Spatial and momentum anisotropies at RHIC and the thermalization problem

by Ulrich Heinz (Ohio State University)

Friday 22 Jun 2001, 15:30 → 16:30 Europe/Zurich

TH Auditorium (CERN)

I discuss the spectra and elliptic flow coefficients from a hydrodynamic model for heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energy. I argue that the good agreement with the STAR data provides (i) strong evidence for very rapid thermalization in the early quark-gluon plasma stage and (ii) a serious challenge for microscopic theories which so far fail to reproduce this thermalization. Based on some ongoing work with Stephen Wong, I'll speculate about mechanisms which may improve this situation. I'll also present first (and probably still preliminary) results for HBT radii for central and non-central Au+Au collisions at RHIC from the same hydrodynamic model and discuss them in relation to the available data. This comparison leads to an unexpected and very interesting conclusion.

Organiser(s): Yiota Foka, Guy Paic and Urs Wiedemann

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