A comprehensive survey of event-by-event fluctuations of charged hadron multiplicity in relativistic heavy ions is presented. The survey covers Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 62.4 and 200 GeV, and Cu+Cu collisions sqrt(s_NN) = 22.5, 62.4, and 200 GeV. Fluctuations are measured as a function of collision centrality, transverse momentum range, and charge sign. After correcting for non-dynamical fluctuations due to fluctuations in the collision geometry within a centrality bin, the remaining dynamical fluctuations expressed as the variance normalized by the mean tend to decrease with increasing centrality. The dynamical fluctuations are consistent with or below the expectation from a superposition of participant nucleon-nucleon collisions based upon p+p data, indicating that this dataset does not exhibit evidence of critical behavior in terms of the compressibility of the system. An analysis of Negative Binomial Distribution fits to the multiplicity distributions demonstrates that the heavy ion data exhibit weak clustering properties.

We report the measurement of direct photons at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV. The direct photon signal was extracted for the transverse-momentum range of 4 GeV/c < p_T < 22 GeV/c, using a statistical method to subtract decay photons from the inclusive-photon sample. The direct-photon nuclear-modification factor R_AA was calculated as a function of p_T for different Au+Au collision centralities using the measured p+p direct-photon spectrum and compared to theoretical predictions. R_AA was found to be consistent with unity for all centralities over the entire measured p_T range. Theoretical models that account for modifications of initial-direct-photon production due to modified-parton-distribution functions in Au and the different isospin composition of the nuclei, predict a modest change of R_AA from unity and are consistent with the data. Models with compensating effects of the quark-gluon plasma on high-energy photons, such as suppression of jet-fragmentation photons and induced-photon bremsstrahlung from partons traversing the medium, are also consistent with this measurement.

Two-pion correlations in sqrt(s_NN)=130 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC have been measured over a broad range of pair transverse momentum k_T by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. The k_T dependent transverse radii are similar to results from heavy ion collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 4.1, 4.9, and 17.3 GeV, whereas the longitudinal radius increases monotonically with beam energy. The ratio of the outwards to sidewards transverse radii (R_out/R_side) is consistent with unity and independent of k_T.

PHENIX has measured the centrality dependence of charged hadron p_T spectra from central Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=130 GeV. The truncated mean p_T decreases with centrality for p_T > 2 GeV/c, indicating an apparent reduction of the contribution from hard scattering to high p_T hadron production. For central collisions the yield at high p_T is shown to be suppressed compared to binary nucleon-nucleon collision scaling of p+p data. This suppression is monotonically increasing with centrality, but most of the change occurs below 30% centrality, i.e. for collisions with less than about 140 participating nucleons. The observed p_T and centrality dependence is consistent with the particle production predicted by models including hard scattering and subsequent energy loss of the scattered partons in the dense matter created in the collisions.

We present results on the measurement of lambda and lambda^bar production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=130 GeV with the PHENIX detector at RHIC. The transverse momentum spectra were measured for minimum bias and for the 5% most central events. The lambda^bar/lambda ratios are constant as a function of p_T and the number of participants. The measured net lambda density is significantly larger than predicted by models based on hadronic strings (e.g. HIJING) but in approximate agreement with models which include the gluon junction mechanism.

The PHENIX experiment has measured open heavy-flavor production via semileptonic decay muons over the transverse momentum range 1 < pT < 6 GeV/c at forward and backward rapidity (1.4 < |y| < 2.0) in d+Au and p+p collisions at ?sNN = 200 GeV. In central d+Au collisions an enhancement (suppression) of heavy-flavor muon production is observed at backward (forward) rapidity relative to the yield in p+p collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. Modification of the gluon density distribution in the Au nucleus contributes in terms of anti-shadowing enhancement and shadowing suppression; however, the enhancement seen at backward rapidity exceeds expectations from this effect alone. These results, implying an important role for additional cold nuclear matter effects, serves as a key baseline for heavy-quark measurements in A+A collisions and in constraining the magnitude of charmonia breakup effects at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider.

Two particle azimuthal correlation functions are presented for charged hadrons produced in Au + Au collisions at RHIC sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV. The measurements permit determination of elliptic flow without event-by-event estimation of the reaction plane. The extracted elliptic flow values v_2 show significant sensitivity to both the collision centrality and the transverse momenta of emitted hadrons, suggesting rapid thermalization and relatively strong velocity fields. When scaled by the eccentricity of the collision zone, epsilon, the scaled elliptic flow shows little or no dependence on centrality for charged hadrons with relatively low p_T. A breakdown of this epsilon scaling is observed for charged hadrons with p_T > 1.0 GeV/c for the most central collisions.

Transverse momentum spectra of electrons from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV have been measured by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. The spectra show an excess above the background from photon conversions and light hadron decays. The electron signal is consistent with that expected from semi-leptonic decays of charm. The yield of the electron signal dN_e/dy for p_T > 0.8 GeV/c is 0.025 +/- 0.004 (stat.) +/- 0.010 (sys.) in central collisions, and the corresponding charm cross section is 380 +/- 60 (stat.) +/- 200 (sys.) micro barns per binary nucleon-nucleon collision.

Differential measurements of the elliptic (v_2) and hexadecapole (v_4) Fourier flow coefficients are reported for charged hadrons as a function of transverse momentum (p_T) and collision centrality or the number of participant nucleons (N_part) for Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The v_{2,4} measurements at pseudorapidity |\eta|<=0.35 obtained with four separate reaction plane detectors positioned in the range 1.0<|\eta|<3.9 show good agreement, indicating the absence of significant \eta-dependent nonflow perturbations. Sizable values for v_4(p_T) are observed with a ratio v_4(p_T,N_part)/v_2^2(p_T,N_part)~0.8 for 50<N_part<200, which is compatible with the combined effects of a finite viscosity and initial eccentricity fluctuations. For N_part>200 this ratio increases up to 1.7 in the most central collisions.

We present a systematic study of charged pion and kaon interferometry in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=200 GeV. The kaon mean source radii are found to be larger than pion radii in the outward and longitudinal directions for the same transverse mass; this difference increases for more central collisions. The azimuthal-angle dependence of the radii was measured with respect to the second-order event plane and similar oscillations of the source radii were found for pions and kaons. Hydrodynamic models qualitatively describe the similar oscillations of the mean source radii for pions and kaons, but they do not fully describe the transverse-mass dependence of the oscillations.