Higher moments of net proton multiplicity distributions at RHIC.
We report the first measurements of the kurtosis (κ), skewness (S), and variance (σ2) of net-proton multiplicity (Np-Np) distributions at midrapidity for Au+Au collisions at square root of s(NN)=19.6, 62.4, and 200 GeV corresponding to baryon chemical potentials (μB) between 200 and 20 MeV. Our measurements of the products κσ2 and Sσ, which can be related to theoretical calculations sensitive to baryon number susceptibilities and long-range correlations, are constant as functions of collision centrality. We compare these products with results from lattice QCD and various models without a critical point and study the square root of s(NN) dependence of κσ2. From the measurements at the three beam energies, we find no evidence for a critical point in the QCD phase diagram for μB below 200 MeV.

title: Observation of an energy-dependent difference in elliptic flow between particles and antiparticles in relativistic heavy ion collisions.
abstract: Elliptic flow (v(2)) values for identified particles at midrapidity in Au + Au collisions, measured by the STAR experiment in the beam energy scan at RHIC at sqrt[s(NN)] = 7.7-62.4 GeV, are presented. A beam-energy-dependent difference of the values of v(2) between particles and corresponding antiparticles was observed. The difference increases with decreasing beam energy and is larger for baryons compared to mesons. This implies that, at lower energies, particles and antiparticles are not consistent with the universal number-of-constituent-quark scaling of v(2) that was observed at sqrt[s(NN)] = 200 GeV.

title: An Experimental Exploration of the QCD Phase Diagram: The Search for the Critical Point and the Onset of De-confinement
abstract: The QCD phase diagram lies at the heart of what the RHIC Physics Program is
all about. While RHIC has been operating very successfully at or close to its
maximum energy for almost a decade, it has become clear that this collider can
also be operated at lower energies down to 5 GeV without extensive upgrades. An
exploration of the full region of beam energies available at the RHIC facility
is imperative. The STAR detector, due to its large uniform acceptance and
excellent particle identification capabilities, is uniquely positioned to carry
out this program in depth and detail. The first exploratory beam energy scan
(BES) run at RHIC took place in 2010 (Run 10), since several STAR upgrades,
most importantly a full barrel Time of Flight detector, are now completed which
add new capabilities important for the interesting physics at BES energies. In
this document we discuss current proposed measurements, with estimations of the
accuracy of the measurements given an assumed event count at each beam energy.

title: The High Transverse Momentum Non-Photonic Electron Measurements in $Au+Au$ collisions at $\sqrt {S_{NN}} = 200$ GeV at RHIC/STAR
abstract: We present preliminary results of Non-Photonic Electron (NPE) production, NPE-hadron azimuthal correlation as well as NPE elliptic flow studies at midrapidity using a data set with high statistics and low photon conversion background from Au+Au collisions at √ sNN = 200 GeV collected at RHIC in Run 2010.

title: Recent Heavy Flavor Results at RHIC
abstract: We summarize the recent experimental results of heavy favor physics from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) at Long Island, New York, USA.We will discuss the directly reconstructed open charm mesons as well as electrons from heavy favor hadron decays. The charm and bottom quark production cross-sections have also been measured. We will also discuss JPsi and Upsilon states in p+p and heavy ion collisions. The studies described here were carried out and reported by the STAR and PHENIX collaborations at RHIC.

title: Measurements of $D^{0}$ and $D^{*}$ Production in $p$ + $p$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV
abstract: We report measurements of charmed-hadron ($D^{0}$, $D^{*}$) production cross sections at mid-rapidity in $p$ + $p$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the hadronic decays $D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}$, $D^{*+}\rightarrow D^{0}\pi^{+}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{+}$ and their charge conjugates, covering the $p_T$ range of 0.6$-$2.0 GeV/$c$ and 2.0$-$6.0 GeV/$c$ for $D^{0}$ and $D^{*+}$, respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross section at mid-rapidity is $d\sigma/dy|_{y=0}^{c\bar{c}}$ = 170 $\pm$ 45 (stat.) $^{+38}_{-59}$ (sys.) $\mu$b. The extracted charm-pair cross section is compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.

