Measurement of phi-meson production at forward rapidity in p plus p collisions at root s=510 GeV and its energy dependence from root s=200 GeV to 7 TeV

Abstract

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured the differential cross section of phi(1020)-meson production at forward rapidity in p + p collisions at root s = 510 GeV via the dimuon decay channel. The partial cross section in the rapidity and P-T ranges 1.2 < vertical bar y vertical bar < 2.2 and 2 < p(T) < 7 GeV/c is sigma(phi) = [2.28 +/- 0.09(stat) +/- 0.14(syst) +/- 0.27(norm)] x 10(-2) mb. The energy dependence of sigma(phi) (1.2 < vertical bar y vertical bar < 2.2,2 < p(T) < 5 GeV/c) is studied using the PHENIX measurements at root s = 200 and 510 GeV and the Large Hadron Collider measurements at root s = 2.76 and 7 TeV. The experimental results arc compared to various event generator predictions (PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8, PHOJET, AMPT, EPOS3, and EPOS-LHC).