Radial and elliptic flow in non-central heavy ion collisions can constrain
the effective Equation of State(EoS) of the excited nuclear matter. To this
end, a model combining relativistic hydrodynamics and a hadronic transport
code(RQMD [17]) is developed. For an EoS with a first order phase transition,
the model reproduces both the radial and elliptic flow data at the SPS. With
the EoS fixed from SPS data, we quantify predictions at RHIC where the Quark
Gluon Plasma(QGP) pressure is expected to drive additional radial and elliptic
flow. Currently, the strong elliptic flow observed in the first RHIC
measurements does not conclusively signal this nascent QGP pressure. Additional
measurements are suggested to pin down the EoS.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Revised. Included discussed of v_2 (p_t) vs. b
and comparison to STAR dat