title: Jet quenching parameters of Sakai-Sugimoto Model
abstract: Using gauge theory/string duality, we calculated the jet quenching parameter $\hat{q}$ of the Sakai-Sugimoto model in various phases. Being different from the $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM theory where $\hat{q}\propto T^3$, we find that $\hat{q}\propto T^4/T_d$, where $T_d$ is the critical temperature of the confined/deconfined phase transition. By analyzing the $\hat{q}$ in different phases of this theory, we get better understanding about some statements in previous works, such as the non-universality and the explanation of discrepancies between the theory predictions and experiments.

title: HOM identification by bead pulling in the Brookhaven ERL cavity
abstract: Exploratory measurements of the Brookhaven Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) cavity at superconducting temperature produced a long list of high order modes (HOMs). The niobium 5-cell cavity is terminated at each end with HOM ferrite dampers that successfully reduce the Q -factors to levels required to avoid beam break up (BBU) instabilities. However, a number of un-damped resonances with Q ≥10 6 were found at 4 K and their mode identification forms the focus of this paper. The approach taken here consists of bead pulling on a copper (Cu) replica of the ERL cavity with dampers involving various network analyzer measurements. Several different S 21 transmission measurements are used, including those taken from the fundamental input coupler to the pick-up probe across the cavity, others between beam-position monitor probes in the beam tubes, and also between probes placed into the cells. The bead pull technique suitable for HOM identification with a metallic needle or dielectric bead is detailed. This paper presents the results for HOMs in the first two dipole bands, the un-damped modes in the first quadrupole band, and the identification of several high- Q modes beyond.

title: A method for the separation and reconstructions of charged hadron and neutral hadron from their overlapped showers in an electromagnetic calorimeter
abstract: The separation and reconstructions of charged hadron and neutral hadron from their overlapped showers in an electromagnetic calorimeter is very important for the reconstructions of some particles with hadronic decays, for example the tau reconstruction in the searches for the Standard Model and supersymmetric Higgs bosons at the LHC. In this paper, a method combining the shower cluster in an electromagnetic calorimeter and the parametric formula for hadron showers, was developed to separate the overlapped showers between charged hadron and neutral hadron. Taking the hadronic decay containing one charged pion and one neutral pion in the final status of tau for example, satisfied results of the separation of the overlapped showers, the reconstructions of the energy and positions of the hadrons were obtained. An improved result for the tau reconstruction with this decay model can be also achieved after the application of the proposed method.

title: Higher-order-mode absorbers for energy recovery linac cryomodules at Brookhaven National Laboratory
abstract: Several future accelerator projects at Brookhaven for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are based on energy recovery linacs (ERLs) with high-charge high-current electron beams. Their stable operation mandates effective higher-order-mode (HOM) damping. The development of HOM dampers for these projects is pursued actively at this laboratory. Strong HOM damping was experimentally demonstrated both at room and at superconducting (SC) temperatures in a prototype research and development (RD this will impose additional constraints and complications. This paper presents the results of simulations and measurements of several damper configurations.

title: Extended phase space thermodynamics for third-order Lovelock black holes in diverse dimensions
abstract: Treating the cosmological constant as thermodynamic pressure and its conjugate as thermodynamic volume, we investigate the critical behavior of the third-order Lovelock black holes in diverse dimensions. For black hole horizons with different normalized sectional curvature $$k=0,\pm 1$$k=0,±1, the corresponding critical behaviors differ drastically. For $$k=0$$k=0, there is no critical point in the extended thermodynamic phase space. For $$k=-1$$k=-1, there is a single critical point in any dimension $$d\ge 7$$d≥7, and for $$k=+1$$k=+1, there is a single critical point in $$7$$7 dimensions and two critical points in 8, 9, 10, 11 dimensions. We studied the corresponding phase structures in all possible cases.