandchamp, BrownCapella, Ferreiro

No quantitative agreement with any model

Page 21: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

One more model

Maximum hadronic absorption (Hagedorn gas)not enough to reproduce In-In and Pb-Pb

L. Maiani @ QM2005

Page 22: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Summary on charmonium at the SPS

• Anomalous J/ suppression• Established fact in Pb-Pb (NA50) and, more recently, in In-In (NA60)• Not present in S-U collisions (NA38)

• Onset around Npart = 100• Does S-U show an incompatibility with Pb-Pb and In-In ?

• Other interesting results• Suppression concentrated at low pT in PbPb (see NA50 @ QM05)• Anomalous ’ suppression identical in S-U and Pb-Pb (vs L)

• Already sets in for peripheral S-U collisions (see NA50 @QM05)

• News to be exepcted in the near future• NA50: non-DY analysis more meaningful comparison with NA60• NA60: use full statistics for analysis ~ factor 2 more

• No final word from theory on the interpretation of the results• SPS+RHIC systematics great opportunity

Page 23: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Can SPS go beyond charmonium ?

NA50 measured A-dependence in p-A at 450 GeV

= 0.98 0.08

production not accessible in A-A at present SPS, s too low

Page 24: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Bottomonium in A-A at the SPS ?

• In the framework of the upgrade of CERN machines the SPS+ concept is presently under discussion Availability of ~1 TeV protons from ~2014 onwards

Pb ions at ~ 400 GeV/nucleon(s ~ 28 GeV)

Study J/ suppressionvs. s (not possible atpresent SPS energies)

Study suppression of states (depends on available luminosity) J/

(2S)c(1P)

J/

(3S) b(2P)(2S)

b(1P)

(1S)

• Various possibilities:

Needs NA60 upgrade first discussions are now taking place

Page 25: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Heavy quark production• Relatively comfortable cross section (tot~ 20 µb @ s=20 GeV)• However

• D0 K • Difficult to single out in the high hadronic multiplicity

(attempt by NA49,no signal, nucl-ex/0507031)• D0 µX

• Full reconstruction of the decay topology impossible• Important background (combinatorial+Drell-Yan)• Negligible contribution in the low-mass region• Sizeable contribution in the intermediate mass region• First studies by NA50, important progress with NA60

Pb-PbNpart=110

Pb-PbNpart=381

Page 26: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

p-A shape analysis: m, y, pT, cos spectra

• Dimuon differential distributions in the region –0.5<yCM<0.5, cosCS<0.5 consistent with a superposition of Drell-Yan + open charm

M.C. Abreu et al., NA50, Eur. Phys. J C14(2000)443

• Absolute cross sections found to be consistent with direct measurements of open charm production

Page 27: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Extrapolation to A-A collisions

•Assumption: DY and open charm behave as hard processes A scalingPb-PbNpart=110

Pb-PbNpart=381

• Excess of dimuon yield: Data/Sources ~1.3 in S-U, ~1.7 in Pb-Pb• Smoothly growing with centrality

Nature of the excess

Enhancement of known sources

New sources appear

M.C. Abreu et al., NA50, Eur. Phys. J C14(2000)443

Page 28: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Enhancement of known sources

• Excess not compatible with background shape• Compatible with an an enhancement of open charm (m,pT spectra)

Factor 3 enhancementin central Pb-Pb

M.C. Abreu et al., NA50, Eur. Phys. J C14(2000)443

Page 29: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Thermal production?

• Good description of the mass spectra in the two approaches for central Pb-Pb events

R. Rapp and E. Shuryak,Phys. Lett. B473(2000) 13

•Explicit introduction of a QGP phase•Initial temperature: Ti=192 MeV•Critical temperature: Tc=175 MeV•Fireball lifetime: 14 fm/c(increasing to Ti=221 MeV still good agreement)

L. Capelli et al.,NA50, Nucl. Phys. A698(2002) 539c

Only way to solve the puzzle: discriminate between prompt and displaced dimuon sources

Page 30: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

hadron absorberMuon

Other

and trackingMuon trigger

magnetic field

Iron wall

NA50 spectrometer2.5 T dipole magnet

Matching in coordinate and momentum space

targets

beam tracker

vertex tracker

or

!

