Centrality and Transverse Momentum Dependence of Elliptic Flow of Multistrange Hadrons and \u3cem\u3eϕ\u3c/em\u3e Meson in Au + Au Collisions at √\u3cem\u3e\u3csup\u3es\u3c/sup\u3e\u3csub\u3eNN\u3c/sub\u3e\u3c/em\u3e = 200 GeV

We present high precision measurements of elliptic flow near midrapidity (|y| \u3c 1.0) for multistrange hadrons and ϕ meson as a function of centrality and transverse momentum in Au + Au collisions at center of mass energy √sNN = 200  GeV. We observe that the transverse momentum dependence of ϕ and Ω υ2 is similar to that of π and p, respectively, which may indicate that the heavier strange quark flows as strongly as the lighter up and down quarks. This observation constitutes a clear piece of evidence for the development of partonic collectivity in heavy-ion collisions at the top RHIC energy. Number of constituent quark scaling is found to hold within statistical uncertainty for both 0%–30% and 30%–80% collision centrality. There is an indication of the breakdown of previously observed mass ordering between ϕ and proton υ2 at low transverse momentum in the 0%–30% centrality range, possibly indicating late hadronic interactions affecting the proton υ2

Energy Dependence of Moments of Net-Proton Multiplicity Distributions at RHIC

We report the beam energy(√8NN = 7.7-200 GeV) and collision centrality dependence of the mean (M), standard deviation (σ), skewness (S), and kurtosis (κ) of the net-proton multiplicity distributions in Au+Au collisions. The measurements are carried out by the STAR experiment at midrapidity (|y|\u3c0.5) and within the transverse momentum range 0.4\u3cρτ\u3c0.8  GeV/c in the first phase of the Beam Energy Scan program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These measurements are important for understanding the quantum chromodynamic phase diagram. The products of the moments, Sσ and κσ2, are sensitive to the correlation length of the hot and dense medium created in the collisions and are related to the ratios of baryon number susceptibilities of corresponding orders. The products of moments are found to have values significantly below the Skellam expectation and close to expectations based on independent proton and antiproton production. The measurements are compared to a transport model calculation to understand the effect of acceptance and baryon number conservation and also to a hadron resonance gas model

Centrality Dependence of Identified Particle Elliptic Flow in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions at √\u3cem\u3e\u3csup\u3es\u3c/sup\u3e\u3csub\u3eNN\u3c/sub\u3e\u3c/em\u3e = 7.7–62.4 GeV

Elliptic flow (υ2) values for identified particles at midrapidity in Au + Au collisions measured by the STAR experiment in the Beam Energy Scan at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at √sNN = 7.7– 62.4 GeV are presented for three centrality classes. The centrality dependence and the data at √sNN = 14.5 GeV are new. Except at the lowest beam energies, we observe a similar relative υ2 baryon-meson splitting for all centrality classes which is in agreement within 15% with the number-of-constituent quark scaling. The larger υ2 for most particles relative to antiparticles, already observed for minimum bias collisions, shows a clear centrality dependence, with the largest difference for the most central collisions. Also, the results are compared with a multiphase transport (AMPT) model and fit with a blast wave model

Measurement of the Transverse Single-Spin Asymmetry in \u3cem\u3ep\u3c/em\u3e\u3csup\u3e↑\u3c/sup\u3e+\u3cem\u3ep\u3c/em\u3e→\u3cem\u3eW\u3c/em\u3e\u3csup\u3e±\u3c/sup\u3e/\u3cem\u3eZ\u3c/em\u3e\u3csup\u3e0\u3c/sup\u3e at RHIC

We present the measurement of the transverse single-spin asymmetry of weak boson production in transversely polarized proton-proton collisions at √s = 500  GeV by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The measured observable is sensitive to the Sivers function, one of the transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution functions, which is predicted to have the opposite sign in proton-proton collisions from that observed in deep inelastic lepton-proton scattering. These data provide the first experimental investigation of the nonuniversality of the Sivers function, fundamental to our understanding of QCD

Beam Energy Dependence of the Third Harmonic of Azimuthal Correlations in Au + Au Collisions at RHIC

We present results from a harmonic decomposition of two-particle azimuthal correlations measured with the STAR detector in Au + Au collisions for energies ranging from √sNN = 7.7 to 200 GeV. The third harmonic υ23 {2} = ⟨cos3(ϕ1−ϕ2)⟩, where ϕ1−ϕ2 is the angular difference in azimuth, is studied as a function of the pseudorapidity difference between particle pairs Δη = η1− η2. Nonzero υ23 {2} is directly related to the previously observed large-Δη narrow-Δϕ ridge correlations and has been shown in models to be sensitive to the existence of a low viscosity quark gluon plasma phase. For sufficiently central collisions, υ23 {2} persist down to an energy of 7.7 GeV, suggesting that quark gluon plasma may be created even in these low energy collisions. In peripheral collisions at these low energies, however, υ23 {2} is consistent with zero. When scaled by the pseudorapidity density of charged-particle multiplicity per participating nucleon pair, υ23 {2} for central collisions shows a minimum near √sNN = 20 GeV