Related Experiment Videos
Elliptic flow at large transverse momenta from quark coalescence
Dénes Molnár1, Sergei A Voloshin
1Department of Physics, Ohio State University, 174 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|October 4, 2003
Summary
Quark coalescence during hadronization boosts elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions. This finding allows moderate initial parton densities to explain experimental data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).
Area of Science:
- High-energy nuclear physics
- Quantum chromodynamics (QCD)
Background:
- Understanding the transition from a quark-gluon plasma to hadrons is crucial.
- Previous models using covariant parton transport theory required higher initial parton densities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of quark coalescence in hadronization.
- To explain experimental data on differential elliptic flow (v(2)) at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).
Main Methods:
- Simulations incorporating hadronization via quark coalescence.
- Comparison with experimental data for Au+Au collisions at RHIC energies (130 and 200A GeV).
Main Results:
- Quark coalescence enhances hadron elliptic flow at high transverse momentum (p(perpendicular)).
- Moderate initial parton densities (dN/deta(b=0) ~ 1500-3000) successfully reproduce experimental v(2)(p(perpendicular)) data.
- Predicted saturation of v(2) is ~50% higher for baryons than mesons.
- Hadron v(2) at high p(perpendicular) decreases with increasing strangeness content, assuming weaker flow for strange quarks.
Conclusions:
- Hadronization via quark coalescence is a key mechanism for explaining elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions.
- This mechanism reconciles experimental data with more moderate initial conditions.
- The study provides insights into the interplay of quark properties and collective flow.