Measurement of φ -meson production in Cu+Au collisions at sNN =200 GeV and U+ U collisions at sNN =193 GeV

The PHENIX experiment reports systematic measurements at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider of φ-meson production in asymmetric Cu+Au collisions at sNN=200GeV and in U+U collisions at sNN=193GeV. Measurements were performed via the φ→K+K- decay channel at midrapidity |η|<0.35. Features of φ-meson production measured in Cu+Cu, Cu+Au, Au+Au, and U+U collisions were found to not depend on the collision geometry, which was expected because the yields are averaged over the azimuthal angle and follow the expected scaling with nuclear-overlap size. The elliptic flow of the φ meson in Cu+Au, Au+Au, and U+U collisions scales with second-order-participant eccentricity and the length scale of the nuclear-overlap region (estimated with the number of participating nucleons). At moderate pT, φ-meson production measured in Cu+Au and U+U collisions is consistent with coalescence-model predictions, whereas at high pT the production is in agreement with expectations for in-medium energy loss of parent partons prior to their fragmentation. The elliptic flow for φ mesons measured in Cu+Au and U+U collisions is well described by a (2+1)-dimensional viscous-hydrodynamic model with specific-shear viscosity η/s=1/4π.