Measurements of the midrapidity transverse energy distribution, $dEt/deta$, are presented for $p$$+$$p$, $d$$+$Au, and Au$+$Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV and additionally for Au$+$Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=62.4$ and 130 GeV. The
$dEt/deta$ distributions are first compared with the number of nucleon participants $N_{rm part}$, number of binary collisions $N_{rm coll}$, and number of constituent-quark participants $N_{qp}$ calculated from a Glauber model based on the nuclear geometry. For Au$+$Au, $mean{dEt/deta}/N_{rm part}$ increases with $N_{rm part}$, while $mean{dEt/deta}/N_{qp}$ is approximately constant for all three energies. This indicates that the two component ansatz, $dE_{T}/deta propto (1-x) N_{rm part}/2 + x N_{rm coll}$, which has been used to represent $E_T$ distributions, is simply a proxy for $N_{qp}$, and that the $N_{rm coll}$ term does not represent a hard-scattering component in $E_T$ distributions. The $dE_{T}/deta$ distributions of Au$+$Au and $d$$+$Au are then calculated from the measured $p$$+$$p$ $E_T$ distribution using two models that both reproduce the Au$+$Au data. However, while the number-of-constituent-quark-participant model agrees well with the $d$$+$Au data, the additive-quark model does not.
We present transverse momentum (p_T) spectra of charged hadrons measured in deuteron-gold and nucleon-gold collisions at sqrts = 200 GeV for four centrality classes. Nucleon-gold collisions were selected by tagging events in which a spectator nucleon
was observed in one of two forward rapidity detectors. The spectra and yields were investigated as a function of the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, u, suffered by deuteron nucleons. A comparison of charged particle yields to those in p+p collisions show that the yield per nucleon-nucleon collision saturates with u for high momentum particles. We also present the charged hadron to neutral pion ratios as a function of p_T.
Longitudinal density correlations of produced matter in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV have been measured from the inclusive charged particle distributions as a function of pseudorapidity window sizes. The extracted alpha xi parameter, relate
d to the susceptibility of the density fluctuations in the long wavelength limit, exhibits a non-monotonic behavior as a function of the number of participant nucleons, N_part. A local maximum is seen at N_part ~ 90, with corresponding energy density based on the Bjorken picture of epsilon_Bj tau ~ 2.4 GeV/(fm^2 c) with a transverse area size of 60 fm^2. This behavior may suggest a critical phase boundary based on the Ginzburg-Landau framework.
