Elliptic flow of thermal photons and dileptons

Abstract

In this talk we describe the recently discovered rich phenomenology of elliptic flow of electromagnetic probes of the hot matter created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Using a hydrodynamic model for the space-time dynamics of the collision fireball created in Au+Au collisions at RHIC, we compute the transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flow of thermal photons and dileptons. These observables are shown to provide differential windows into various stages of the fireball expansion.Comment: 8 pages, including 9 figures. Invited talk at the Hard Probes 2006 Conference (Asilomar, June 9-16, 2006), to appear in the Proceedings (Elsevier