Measurement of di-muons from 400 GeV/c protons interacting in a thick molybdenum/tungsten target

[2604.03661] Measurement of di-muons from 400 GeV/c protons interacting in a thick molybdenum/tungsten target Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in High Energy Physics - Experiment arXiv:2604.03661 (hep-ex) [Submitted on 4 Apr 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 28 Aug 2026 (this version, v3)] Title: Measurement of di-muons from 400 GeV/c protons interacting in a thick molybdenum/tungsten target Authors: The SHiP Collaboration View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Di-muon events emanating from a replica of the SHiP target at the CERN SPS (with a 400 GeV/c proton beam) contain a clear signal of \jpsi production. The target consisted of 13 interaction lengths of molybdenum and tungsten, followed by a 2.4m iron hadron absorber. The di-muon rate is in reasonable agreement with \MC based on Pythia v8. However, the $J/\psi$ rate observed in the data is much lower than predicted by the Monte Carlo simulation, which is advantageous for SHiP since muons with a large $p_T$ are more difficult to deflect by the active muon shield. For the center of mass rapidity ($y_{\rm cm}$) interval with the largest overlap with the NA50 measurement, $0.3 < y_{\rm cm} < 0.6$, we obtain the production cross-section per nucleon $\sigma(J/\psi)/A$ including the branching ratios of $J/\psi$ decays into muons, $B_{\mu^+\mu^-}$: $B_{\mu^+\mu^-}\sigma(J/\psi)/A=(1.18~\pm~0.04~\pm~0.10)~\mathrm{nb}$/nucleon. This is to be compared to the NA50 extrapolated result (using a much thinner target): $B_{\mu^+\mu^-}\sigma(J/\psi)/A=(0.99~\pm~0.04)~\mathrm{nb}$/nucleon. Within the systematic errors, no significant enhancement due to secondary production of \jpsi inside the target is observed. An upper limit at 90\% confidence level of possible contributions from secondary collisions of $<32\%$ is obtained. Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) Report number: CERN-EP-2026-108 Cite as: arXiv:2604.03661 [hep-ex] (or arXiv:2604.03661v3 [hep-ex] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.03661 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Eric van Herwijnen [ view email ] [v1] Sat, 4 Apr 2026 09:28:09 UTC (978 KB) [v2] Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:04:01 UTC (346 KB) [v3] Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:02:04 UTC (329 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: hep-ex < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-04 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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