No Arabic abstract
We present STAR results on the elliptic flow v_2 of charged hadrons, strange and multi-strange particles from sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. The detailed study of the centrality dependence of v_2 over a broad transverse momentum range is presented. Comparison of different analysis methods are made in order to estimate systematic uncertainties. In order to discuss the non-flow effect, we have performed the first analysis of v_2 with the Lee-Yang Zero method for K_s^0 and Lambda. In the relatively low p_T region, p_T <= 2 GeV/c, a scaling with m_T - m is observed for identified hadrons in each centrality bin studied. However, we do not observe v_2(p_T) scaled by the participant eccentricity to be independent of centrality. At higher p_T, 2 GeV/c <= p_T <= 6 GeV/c, v_2 scales with quark number for all hadrons studied. For the multi-strange hadron Omega, which does not suffer appreciable hadronic interactions, the values of v_2 are consistent with both m_T -m scaling at low p_T and number-of-quark scaling at intermediate p_T. As a function of collision centrality, an increase of p_T-integrated v_2 scaled by the participant eccentricity has been observed, indicating a stronger collective flow in more central Au+Au collisions.
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 recent results of the mid-rapidity elliptic flow ($v_2$) for multi-strange hadrons and the $phi$ meson as a function of centrality in Au + Au collisions at the center of mass energy $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. The transverse momentum dependence of $phi$ and $Omega$ $v_2$ is similar to that of pion and proton, indicating that the heavier strange ($s$) quark flows as strongly as the lighter up ($u$) and down ($d$) quarks. These observations constitute a clear piece of evidence for the development of partonic collectivity in heavy-ion collisions at the top RHIC energy. In addition, the mass ordering of $v_2$ breaks between the $phi$ and proton at low transverse momenta in the 0-30% centrality bin, possibly due to the effect of late hadronic interactions on the proton $v_2$.
We present transverse momentum distributions of charged hadrons produced in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. The evolution of the spectra for transverse momenta p_T from 0.25 to 5GeV/c is studied as a function of collision centrality over a range from 65 to 344 participating nucleons. We find a significant change of the spectral shape between proton-antiproton and peripheral Au+Au collisions. Comparing peripheral to central Au+Au collisions, we find that the yields at the highest p_T exhibit approximate scaling with the number of participating nucleons, rather than scaling with the number of binary collisions.
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.
One of the most striking results is the large elliptic flow ($v_2$) at RHIC. Detailed mass and transverse momentum dependence of elliptic flow are well described by ideal hydrodynamic calculations for $p_{mathrm{T}} < $ 1 GeV/c, and by parton coalescence/recombination picture for $p_{mathrm{T}} = 2 - 6$ GeV/c. The systematic error on $v_2$ is dominated by so-called non-flow effects, which is the correlation not originated from reaction plane. It is crucial to understand and reduce the systematic error from non-flow effects in order to understand the underlying collision dynamics. In this paper, we present the centrality dependence of $v_2$ with respect to the first harmonic event plane at ZDC-SMD ($v_2${ZDC-SMD}) in Au + Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. Large rapidity gap ($|Deltaeta| > 6$) between midrapidity and the ZDC could enable us to minimize possible non-flow contributions. We compare the results of $v_2${ZDC-SMD} with $v_2${BBC}, which is measured by event plane determined at $|eta| = 3.1 - 3.9$. Possible non-flow contributions in those results will be discussed.