Production Dynamics of High-Mass Muon Pairs

Abstract

We report the results of a study of the mechanism of inclusive dimuon production from the reaction $p+p\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}+X$ at the CERN intersecting storage rings. The present experiment was done at the center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=62\mathrm{} \mathrm{and} 44$ GeV and in the dimuon pair invariant-mass region $m=3-25\mathrm{}$ GeV. The dependence on the Feynman variable $x$ has been measured. The average transverse momentum is found to increase with $\sqrt{s}$ and with mass and reaches $〈p_T〉\simeq 1.9$ GeV, compatible with predictions from quantum-chromodynamic gluon processes.