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Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 402–407 (2001)

Elliptic Flow in Au+Au Collisions at sNN = 130GeV

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K. H. Ackermann et al. (STAR Collaboration)
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Received 13 September 2000; published in the issue dated 15 January 2001

Elliptic flow from nuclear collisions is a hadronic observable sensitive to the early stages of system evolution. We report first results on elliptic flow of charged particles at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at sNN = 130 GeV using the STAR Time Projection Chamber at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The elliptic flow signal, v2, averaged over transverse momentum, reaches values of about 6% for relatively peripheral collisions and decreases for the more central collisions. This can be interpreted as the observation of a higher degree of thermalization than at lower collision energies. Pseudorapidity and transverse momentum dependence of elliptic flow are also presented.

© 2001 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.402
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.402
PACS:
25.75.Ld