Collective Flow vs. Hard Processes in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

2001/11/09 by J. M. Burward-Hoy, B. V. Jacak, Burward-Hoy, J. M. +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #hep-ph #nucl-ex

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.nucl-ex/0111005

arxiv created 2001/11/09 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30

Abstract

In relativistic heavy ion collisions, the p_T distributions of hadrons reflect the transverse motion generated during the collision and therefore the collision dynamics. The moderate p_T values measured to date at √(s) ≈ 20 GeV/nucleon contain a mix of hard and soft processes. The available data from the SPS on π, K, p, and Λ are used to constrain the magnitude of collective radial expansion. In A+A collisions, the hydrodynamic distributions determined from the measured collective expansion are determined up to high p_T and are consistent with the π⁰ data. To cleanly observe hard processes, measurements at p_T ≥ 4 GeV/c will be required. Pions produced in p+W collisions clearly deviate from hydrodynamic distributions at p_T > 2 GeV/c, underscoring the differences in the physics between p+A and A+A collisions.

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