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Issue Eur. Phys. J. C
Volume 62, Number 1, July 2009
Hot Quarks 2008
Page(s) 175 - 181
Section Regular Article - Experimental Physics
DOI 10.1140/epjc/s10052-009-1003-5
Published online 15 April 2009

Eur. Phys. J. C 62, 175-181 (2009)
DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-009-1003-5

Universal centrality and collision energy trends for v 2 measurements from 2D angular correlations

David Kettler

University of Washington, Washington, USA

dkettler@u.washington.edu

Received 1 October 2008 / Revised version 9 March 2009 / Published online 15 April 2009

Abstract

We have measured the p t -integrated quadrupole component of two-particle azimuth correlations (related to quantity v 2, denoted in this case by v 2) via two-dimensional (2D) angular autocorrelations on (η,φ) for unidentified hadrons in Au-Au collisions at 62 and 200 GeV. The 2D autocorrelation provides a method to remove non-quadrupole contributions to v 2 (conventionally termed “nonflow”) under the assumption that such processes produce significant dependence on pair-wise relative η within the detector acceptance. We hypothesize, based on empirical observations, that non-quadrupole contributions are dominated by minijets or minimum-bias jets. Using the optical Glauber eccentricity model for initial-state geometry we find simple and accurate universal energy and centrality trends for the quadrupole component. Centrality trends are determined only by the initial state (impact parameter b and center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_{\mathit}}$ ). There is no apparent dependence on evolving system dynamics (e.g., equation of state or number of secondary collisions). Our measurements of the quadrupole and non-quadrupole components have implications for the contributions to v 2. They suggest that the main source of the difference between v 2{2} and v 2{4} (or v 2) is measured properties of minijets.

Correspondence: dkettler@u.washington.edu


© Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2009


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