We report first results on elliptic flow of identified particles at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130$ GeV using the STAR TPC at RHIC. The elliptic flow as a function of transverse momentum and centrality differs significantly for particles of different masses. This dependence can be accounted for in hydrodynamic models, indicating that the system created shows a behavior consistent with collective hydrodynamical flow. The fit to the data with a simple model gives information on the temperature and flow velocities at freeze-out.
Differential elliptic flow of pions for different centrality bins. The systematic uncertainty is smallest for the centrality region with the best reaction plane resolution and is estimated to be 20% for the most central bin, 8% for the mid-central bin, and 22% for the most peripheral bin.
Differential elliptic flow of protons + antiprotons for different centrality bins. The systematic uncertainty is smallest for the centrality region with the best reaction plane resolution and is estimated to be 20% for the most central bin, 8% for the mid-central bin, and 22% for the most peripheral bin.
We present a systematic analysis of two-pion interferometry in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV using the STAR detector at RHIC. We extract the HBT radii and study their multiplicity, transverse momentum, and azimuthal angle dependence. The Gaussianess of the correlation function is studied. Estimates of the geometrical and dynamical structure of the freeze-out source are extracted by fits with blast wave parameterizations. The expansion of the source and its relation with the initial energy density distribution is studied.
Extracted freeze-out source radius extracted from a blast wave fit; source radius Rgeom from fits to Rside; and 2*Rside for the lowest k_T bin as a function of the number of participants.
Balance functions have been measured for charged particle pairs, identified charged pion pairs, and identified charged kaon pairs in Au+Au, d+Au, and p+p collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider using the STAR detector. These balance functions are presented in terms of relative pseudorapidity, $\Delta \eta$, relative rapidity, $\Delta y$, relative azimuthal angle, $\Delta \phi$, and invariant relative momentum, $q_{\rm inv}$. In addition, balance functions are shown in terms of the three components of $q_{\rm inv}$: $q_{\rm long}$, $q_{\rm out}$, and $q_{\rm side}$. For charged particle pairs, the width of the balance function in terms of $\Delta \eta$ scales smoothly with the number of participating nucleons, while HIJING and UrQMD model calculations show no dependence on centrality or system size. For charged particle and charged pion pairs, the balance functions widths in terms of $\Delta \eta$ and $\Delta y$ are narrower in central Au+Au collisions than in peripheral collisions. The width for central collisions is consistent with thermal blast-wave models where the balancing charges are highly correlated in coordinate space at breakup. This strong correlation might be explained either by delayed hadronization or by limited diffusion during the reaction. Furthermore, the narrowing trend is consistent with the lower kinetic temperatures inherent to more central collisions. In contrast, the width of the balance function for charged kaon pairs in terms of $\Delta y$ shows little centrality dependence, which may signal a different production mechanism for kaons. The widths of the balance functions for charged pions and kaons in terms of $q_{\rm inv}$ narrow in central collisions compared to peripheral collisions, which may be driven by the change in the kinetic temperature.
(Color online) The widths for the balance functions for pions in terms of $q_{long}$, $q_{out}$, and $q_{side}$ compared with UrQMD calculations.
Three-particle azimuthal correlation measurements with a high transverse momentum trigger particle are reported for pp, d+Au, and Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. The acoplanarities in pp and d+Au indicate initial state kT broadening. Larger acoplanarity is observed in Au+Au collisions. The central Au+Au data show an additional effect signaling conical emission of correlated charged hadrons.
Projections of away-side three-particle correlations along the diagonal $\Sigma$ within 0 < $\Delta$ < 0.35 (squares) and along the off-diagonal $\Delta$ within |$\Sigma$| < 0.35 (points) in (a) d+Au and (b) 12% central Au+Au collisions. The shaded areas indicate systematic uncertainties on the off-diagonal projections. The histogram in (a) is the near-side off-diagonal projection. The histogram in (b) is the away-side off-diagonal projection of our result with a = b = 1. NOTE: For points with invisible error bars, the point size was considered as an absolute upper limit for the uncertainty.
We study the beam-energy and system-size dependence of \phi meson production (using the hadronic decay mode \phi -- K+K-) by comparing the new results from Cu+Cu collisions and previously reported Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 and 200 GeV measured in the STAR experiment at RHIC. Data presented are from mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) for 0.4 < pT < 5 GeV/c. At a given beam energy, the transverse momentum distributions for \phi mesons are observed to be similar in yield and shape for Cu+Cu and Au+Au colliding systems with similar average numbers of participating nucleons. The \phi meson yields in nucleus-nucleus collisions, normalised by the average number of participating nucleons, are found to be enhanced relative to those from p+p collisions with a different trend compared to strange baryons. The enhancement for \phi mesons is observed to be higher at \sqrt{s_NN} = 200 GeV compared to 62.4 GeV. These observations for the produced \phi(s\bar{s}) mesons clearly suggest that, at these collision energies, the source of enhancement of strange hadrons is related to the formation of a dense partonic medium in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions and cannot be alone due to canonical suppression of their production in smaller systems.
Upper panel. The ratio of the yields of $K^{−}$, $\phi$, $\bar{\Lambda}$ and $\Xi+\bar{\Xi}$ normalized to $N_{\scriptsize{\mbox{part}}}$ in nucleus-nucleus collisions to corresponding yields in inelastic $p+p$ collisions as a function of $N_{\scriptsize{\mbox{part}}}$ at 200 GeV. Lower panel. Same as above for $\phi$ mesons in $Cu+Cu$ collisions at 200 and 62.4 GeV. The $p+p$ collision data at 200 GeV are from STAR [5] and at 62.4 GeV from ISR [29]. The error bars shown represent the statistical and systematic errors added in quadrature.
