The STAR Collaboration at RHIC presents a systematic study of high transverse momentum charged di-hadron correlations at small azimuthal pair separation \dphino, in d+Au and central Au+Au collisions at $\rts = 200$ GeV. Significant correlated yield for pairs with large longitudinal separation \deta is observed in central Au+Au, in contrast to d+Au collisions. The associated yield distribution in \detano$\times$\dphi can be decomposed into a narrow jet-like peak at small angular separation which has a similar shape to that found in d+Au collisions, and a component which is narrow in \dphi and \textcolor{black}{depends only weakly on} $\deta$, the 'ridge'. Using two systematically independent analyses, \textcolor{black}{finite ridge yield} is found to persist for trigger $\pt > 6$ \GeVc, indicating that it is correlated with jet production. The transverse momentum spectrum of hadrons comprising the ridge is found to be similar to that of bulk particle production in the measured range ($2 < \pt < 4 \GeVc$).
FIG. 3. Left panel: width of Gaussian fit to jet-like peak for Eq. (6) $(\Delta \eta$ width, circles) and Eq. (7) $(\Delta \phi$ width, triangles) ; $ 2 \mathrm{GeV}/c<p_{t}^{\text{assoc}}<p_{t}^{\text {trig }}$, as a function of $p_{t}^{\text {trig }},$ for central $\mathrm{Au}+$ Au collisions (filled symbols) and $d+$ Au collisions (open symbols). Some data points are displaced horizontally for clarity. Right panel: the distributions of Eqs. (6) and (7) for $4<p_{t}^{\text {trig }}<5 \mathrm{GeV} / c$ and $2 \mathrm{GeV} / c<p_{t}^{\text {assoc }}<p_{t}^{\text {trig }}$.
We present two-dimensional (2D) two-particle angular correlations on relative pseudorapidity $\eta$ and azimuth $\phi$ for charged particles from Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 62$ and 200 GeV with transverse momentum $p_t \geq 0.15$ GeV/$c$, $|\eta| \leq 1$ and $2\pi$ azimuth. Observed correlations include a {same-side} (relative azimuth $< \pi/2$) 2D peak, a closely-related away-side azimuth dipole, and an azimuth quadrupole conventionally associated with elliptic flow. The same-side 2D peak and away-side dipole are explained by semihard parton scattering and fragmentation (minijets) in proton-proton and peripheral nucleus-nucleus collisions. Those structures follow N-N binary-collision scaling in Au-Au collisions until mid-centrality where a transition to a qualitatively different centrality trend occurs within a small centrality interval. Above the transition point the number of same-side and away-side correlated pairs increases rapidly {relative to} binary-collision scaling, the $\eta$ width of the same-side 2D peak also increases rapidly ($\eta$ elongation) and the $\phi$ width actually decreases significantly. Those centrality trends are more remarkable when contrasted with expectations of jet quenching in a dense medium. Observed centrality trends are compared to {\sc hijing} predictions and to the expected trends for semihard parton scattering and fragmentation in a thermalized opaque medium. We are unable to reconcile a semihard parton scattering and fragmentation origin for the observed correlation structure and centrality trends with heavy ion collision scenarios which invoke rapid parton thermalization. On the other hand, if the collision system is effectively opaque to few-GeV partons the observations reported here would be inconsistent with a minijet picture.
FIG. 3. Fit parameters for $\left(\eta_{\Delta}, \phi_{\Delta}\right)$ correlation data from Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{N N}}=62$ (open symbols) and 200 GeV (solid symbols) versus centrality measure $\nu$ computed at fixed energy $(200 \mathrm{GeV})$. The SS $2 \mathrm{D}$ Gaussian amplitudes, $\eta_{\Delta}$ widths, and $\phi_{\Delta}$ widths are shown in the left, center, and right panels, respectively of the top row. The bottom row shows from left to right the amplitudes for the dipole, quadrupole, and SS peak width aspect ratio $\sigma_{\eta_{\Delta}} / \sigma_{\phi_{\Delta}} .$ Fitting errors are indicated by error bars where larger than the symbols. Solid lines connect the points for clarity. The dotted and dashed curves indicate Glauber linear superposition estimates for 62 - and 200 -GeV peak amplitudes respectively, as discussed in the text. The quadrupole data are consistent with Ref. [60]. The hatched regions indicate the full range of systematic uncertainties listed in Appendix F. The vertical dark bands indicate estimated $v$ equivalents for $N-N$ collisions and $b=0$ Au-Au collisions.
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