Elliptic flow of electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays in Au+Au collisions at sNN=\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 200, 62.4, and 39 GeV

We present measurements of elliptic flow ($v_2$) of electrons from the decays of heavy-flavor hadrons ($e_{HF}$) by the STAR experiment. For Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} =$ 200 GeV we report $v_2$, for transverse momentum ($p_T$) between 0.2 and 7 GeV/c using three methods: the event plane method ($v_{2}${EP}), two-particle correlations ($v_2${2}), and four-particle correlations ($v_2${4}). For Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 62.4 and 39 GeV we report $v_2${2} for $p_T< 2$ GeV/c. $v_2${2} and $v_2${4} are non-zero at low and intermediate $p_T$ at 200 GeV, and $v_2${2} is consistent with zero at low $p_T$ at other energies. The $v_2${2} at the two lower beam energies is systematically lower than at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} =$ 200 GeV for $p_T < 1$ GeV/c. This difference may suggest that charm quarks interact less strongly with the surrounding nuclear matter at those two lower energies compared to $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 200$ GeV.Comment: Version accepted by PR

Constraining the initial conditions and temperature dependent viscosity with three-particle correlations in Au+Au collisions

We present three-particle mixed-harmonic correlations cos(m\u3c6a + n\u3c6b 12 (m + n)\u3c6c ) for harmonics m, n = 1 12 3 for charged particles in 1a sNN = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. These measurements provide information on the three-dimensional structure of the initial collision zone and are important for constraining models of a subsequent low-viscosity quark\u2013gluon plasma expansion phase. We investigate correlations between the first, second and third harmonics predicted as a consequence of fluctuations in the initial state. The dependence of the correlations on the pseudorapidity separation between particles show hints of a breaking of longitudinal invariance. We compare our results to a number of state-of-the art hydrodynamic calculations with different initial states and temperature dependent viscosities. These measurements provide important steps towards constraining the temperature dependent viscosity and longitudinal structure of the initial state at RHIC

Collision energy dependence of moments of net-kaon multiplicity distributions at RHIC

Fluctuations of conserved quantities such as baryon number, charge, and strangeness are sensitive to the correlation length of the hot and dense matter created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and can be used to search for the QCD critical point. We report the first measurements of the moments of net-kaon multiplicity distributions in Au+Au collisions at sNN=7.7 , 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV. The collision centrality and energy dependence of the mean ( M ), variance ( \u3c32 ), skewness ( S ), and kurtosis ( \u3ba ) for net-kaon multiplicity distributions as well as the ratio \u3c32/M and the products S\u3c3 and \u3ba\u3c32 are presented. Comparisons are made with Poisson and negative binomial baseline calculations as well as with UrQMD, a transport model (UrQMD) that does not include effects from the QCD critical point. Within current uncertainties, the net-kaon cumulant ratios appear to be monotonic as a function of collision energy

Azimuthal transverse single-spin asymmetries of inclusive jets and charged pions within jets from polarized-proton collisions at s = 500 GeV

We report the first measurements of transverse single-spin asymmetries for inclusive jet and jet+\u3c0\ub1 production at midrapidity from transversely polarized proton-proton collisions at s=500\u2009\u2009GeV. The data were collected in 2011 with the STAR detector sampled from 23\u2009\u2009pb-1 integrated luminosity with an average beam polarization of 53%. Asymmetries are reported for jets with transverse momenta 6<pT<55\u2009\u2009GeV/c and pseudorapidity |\u3b7|<1. Presented are measurements of the inclusive-jet azimuthal transverse single-spin asymmetry, sensitive to twist-3 initial-state quark-gluon correlators; the Collins asymmetry, sensitive to quark transversity coupled to the polarized Collins fragmentation function; and the first measurement of the \u201cCollins-like\u201d asymmetry, sensitive to linearly polarized gluons. Within the present statistical precision, inclusive-jet and Collins-like asymmetries are small, with the latter allowing the first experimental constraints on gluon linear polarization in a polarized proton. At higher values of jet transverse momenta, we observe the first nonzero Collins asymmetries in polarized-proton collisions, with a statistical significance of greater than 5\u3c3. The results span a range of x similar to results from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering but at much higher Q2. The Collins results enable tests of universality and factorization breaking in the transverse momentum-dependent formulation of perturbative quantum chromodynamics

Direct virtual photon production in Au+Au collisions atsNN=200\ua0GeV

We report the direct virtual photon invariant yields in the transverse momentum ranges 16 GeV/c the production follows TAA scaling. Model calculations with contributions from thermal radiation and initial hard parton scattering are consistent within uncertainties with the direct virtual photon invariant yield

Energy dependence of J/\u3c8 production in Au + Au collisions at s NN =39,62.4 and 200GeV

The inclusive J/\u3c8 transverse momentum spectra and nuclear modification factors are reported at mid-rapidity ( |y|<1.0 ) in Au + Au collisions at sNN = 39, 62.4 and 200 GeV taken by the STAR experiment. A suppression of J/\u3c8 production, with respect to the production in p+p scaled by the number of binary nucleon\u2013nucleon collisions, is observed in central Au + Au collisions at these three energies. No significant energy dependence of nuclear modification factors is found within uncertainties. The measured nuclear modification factors can be described by model calculations that take into account both suppression of direct J/\u3c8 production due to the color screening effect and J/\u3c8 regeneration from recombination of uncorrelated charm\u2013anticharm quark pairs

Beam-Energy Dependence of Directed Flow of \u39b, \u39b , K\ub1, Ks0, and \u3c6 in Au+Au Collisions

Rapidity-odd directed-flow measurements at midrapidity are presented for \u39b, \u39b\uaf, K\ub1, Ks0, and \u3d5 at sNN=7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV in Au+Au collisions recorded by the Solenoidal Tracker detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These measurements greatly expand the scope of data available to constrain models with differing prescriptions for the equation of state of quantum chromodynamics. Results show good sensitivity for testing a picture where flow is assumed to be imposed before hadron formation and the observed particles are assumed to form via coalescence of constituent quarks. The pattern of departure from a coalescence-inspired sum rule can be a valuable new tool for probing the collision dynamics