We present the multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of photons produced in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 and 200 GeV. The photons are measured in the region -3.7 < \eta < -2.3 using the photon multiplicity detector in the STAR experiment at RHIC. The number of photons produced per average number of participating nucleon pairs increases with the beam energy and is independent of the collision centrality. For collisions with similar average numbers of participating nucleons the photon multiplicities are observed to be similar for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at a given beam energy. The ratios of the number of charged particles to photons in the measured pseudorapidity range are found to be 1.4 +/- 0.1 and 1.2 +/- 0.1 for \sqrt{s_NN} = 62.4 GeV and 200 GeV, respectively. The energy dependence of this ratio could reflect varying contributions from baryons to charged particles, while mesons are the dominant contributors to photon production in the given kinematic region. The photon pseudorapidity distributions normalized by average number of participating nucleon pairs, when plotted as a function of \eta - ybeam, are found to follow a longitudinal scaling independent of centrality and colliding ion species at both beam energies.
Fig. 3. (Color online.) Photon pseudorapidity distributions for $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ and $\mathrm{Cu}+\mathrm{Cu}$ at $\sqrt{\mathrm{s}_{\mathrm{NN}}}=62.4$ and $200\mathrm{GeV}$. The results for several centrality classes are shown. The solid curves are results of HIJING simulations for central $(0-5 \%$ for $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ and $0-10 \%$ for $\mathrm{Cu}+\mathrm{Cu})$ and $30-40 \%$ mid-central collisions. The errors shown are systematic, statistical errors are negligible in comparison. NOTE: For points with invisible error bars, the point size was considered as an absolute upper limit for the uncertainty.
We report the first measurement of inclusive antiproton production at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at 130 GeV by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The antiproton transverse mass distributions in the measured transverse momentum range of 0.25 < pT < 0.95 GeV/c are found to fall less steeply for more central collisions. The extrapolated antiproton rapidity density is found to scale approximately with the negative hadron multiplicity density.
Antiproton fit parameters and yields. Systematic errors are 10%.
We determine rapidity asymmetry in the production of charged pions, protons and anti-protons for large transverse momentum (pT) for d+Au collisions at \sqrt s_NN = 200 GeV. The identified hadrons are measured in the rapidity regions |y| < 0.5 and 0.5 < |y| < 1.0 for the pT range 2.5 < pT < 10 GeV/c. We observe significant rapidity asymmetry for charged pion and proton+anti-proton production in both rapidity regions. The asymmetry is larger for 0.5 < |y| < 1.0 than for |y|< 0.5 and is almost independent of particle type. The measurements are compared to various model predictions employing multiple scattering, energy loss, nuclear shadowing, saturation effects, and recombination, and also to a phenomenological parton model. We find that asymmetries are sensitive to model parameters and show model-preference. The rapidity dependence of \pi^{-}/\pi^{+} and \bar{p}/p ratios in peripheral d+Au and forward neutron-tagged events are used to study the contributions of valence quarks and gluons to particle production at high pT. The results are compared to calculations based on NLO pQCD and other measurements of quark fragmentation functions.
Centrality dependence of high transverse-momentum rapidity asymmetry factor ($Y_{\scriptsize{\mbox{Asym}}}$) for $\pi^{+}+\pi^{-}$ and $p+\bar{p}$ for $|y| < 0.5$ (left panels) and $0.5 < |y| < 1.0$ (right panels) for $d+Au$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV.
We report charged-particle pair correlation analyses in the space of Delta -phi (azimuth) and Delta -eta (pseudo-rapidity), for central Au + Au collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV in the STAR detector. The analysis involves unlike-sign charge pairs and like-sign charge pairs, which are transformed into charge-dependent (CD) signals and charge-independent (CI) signals. We present detailed parameterizations of the data. A model featuring dense gluonic hot spots as first proposed by van Hove predicts that the observables under investigation would have sensitivity to such a substructure should it occur, and the model also motivates selection of transverse momenta in the range 0.8 < p_t < 2.0$ GeV/c. Both CD and CI correlations of high statistical significance are observed and possible interpretations are discussed.
FIG. 3: a) left side: Folded correlation data for unlike-sign charge pairs on $\Delta\phi$ and $\Delta\eta$ based on demonstrated symmetries in the data. This increases the statistics in a typical bin by a factor of four. Henceforth we will be dealing with folded data only. b) right side: Similar folded data for like-sign charge pairs.
We present STAR measurements of charged hadron production as a function of centrality in Au + Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV. The measurements cover a phase space region of 0.2 < p_T < 6.0 GeV/c in transverse momentum and -1 < eta < 1 in pseudorapidity. Inclusive transverse momentum distributions of charged hadrons in the pseudorapidity region 0.5 < |eta| < 1 are reported and compared to our previously published results for |eta| < 0.5. No significant difference is seen for inclusive p_T distributions of charged hadrons in these two pseudorapidity bins. We measured dN/deta distributions and truncated mean p_T in a region of p_T > p_T^cut, and studied the results in the framework of participant and binary scaling. No clear evidence is observed for participant scaling of charged hadron yield in the measured p_T region. The relative importance of hard scattering process is investigated through binary scaling fraction of particle production.
Ratio of the number of participants Npart or the number of binary collisions Nbin determined from different models to that from Monte Carlo Glauber calculation.
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