Azimuthal angle (Delta phi) correlations are presented for a broad range of transverse momentum (0.4 < pT < 10 GeV/c) and centrality (0-92%) selections for charged hadrons from di-jets in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. With increasing pT, the away-side Delta phi distribution evolves from a broad and relatively flat shape to a concave shape, then to a convex shape. Comparisons to p+p data suggest that the away-side distribution can be divided into a partially suppressed head region centered at Delta phi ~ \pi, and an enhanced shoulder region centered at Delta phi ~ \pi \pm 1:1. The pT spectrum for the associated hadrons in the head region softens toward central collisions. The spectral slope for the shoulder region is independent of centrality and trigger pT . The properties of the near-side distributions are also modified relative to those in p + p collisions, reflected by the broadening of the jet shape in Delta phi and Delta eta, and an enhancement of the per-trigger yield. However, these modifications seem to be limited to pT < 4 GeV/c, above which both the dihadron pair shape and per-trigger yield become similar to p + p collisions. These observations suggest that both the away- and near-side distributions contain a jet fragmentation component which dominates for pT \ge 5GeV and a medium-induced component which is important for pT \le 4 GeV/c. We also quantify the role of jets at intermediate and low pT through the yield of jet-induced pairs in comparison to binary scaled p + p pair yield. The yield of jet-induced pairs is suppressed at high pair proxy energy (sum of the pT magnitudes of the two hadrons) and is enhanced at low pair proxy energy. The former is consistent with jet quenching/ the latter is consistent with the enhancement of soft hadron pairs due to transport of lost energy to lower pT.

The properties of jets produced in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV are measured using the method of two particle correlations. The trigger particle is a leading particle from a large transverse momentum jet while the associated particle comes from either the same jet or the away-side jet. Analysis of the angular width of the near-side peak in the correlation function determines the jet fragmentation transverse momentum j_T . The extracted value, sqrt(<j_T^2>)= 585 +/- 6(stat) +/- 15(sys) MeV/c, is constant with respect to the trigger particle transverse momentum, and comparable to the previous lower sqrt(s) measurements. The width of the away-side peak is shown to be a convolution of j_T with the fragmentation variable, z, and the partonic transverse momentum, k_T . The <z> is determined through a combined analysis of the measured pi^0 inclusive and associated spectra using jet fragmentation functions measured in e^+e^-. collisions. The final extracted values of k_T are then determined to also be independent of the trigger particle transverse momentum, over the range measured, with value of sqrt(<k_T^2>) = 2.68 +/- 0.07(stat) +/- 0.34(sys) GeV/c.

Yields for J/psi production in Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt (s_NN)= 200 GeV have been measured by the PHENIX experiment over the rapidity range |y| < 2.2 at transverse momenta from 0 to beyond 5 GeV/c. The invariant yield is obtained as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum and collision centrality, and compared with results in p+p and Au+Au collisions at the same energy. The Cu+Cu data provide greatly improved precision over existing Au+Au data for J/psi production in collisions with small to intermediate numbers of participants, providing a key constraint that is needed for disentangling cold and hot nuclear matter effects.

High-energy proton- and deuteron-nucleus collisions provide an excellent tool for studying a wide array of physics effects, including modifications of parton distribution functions in nuclei, gluon saturation, and color neutralization and hadronization in a nuclear environment, among others. All of these effects are expected to have a significant dependence on the size of the nuclear target and the impact parameter of the collision, also known as the collision centrality. In this article, we detail a method for determining centrality classes in p(d)+A collisions via cuts on the multiplicity at backward rapidity (i.e., the nucleus-going direction) and for determining systematic uncertainties in this procedure. For d+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV we find that the connection to geometry is confirmed by measuring the fraction of events in which a neutron from the deuteron does not interact with the nucleus. As an application, we consider the nuclear modification factors R_{p(d)+A}, for which there is a potential bias in the measured centrality dependent yields due to auto-correlations between the process of interest and the backward rapidity multiplicity. We determine the bias correction factor within this framework. This method is further tested using the HIJING Monte Carlo generator. We find that for d+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV, these bias corrections are small and vary by less than 5% (10%) up to p_T = 10 (20) GeV. In contrast, for p+Pb collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 5.02 TeV we find these bias factors are an order of magnitude larger and strongly p_T dependent, likely due to the larger effect of multi-parton interactions.

