Heavy quarkonia are observed to be suppressed in relativistic heavy ion collisions relative to their production in p+p collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. In order to determine if this suppression is related to color screening of these states in the produced medium, one needs to account for other nuclear modifications including those in cold nuclear matter. In this paper, we present new measurements from the PHENIX 2007 data set of J/psi yields at forward rapidity (1.2<|y|<2.2) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The data confirm the earlier finding that the suppression of J/psi at forward rapidity is stronger than at midrapidity, while also extending the measurement to finer bins in collision centrality and higher transverse momentum (pT). We compare the experimental data to the most recent theoretical calculations that incorporate a variety of physics mechanisms including gluon saturation, gluon shadowing, initial-state parton energy loss, cold nuclear matter breakup, color screening, and charm recombination. We find J/psi suppression beyond cold-nuclear-matter effects. However, the current level of disagreement between models and d+Au data precludes using these models to quantify the hot-nuclear-matter suppression.

Flow coefficients v_n for n = 2, 3, 4, characterizing the anisotropic collective flow in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV, are measured relative to event planes Ψ_n determined at large rapidity. We report v_n as a function of transverse momentum and collision centrality, and study the correlations among the event planes of different order n. The v_n are well described by hydrodynamic models which employ a Glauber Monte Carlo initial state geometry with fluctuations, providing additional constraining power on the interplay between initial conditions and the effects of viscosity as the system evolves. This new constraint improves precision of the extracted viscosity to entropy density ratio eta/s.

The PHENIX collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) reports measurements of azimuthal dihadron correlations near midrapidity in $d$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=200 GeV. These measurements complement recent analyses by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) involving central $p$$+$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=5.02 TeV, which have indicated strong anisotropic long-range correlations in angular distributions of hadron pairs. The origin of these anisotropies is currently unknown. Various competing explanations include parton saturation and hydrodynamic flow. We observe qualitatively similar, but larger, anisotropies in $d$$+$Au collisions compared to those seen in $p$$+$Pb collisions at the LHC. The larger extracted $v_2$ values in $d$$+$Au collisions at RHIC are consistent with expectations from hydrodynamic calculations owing to the larger expected initial-state eccentricity compared with that from $p$$+$Pb collisions. When both are divided by an estimate of the initial-state eccentricity the scaled anisotropies follow a common trend with multiplicity that may extend to heavy ion data at RHIC and the LHC, where the anisotropies are widely thought to arise from hydrodynamic flow.

We have measured direct photons for $p_T<5~$GeV/$c$ in minimum bias and 0\%--40\% most central events at midrapidity for Cu$+$Cu collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. The $e^{+}e^{-}$ contribution from quasi-real direct virtual photons has been determined as an excess over the known hadronic contributions in the $e^{+}e^{-}$ mass distribution. A clear enhancement of photons over the binary scaled $p$$+$$p$ fit is observed for $p_T<4$ GeV/$c$ in Cu$+$Cu data. The $p_T$ spectra are consistent with the Au$+$Au data covering a similar number of participants. The inverse slopes of the exponential fits to the excess after subtraction of the $p$$+$$p$ baseline are 285$\pm$53(stat)$\pm$57(syst)~MeV/$c$ and 333$\pm$72(stat)$\pm$45(syst)~MeV/$c$ for minimum bias and 0\%--40\% most central events, respectively. The rapidity density, $dN/dy$, of photons demonstrates the same power law as a function of $dN_{\rm ch}/d\eta$ observed in Au$+$Au at the same collision energy.

New measurements by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC for eta production at midrapidity as a function of transverse momentum (p_T) and collision centrality in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au and p+p collisions are presented. They indicate nuclear modification factors (R_AA) that are similar both in magnitude and trend to those found in earlier pi^0 measurements. Linear fits to R_AA in the 5--20 GeV/c p_T region show that the slope is consistent with zero within two standard deviations at all centralities although a slow rise cannot be excluded. Having different statistical and systematic uncertainties the pi^0 and eta measurements are complementary at high p_T/ thus, along with the extended p_T range of these data they can provide additional constraints for theoretical modeling and the extraction of transport properties.

