Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 4783–4786 (2001)Flow at the SPS and RHIC as a Quark-Gluon Plasma SignatureReceived 20 November 2000; published in the issue dated 21 May 2001 Radial and elliptic flow in noncentral heavy-ion collisions can constrain the effective equation of state (EOS) of the excited nuclear matter. To this end, a model combining relativistic hydrodynamics and a hadronic transport code [Sorge, Phys. Rev. C 52, 3291 (1995)] is developed. For an EOS with a first-order phase transition, the model reproduces both the radial and elliptic flow data at the SPS. With the EOS fixed from SPS data, we quantify predictions at RHIC where the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) pressure is expected to drive additional radial and elliptic flows. Currently, the strong elliptic flow observed in the first RHIC measurements does not conclusively signal this nascent QGP pressure. © 2001 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.4783
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.4783
PACS:
25.75.Ld, 12.38.Mh
|
|
About | Terms and Conditions | Subscriptions | Search | Help
Use of the American Physical Society websites and journals implies that the user has read and agrees to our Terms and Conditions and any applicable Subscription Agreement. Physical Review®, Physical Review Letters®, Reviews of Modern Physics®, and Physical Review Special Topics® are trademarks of the American Physical Society.