Measurement of Elliptic Flow of Light Nuclei at √\u3cem\u3e\u3csup\u3eS\u3c/sup\u3e\u3csub\u3eNN\u3c/sub\u3e\u3c/em\u3e = 200, 62.4, 39, 27, 19.6, 11.5, and 7.7 GeV at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

Abstract

We present measurements of second-order azimuthal anisotropy (υ2) at midrapidity (|y| \u3c 1.0) for light nuclei d, t, 3He (for ⎷sNN = 200 GeV) in the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC) experiment. The υ2 for these light nuclei produced in heavy-ion collisions is compared with those for p and p¯. We observe mass ordering in nuclei υ2 (pT) at low transverse momenta (pT \u3c 2.0 GeV/c). We also find a centrality dependence of υ2 for d and d¯. The magnitude of υ2 for t and 3He agree within statistical errors. Light-nuclei υ2 are compared with predictions from a blast-wave model. Atomic mass number (A) scaling of light-nuclei υ2 (pT) seems to hold for pT/A \u3c 1.5 GeV/c. Results on light-nuclei υ2 from a transport-plus-coalescence model are consistent with the experimental measurements