Fast parton probes produced by hard scattering and embedded within collisions of large nuclei have shown that partons suffer large energy loss and that the produced medium may respond collectively to the lost energy. We present measurements of neutral pion trigger particles at transverse momenta p^t_T = 4-12 GeV/c and associated charged hadrons (p^a_T = 0.5-7 GeV/c) as a function of relative azimuthal angle Delta Phi at midrapidity in Au+Au and p+p collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. These data lead to two major observations. First, the relative angular distribution of low momentum hadrons, whose shape modification has been interpreted as a medium response to parton energy loss, is found to be modified only for p^t_T &lt; 7 GeV/c. At higher p^t_T, the data are consistent with unmodified or very weakly modified shapes, even for the lowest measured p^a_T. This observation presents a quantitative challenge to medium response scenarios. Second, the associated yield of hadrons opposite to the trigger particle in Au+Au relative to that in p+p (I_AA) is found to be suppressed at large momentum (IAA ~ 0.35-0.5), but less than the single particle nuclear modification factor (R_AA ~0.2).

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 report on charmonium measurements [J/psi(1S), psi'(2S), and chi_c(1P)] in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. We find that the fraction of J/psi coming from the feed-down decay of psi' and chi_c in the midrapidity region ($|\eta|<0.35$) is 9.6+/-2.4% and 32+/-9%, respectively. We also report new, higher statistics p_T and rapidity dependencies of the J/psi yield via dielectron decay in the same midrapidity range and at forward rapidity (1.2<|eta|<2.4) via dimuon decay. These results are compared with measurements from other experiments and discussed in the context of current charmonium production models.

Transverse momentum distributions and yields for $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $p$ and $\bar{p}$ in $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 and 62.4 GeV at midrapidity are measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). These data provide important baseline spectra for comparisons with identified particle spectra in heavy ion collisions at RHIC. We present the inverse slope parameter $T_{\rm inv}$, mean transverse momentum $<p_T>$ and yield per unit rapidity $dN/dy$ at each energy, and compare them to other measurements at different $\sqrt{s}$ in $p+p$ and $p+\bar{p}$ collisions. We also present the scaling properties such as $m_T$ scaling, $x_T$ scaling on the $p_T$ spectra between different energies. To discuss the mechanism of the particle production in $p+p$ collisions, the measured spectra are compared to next-to-leading-order or next-to-leading-logarithmic perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculations.

We present measurements of electrons and positrons from the semileptonic decays of heavy-flavor hadrons at midrapidity ($|y|<$ 0.35) in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=62.4$ GeV. The data were collected in 2010 by the PHENIX experiment that included the new hadron-blind detector. The invariant yield of electrons from heavy-flavor decays is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range $1<p_T^e<5$ GeV/$c$. The invariant yield per binary collision is slightly enhanced above the $p$$+$$p$ reference in Au$+$Au 0%--20%, 20%--40% and 40%--60% centralities at a comparable level. This may be a result of the interplay between initial-state Cronin effects, final-state flow, and energy loss for heavy-quark production at this low beam energy. The $v_2$ of electrons from heavy-flavor decays is nonzero when averaged between $1.3<p_T^e<2.5$ GeV/$c$ from $0<{\rm centrality}<40$% collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=62.4$ GeV. For 20%--40% centrality collisions, the $v_2$ at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=62.4$ GeV is smaller than that for heavy flavor decays at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. The $v_2$ of the electrons from heavy-flavor decay at the lower beam energy is also smaller than $v_2$ for pions. Both results indicate that the heavy-quarks interact with the medium formed in these collisions, but they may not be at the same level of thermalization with the medium as observed at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV.