Highly Sensitive Centrality Dependence of Elliptic Flow: A Novel Signature of the Phase Transition in QCD

Journal Article · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1999 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.2048· OSTI ID:321531

Sorge, H ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics Astronomy, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794 (United States)

Elliptic flow of the hot, dense system which has been created in nucleus-nucleus collisions develops as a response to the initial azimuthal asymmetry of the reaction region. Here it is suggested that the magnitude of this response shows a highly sensitive dependence on the centrality of collisions for which the system passes through a first-order or rapid transition between quark-gluon plasma and hadronic matter. We have studied the system Pb(158A GeV) on Pb employing a recent version of the transport theoretical approach relativistic quantum molecular dynamics and find the conjecture confirmed. The novel phase transition signature may be observable in present and forthcoming experiments at CERN-SPS and at RHIC, the BNL collider. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}

• Research Organization: New York State University Research Foundation
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-88ER40388
• OSTI ID: 321531
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 82; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
GLUONS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
LEAD
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
QUARK MATTER
QUARKS