Origin of the low-mass electron pair excess in light nucleus-nucleus collisions

Agakichiev, G.; Balanda, A.; Belver, D.; Belyaev, A. V.; Blanco, A.; Böhmer, M.; Boyard, J. L.; Braun Munzinger, P.; Cabanelas, P.; Castro, E.; Chernenko, S.; Christ, T.; Destefanis, MARCO GIOVANNI; Díaz, J.; Dohrmann, F.; Dybczak, A.; Fabbietti, L.; Fateev, O. V.; Finocchiaro, P.; Fonte, P.; Friese, J.; Fröhlich, I.; Galatyuk, T.; Garzón, J. A.; Gernhäuser, R.; Gil, A.; Gilardi, C.; Göbel, K.; Golubeva, M.; González Díaz, D.; Guber, F.; Hennino, T.; Holzmann, R.; Iori, I.; Ivashkin, A.; Jurkovic, M.; Kämpfer, B.; Karavicheva, T.; Kirschner, D.; Koenig, I.; Koenig, W.; Kolb, B. W.; Kotte, R.; Krizek, F.; Krücken, R.; Kühn, W.; Kugler, A.; Kurepin, A.; Lang, S.; Lange, J. S.; Lapidus, K.; Liu, T.; Lopes, L.; Lorenz, M.; Maier, L.; Mangiarotti, A.; Markert, J.; Metag, V.; Michalska, B.; Michel, J.; Morinière, E.; Mousa, J.; Müntz, C.; Naumann, L.; Otwinowski, J.; Pachmayer, Y. C.; Palka, M.; Parpottas, Y.; Pechenov, V.; Pechenova, O.; Pietraszko, J.; Przygoda, W.; Ramstein, B.; Reshetin, A.; Rustamov, A.; Sadovsky, A.; Salabura, P.; Schmah, A.; Schwab, E.; Sobolev, Y. u. G.; Spataro, STEFANO GIOVANNI; Spruck, B.; Ströbele, H.; Stroth, J.; Sturm, C.; Sudol, M.; Tarantola, A.; Teilab, K.; Tlusty, P.; Traxler, M.; Trebacz, R.; Tsertos, H.; Wagner, V.; Weber, M.; Wisniowski, M.; Wojcik, T.; Wüstenfeld, J.; Yurevich, S.; Zanevsky, Y. V.; Zhou, P.

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2010.05.010

We report measurements of electron pair production in elementary p + p and d + p reactions at 1.25 GeV/u with the HADES spectrometer. For the first time, the electron pairs were reconstructed for n + p reactions by detecting the proton spectator from the deuteron breakup. We find that the yield of electron pairs with invariant mass Me+e− > 0.15 GeV/c2 is about an order of magnitude larger in n + p reactions as compared to p + p. A comparison to model calculations demonstrates that the production mechanism is not sufficiently described yet. The electron pair spectra measured in C + C reactions are compatible with a superposition of elementary n + p and p + p collisions, leaving little room for additional electron pair sources in such light collision systems.