Elliptic Flow Measurements with the PHENIX Detector

Two particle azimuthal correlation functions are presented for charged hadrons produced in Au+Au collisions at RHIC ($\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=130$ GeV). The measurements allow for the determination of elliptic flow without event-by-event estimation of the reaction plane. The measured correlation functions indicate elliptic flow values ($v_2$) which show significant sensitivity to both the collision centrality and the transverse momenta of emitted hadrons.Comment: Contribution to Quark Matter 2001, Long Island, New York, January 15-20, 200

Recent results for source function imaging from AGS through CERN SPS to RHIC

Recent femtoscopic measurements involving the use of an imaging technique and a newly developed moment analysis are presented and discussed. We show that this new paradigm allows robust investigation of reaction dynamics for which the sound speed $c_s \neq 0$ during an extended hadronization period. Source functions extracted for charged pions produced in Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions show non-Gaussian tails for a broad selection of collision energies. The ratio of the RMS radii of these source functions in the out and side directions are found to be greater than 1, suggesting a finite emission time for pions.Comment: Proceedings, XXXVI International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics/Workshop on Particle Correlations and Femtoscopy, Brazil, 200

Influence of quenched jets on di-hadron correlations

A simple jet absorption model is used to study the influence of hadron pairs produced by quenched jets, on di-hadron angular correlations at intermediate transverse momentum ($p_T$). We demonstrate that such pairs can dominate both the yield and the shape of angular correlations, and may account for the similar properties between the near-side "ridge" and the away-side "double-humped" structure seen in recent data. These hadron pairs also show azimuthal anisotropy which is sensitive to the emission angle of hadrons relative to that of the jet. Measurement of this anisotropy may provide a constraint for elucidating the production mechanism for near- and away-side hadron pairs at intermediate $p_T$.Comment: 5 pages, four figures (replaced with the published version

Influence of finite volume and magnetic field effects on the QCD phase diagram

The Polyakov linear sigma model (PLSM) is used to investigate the respective influence of a finite volume and a magnetic field on the quark-hadron phase boundary in the plane of baryon chemical potential ($\mu_{B}$) vs. temperature ($T$) of the QCD phase diagram. The calculated results indicate sizable shifts of the quark-hadron phase boundary to lower values of $(\mu_{B}~\text{and}~T)$ for increasing magnetic field strength, and an opposite shift to higher values of $(\mu_{B}~\text{and}~T)$ for decreasing system volume. Such shifts could have important implications for extraction of the thermodynamic properties of the QCD phase diagram from heavy ion data