New measurements are presented for charged hadron azimuthal correlations at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 62.4 and 200 GeV. They are compared to earlier measurements obtained at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV and in Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 17.2 GeV. Sizeable anisotropies are observed with centrality and transverse momentum (p_T) dependence characteristic of elliptic flow (v_2). For a broad range of centralities, the observed magnitudes and trends of the differential anisotropy, v_2(p_T), change very little over the collision energy range sqrt(s_NN) = 62-200 GeV, indicating saturation of the excitation function for v_2 at these energies. Such a saturation may be indicative of the dominance of a very soft equation of state for sqrt(s_NN) = 62-200 GeV.

We present measurements of $e^+e^-$ production at midrapidity in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV. The invariant yield is studied within the PHENIX detector acceptance over a wide range of mass ($m_{ee} <$ 5 GeV/$c^2$) and pair transverse momentum ($p_T$ $<$ 5 GeV/$c$), for minimum bias and for five centrality classes. The \ee yield is compared to the expectations from known sources. In the low-mass region ($m_{ee}=0.30$--0.76 GeV/$c^2$) there is an enhancement that increases with centrality and is distributed over the entire pair \pt range measured. It is significantly smaller than previously reported by the PHENIX experiment and amounts to $2.3\pm0.4({\rm stat})\pm0.4({\rm syst})\pm0.2^{\rm model}$ or to $1.7\pm0.3({\rm stat})\pm0.3({\rm syst})\pm0.2^{\rm model}$ for minimum bias collisions when the open-heavy-flavor contribution is calculated with {\sc pythia} or {\sc mc@nlo}, respectively. The inclusive mass and $p_T$ distributions as well as the centrality dependence are well reproduced by model calculations where the enhancement mainly originates from the melting of the $\rho$ meson resonance as the system approaches chiral symmetry restoration. In the intermediate-mass region ($m_{ee}$ = 1.2--2.8 GeV/$c^2$), the data hint at a significant contribution in addition to the yield from the semileptonic decays of heavy-flavor mesons.

Direct photons have been measured in sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV d+Au collisions at midrapidity. A wide p_T range is covered by measurements of nearly-real virtual photons (1<p_T<6 GeV/c) and real photons (5<p_T<16 GeV/c). The invariant yield of the direct photons in d+Au collisions over the scaled p+p cross section is consistent with unity. Theoretical calculations assuming standard cold nuclear matter effects describe the data well for the entire p_T range. This indicates that the large enhancement of direct photons observed in Au+Au collisions for 1.0<p_T<2.5 GeV/c is due to a source other than the initial-state nuclear effects.

We present measured J/psi production rates in d+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV over a broad range of transverse momentum (p_T=0-14 GeV/c) and rapidity (-2.2<y<2.2). We construct the nuclear-modification factor R_dAu for these kinematics and as a function of collision centrality (related to impact parameter for the R_dAu collision). We find that the modification is largest for collisions with small impact parameters, and observe a suppression (R_dAu<1) for p_T<4 GeV/c at positive rapidities. At negative rapidity we observe a suppression for p_T<2 GeV/c then an enhancement (R_dAu>1) for p_T>2 GeV/c. The observed enhancement at negative rapidity has implications for the observed modification in heavy-ion collisions at high p_T.

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 on two-particle azimuthal angle correlations between charged hadrons at forward/backward (deuteron/gold going direction) rapidity and charged hadrons at mid-rapidity in deuteron-gold (d+Au) and proton-proton (p+p) collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. Jet structures are observed in the correlations which we quantify in terms of the conditional yield and angular width of away side partners. The kinematic region studied here samples partons in the gold nucleus carrying nucleon momentum fraction x~0.1 to x~0.01. Within this range, we find no x dependence of the jet structure in d+Au collisions.

