Quark Matter 2005 Conference   Quark Matter 2005 Conference


Evidence for a long-range pion emission source in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV

Dr. Paul Chung

Collaboration: PHENIX

Abstract:

A deconfined phase of nuclear matter is expected to be formed at the high energy densities created in Au+Au collisions at RHIC. The presence of a large space-time extent of particle emission is an important constraint in understanding the nature of this phase transition. The PHENIX experiment at RHIC, has recently acquired ~ 1.5 billion minimum bias Au+Au events at sqrt(s_NN)=200GeV during the year-2004. This high statistics data set allows for the extraction of 3D emission sources for various particle types. These in turn afford a window into the evolution dynamics of the high energy density nuclear matter. A recent analysis of the data using 3D Source Imaging technique has revealed a previously undetected long-range structure in the two-pion source image. The presentation will focus on this new finding and provide details on the 3-Dimensional source shapes for pions, kaons and protons with comparisons to HBT parameters for systematic variation in kT, centrality and reaction plane.


back to the Archives home          to the Parallel talks          to the Posters