B. McBreen

The new physics at RHIC. From transparency to high pt suppression

Abstract Heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies (Au + Au collisions at √S NN = 200GeV ) exhibit significant new features as compared to earlier experiments at lower energies. The reaction is characterized by a high degree of transparency of the collision partners leading to the formation of a baryon-poor central region. In this zone, particle production occurs mainly from the stretching of the color field. The initial energy density is well above the one considered necessary for the formation of the Quark Gluon Plasma, QGP. The production of charged particles of various masses is consistent with chemical and thermal equilibrium. Recently, a suppression of the high transverse momentum component of hadron spectra has been observed in central Au + Au collisions. This can be explained by the energy loss experienced by leading partons in a medium with a high density of unscreened color charges. In contrast, such high p t jets are not suppressed in d + Au collisions suggesting that the high p t suppression is not due to initial state effects in the ultrarelativistic colliding nuclei.

Results from the BRAHMS experiment at RHIC

Results from the BRAHMS Collaboration for the inaugural physics run with the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC), Au + Au collisions at √sNN = 130 GeV in the late summer of 2000, and some results of the very first data from the summer of 2001 at √sNN = 200 GeV are presented. Here the main focus is on the determination of the pseudorapidity distribution of charged particles as a function of collision centrality and on the measurement of the antiproton to proton and the K− to K+ ratios as a function of rapidity. The pseudorapidity density at midrapidity reaches dN(ch)/dη = 553 ± 36 for the most central collisions (0–5%) at √sNN = 130 GeV; the corresponding number for a higher energy is dN(ch)/dη = 632 ± 36, demonstrating an increase in multiplicity of about 14%. The measured antiproton/proton ratios peak at midrapidity around N()/N(p) = 0.64 ± 0.06 and drop to 0.41 ± 0.04 at y ≈ 2 for √sNN = 130 GeV reactions; the K− to K+ ratios are 0.90 ± 0.06 (y ≈ 0) and 0.83 ± 0.1 (y ≈ 2.5).