NA60: detector concept

• Improved dimuon mass resolution• Origin of muons can be accurately determined

Page 31: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Muon matching

Vary the cut on the matching 2

Muons from muon spectrometer Vertex spectrometer tracks

Compare slopes and momentaDefine a matching 2

Re-fit matched tracks• With this procedure

• Combinatorial background can be reduced• A certain level of fake matches is present (new kind of background)

improve the signal/background ratio

Page 32: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Vertex resolution

z ~ 200 µm along beam axis

Good target ID (down to very peripheral events)

Dispersion between beam track andVT vertex

Vertex resolution (assuming BT=20 m)

10

20

30

0

(

m)

Number of tracks

x ~ y ~ 10- 20 µmin the transverse direction

(by comparing beam impactpoint on the target andreconstructed interaction point)

Page 33: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Offset resolution

J/

Weighted Offset () 100

Offs

et r

esol

utio

n (

m)

Resolution of the impact parameter of the track at the vertex (offset)

40 – 50 µm

(studied using J/ events)

vertex impact < c (D+ : 312 m, Do : 123 m)

Prompt dimuons can be separated from open charm decays

• Define weighted offset to eliminate momentum dependence of offset resolution (offset wighted by error matrix of the fit)

Page 34: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Weighted offset distribution of the expected sources

• Prompt contribution average of the J/ and measured offsets• Open charm contribution MC distribution, after smearing

Page 35: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Background subtraction

• Combinatorial background • Dominant dimuon source for m<2 GeV/c2

• Mixed event technique developed accurate to ~ 1%

• NA60 acceptance quite asymmetric Cannot use NN2Nbck

• Fake matches background also rejected with a mixed event approach • Less important in the intermediate mass region

1% error in the comb. background

estimate

10% error on the signal

Page 36: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

IMR: is an excess present ?

• Answer: Yes, an excess in the IMR is clearly present(same order of magnitude of the NA50 result)

NA50 norm.

• Open charm and Drell-Yan generated with PYTHIA• Drell-Yan normalization fixed using the high mass region• Open charm normalization: use

NA50 p-A result (better control of systematics related to channel) World-average cc cross section (based on direct charm measurements)

(differ by a factor ~ 2)

World-aver. norm.

datapromptcharmprompt+charm

Excess Excess

Page 37: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Is the excess compatible with the NA50 observation?

• Can we describe the measured mass spectrum by leaving the open charm normalization as a free parameter, as done by NA50?

~ 2 in terms of NA50p-A normalization

Answer: Yes, we can describe the In-In data with a “charm enhancement” factor around 2 in “NA50 units”

(to be compared with ~ 3 for PbPb in NA50)

Results of fits reported in terms of DY and open charm scaling factors needed to describe the data

Page 38: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Check NA50 hypothesis using muon offsets

• Fix the prompt contribution to the expected DY• Can the offset distribution be described with an enhanced charm yield?

Dimuon weighted offsets

Answer: No, the fit fails

Charm is too flat to describe the remaining spectrum…

Kinematical domain1.2 < M < 2.7 GeV/c2

0 < yCM < 1|cos| < 0.5

Page 39: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Alternative options

Dimuon weighted offsets

•Try to describe the offset distribution leaving both contributions free

Answer: Two times more prompts than the expected Drell-Yan provides a good fit

(and the charm yield is as expected from the NA50 p-A dimuon data)

Page 40: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Is the prompt yield sensitive to the charm level?

• Fix the charm contribution to either of the two references, and see how the level of prompts changes

Answer: No, both options require two times more prompts than the expected Drell-Yan !

(the charm contribution is too small to make a difference)

Dimuon weighted offsets

“world average” “NA50 p-A ”

Page 41: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Mass shape of the excess

The mass spectrum of the excess dimuons is steeper than DY(and flatter than Open Charm)

• Fix the DY and Charm contributions to expected yields

Page 42: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Relative excess:(Data – Sources) / Sources

Excess per participant:(Data – Sources) / Npart

Faster than linear increase with Npart

Centrality dependence of the excess

very

preliminary

Page 43: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Summary on open charm at the SPS

• Serious study much delayed with respect to charmonia investigations

• First generation experiments• Excess in the intermediate mass region• Connession with open charm possible (NA50)• Could not be proved

• Second generation experiment (NA60)• Equipped with accurate vertex detector• Present understanding: open charm yield in A-A follows Ncoll scaling

• What next ?• Update NA60 results (full statistics, more accurate alignment)• Run NA60 with PbPb (after 2010)

If the IMR excess is not charm, then what can it be ?

Page 44: SPS charm(onium) and bottom(onium) measurements E. Scomparin INFN Torino (Italy) Introduction Past heavy quark and quarkonium measurements: NA38/NA50 (Helios-3)

Conclusions

• Long and fascinating history (started 19 years ago!)• Many interesting results, both recent and (relatively) ancient• Still interesting now, when higher energy domains are opening up ?

Surely yes!Finding a consistent

description of phenomenaoccurring in various energy

ranges is an importantchallenge, that deserves

being investigated

• Future of heavy-ions at SPS ?• Still not defined, but

• Heavy-ions can be available once LHC has been commissioned• SPS+ will be built in case LHC luminosity upgrade is approved

Some of us are starting to think about a new dimuon experiment at SPSEncouragement, suggestions, participation are very welcome !