J/psi production has been measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)= 200 GeV over a wide rapidity and transverse momentum range by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Distributions of the rapidity and transverse momentum, along with measurements of the mean transverse momentum and total production cross section are presented and compared to available theoretical calculations. The total J/psi cross section is 3.99 +/- 0.61(stat) +/- 0.58(sys) +/- 0.40(abs) micro barns. The mean transverse momentum is 1.80 +/- 0.23(stat) +/- 0.16(sys) GeV/c.

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.

The PHENIX experiment has measured $\phi$ meson production in $d$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV using the dimuon and dielectron decay channels. The $\phi$ meson is measured in the forward (backward) $d$-going (Au-going) direction, $1.2<y<2.2$ ($-2.2<y<-1.2$) in the transverse-momentum ($p_T$) range from 1--7 GeV/$c$, and at midrapidity $|y|<0.35$ in the $p_T$ range below 7 GeV/$c$. The $\phi$ meson invariant yields and nuclear-modification factors as a function of $p_T$, rapidity, and centrality are reported. An enhancement of $\phi$ meson production is observed in the Au-going direction, while suppression is seen in the $d$-going direction, and no modification is observed at midrapidity relative to the yield in $p$$+$$p$ collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. Similar behavior was previously observed for inclusive charged hadrons and open heavy flavor indicating similar cold-nuclear-matter effects.

The invariant differential cross section for inclusive electron production in $p + p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$~GeV has been measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider over the transverse momentum range $0.4 \le p_T \le 5.0$~GeV/$c$ in the central rapidity region ($|\eta| \le 0.35$). The contribution to the inclusive electron spectrum from semileptonic decays of hadrons carrying heavy flavor, {\it i.e.} charm quarks or, at high $p_T$, bottom quarks, is determined via three independent methods. The resulting electron spectrum from heavy flavor decays is compared to recent leading and next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The total cross section of charm quark-antiquark pair production is determined to be $\sigma_{c\bar{c}} = 0.92 \pm 0.15 {\rm (stat.)} \pm 0.54 {\rm (sys.)}$~mb.

The PHENIX experiment presents results from the RHIC 2006 run with polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 62.4 GeV for inclusive pi^0 production at mid-rapidity. Unpolarized cross section results are measured for transverse momenta p_T = 0.5 to 7 GeV/c. Next-to-leading order perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculations are compared with the data, and while the calculations are consistent with the measurements, next-to-leading logarithmic corrections improve the agreement. Double helicity asymmetries A_LL are presented for p_T = 1 to 4 GeV/c and probe the higher range of Bjorken_x of the gluon (x_g) with better statistical precision than our previous measurements at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. These measurements are sensitive to the gluon polarization in the proton for 0.06 < x_g < 0.4.

The dependence of transverse momentum spectra of neutral pions and eta mesons with p_T <16 GeV/c and p_T < 12 GeV/c, respectively, on the centrality of the collision has been measured at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC in d+Au collisions at sqrt(s_(NN)) = 200 GeV. The measured yields are compared to those in p + p collisions at the same sqrt(s_(NN)) scaled by the number of underlying nucleon-nucleon collisions in d+Au. At all centralities the yield ratios show no suppression, in contrast to the strong suppression seen for central Au+Au collisions at RHIC. Only a weak p_T and centrality dependence can be observed.

The differential cross section for the production of direct photons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV at midrapidity was measured in the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Inclusive-direct photons were measured in the transverse-momentum range from 5.5--25 GeV/c, extending the range beyond previous measurements. Event structure was studied with an isolation criterion. Next-to-leading-order perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculations give a good description of the spectrum. When the cross section is expressed versus x_T, the PHENIX data are seen to be in agreement with measurements from other experiments at different center-of-mass energies.

