Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 402 - 407 (2001)

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

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K. H. Ackermann et al. (STAR Collaboration)
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Received 13 September 2000

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 sqrt[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/abstract/PRL/v86/p402
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.402
PACS: 25.75.Ld

* Deceased.
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