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Abstract In a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), the fundamental building blocks of matter, quarks and gluons, are under extreme conditions of temperature and density. A QGP could exist in the early stages of the Universe, and in various objects and events in the cosmos. The thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties of the QGP are described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and can be studied in heavy-ion collisions. Despite being a key thermodynamic parameter, the QGP temperature is still poorly known. Thermal lepton pairs (e⁺e⁻andμ⁺μ⁻) are ideal penetrating probes of the true temperature of the emitting source, since their invariant-mass spectra suffer neither from strong final-state interactions nor from blue-shift effects due to rapid expansion. Here we measure the QGP temperature using thermale⁺e⁻production at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The average temperature from the low-mass region (in-mediumρ⁰vector-meson dominant) is (2.01 ± 0.23) × 10¹²K, consistent with the chemical freeze-out temperature from statistical models and the phase transition temperature from Lattice QCD. The average temperature from the intermediate mass region (above theρ⁰mass, QGP dominant) is significantly higher at (3.25 ± 0.60) × 10¹²K. This work provides essential experimental thermodynamic measurements to map out the QCD phase diagram and understand the properties of matter under extreme conditions. 

The STAR experiment reports new, high-precision measurements of the transverse single-spin asymmetries for ${\pi }^{\pm }$within jets, namely the Collins asymmetries, from transversely polarized $p^{\uparrow }p$collisions at $\sqrt{s}=510\mathrm{GeV}$. The energy-scaled distribution of jet transverse momentum, $x_{\mathrm{T}}=2p_{\mathrm{T},\text{jet}}/\sqrt{s}$, shows a remarkable consistency for Collins asymmetries of ${\pi }^{\pm }$in jets between $\sqrt{s}=200\mathrm{GeV}$and 510 GeV. This indicates that the Collins asymmetries are nearly energy independent, with, at most, a very weak scale dependence in $p^{\uparrow }p$collisions. These results extend to high-momentum scales ( $Q^2\le 3400{\mathrm{GeV}}^2$) and enable unique tests of evolution and universality in the transverse-momentum-dependent formalism, thus providing important constraints for the Collins fragmentation functions. 

We report measurements of $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(1S\right)$, $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(2S\right)$and $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(3S\right)$production in $p+p$collisions at $\sqrt{s}=500\mathrm{GeV}$by the STAR experiment in year 2011, corresponding to an integrated luminosity ${\mathcal{L}}_{\mathrm{int}}=13{\mathrm{pb}}^{-1}$. The results provide precise cross sections, transverse momentum ( $p_{\mathrm{T}}$) and rapidity ( $y$) spectra, as well as cross section ratios for $p_{\mathrm{T}}<10\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}$and $\left|y\right|<1$. The dependence of the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }$yield on charged particle multiplicity has also been measured, offering new insights into the mechanisms of quarkonium production. The data are compared to various theoretical models: the color evaporation model (CEM) accurately describes the $\mathrm{\Upsilon }\left(1S\right)$production, while the color glass $\mathrm{condensate}+\text{nonrelativistic}$quantum chromodynamics ( $\mathrm{CGC}+\mathrm{NRQCD}$) model overestimates the data, particularly at low $p_{\mathrm{T}}$. Conversely, the color singlet model (CSM) underestimates the rapidity dependence. These discrepancies highlight the need for further development in understanding the production dynamics of heavy quarkonia in high-energy hadronic collisions. The trend in the multiplicity dependence is consistent with CGC/saturation and string percolation models or $\mathrm{\Upsilon }$production happening in multiple parton interactions modeled by 8.