The second Fourier component v_2 of the azimuthal anisotropy with respect to the reaction plane was measured for direct photons at midrapidity and transverse momentum (p_T) of 1--13 GeV/c in Au+Au collisions at sqr(s_NN)=200 GeV. Previous measurements of this quantity for hadrons with p_T < 6 GeV/c indicate that the medium behaves like a nearly perfect fluid, while for p_T > 6 GeV/c a reduced anisotropy is interpreted in terms of a path-length dependence for parton energy loss. In this measurement with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider we find that for p_T > 4 GeV/c the anisotropy for direct photons is consistent with zero, as expected if the dominant source of direct photons is initial hard scattering. However, in the p_T < 4 GeV/c region dominated by thermal photons, we find a substantial direct photon v_2 comparable to that of hadrons, whereas model calculations for thermal photons in this kinematic region significantly underpredict the observed v_2.

The invariant yields for $J/\psi$ production at forward rapidity $(1.2<|y|<2.2)$ in U$+$U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$=193 GeV have been measured as a function of collision centrality. The invariant yields and nuclear-modification factor $R_{AA}$ are presented and compared with those from Au$+$Au collisions in the same rapidity range. Additionally, the direct ratio of the invariant yields from U$+$U and Au$+$Au collisions within the same centrality class is presented, and used to investigate the role of $c\bar{c}$ coalescence. Two different parameterizations of the deformed Woods-Saxon distribution were used in Glauber calculations to determine the values of the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions in each centrality class, $N_{\rm coll}$, and these were found to give significantly different $N_{\rm coll}$ values. Results using $N_{\rm coll}$ values from both deformed Woods-Saxon distributions are presented. The measured ratios show that the $J/\psi$ suppression, relative to binary collision scaling, is similar in U$+$U and Au$+$Au for peripheral and midcentral collisions, but that $J/\psi$ show less suppression for the most central U$+$U collisions. The results are consistent with a picture in which, for central collisions, increase in the $J/\psi$ yield due to $c\bar{c}$ coalescence becomes more important than the decrease in yield due to increased energy density. For midcentral collisions, the conclusions about the balance between $c\bar{c}$ coalescence and suppression depend on which deformed Woods-Saxon distribution is used to determine $N_{\rm coll}$.

We present an improved measurement of the double helicity asymmetry for pi^0 production in polarized proton-proton scattering at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV employing the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The improvements to our previous measurement come from two main factors: Inclusion of a new data set from the 2004 RHIC run with higher beam polarizations than the earlier run and a recalibration of the beam polarization measurements, which resulted in reduced uncertainties and increased beam polarizations. The results are compared to a Next to Leading Order (NLO) perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) calculation with a range of polarized gluon distributions.

Emission source functions are extracted from correlation functions constructed from charged pions produced at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. The source parameters extracted from these functions at low k_T, give first indications of a long tail for the pion emission source. The source extension cannot be explained solely by simple kinematic considerations. The possible role of a halo of secondary pions from resonance emissions is explored.

Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of eta mesons have been measured within p_T = 2-10 GeV/c at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX experiment in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. In central Au+Au the eta yields are significantly suppressed compared to peripheral Au+Au, d+Au and p+p yields scaled by the corresponding number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. The magnitude, centrality and p_T dependence of the suppression is common, within errors, for eta and pi^0. The ratio of eta to pi^0 spectra at high p_T amounts to 0.40 < R_eta/pi^0 < 0.48 for the three systems in agreement with the world average measured in hadronic and nuclear reactions and, at large scaled momentum, in e^+e^- collisions.

The invariant differential cross section for inclusive neutral pion production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV has been measured at mid-rapidity |eta| < 0.35 over the range 1 < p_T <~ 14 GeV/c by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Predictions of next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with these measurements. The precision of our result is sufficient to differentiate between prevailing gluon-to-pion fragmentation functions.

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.

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.