Elliptic flow at large transverse momenta from quark coalescence
Nuclear Theory
2009-11-10 v2
Abstract
We show that hadronization via quark coalescence enhances hadron elliptic flow at large pT relative to that of partons at the same transverse momentum. Therefore, compared to earlier results based on covariant parton transport theory, more moderate initial parton densities dN/d\eta(b=0) ~ 1500-3000 can explain the differential elliptic flow v_2(pT) data for Au+Au reactions at s^1/2=130 and 200 AGeV from RHIC. In addition, v2(pT) could saturate at about 50% higher values for baryons than for mesons. If strange quarks have weaker flow than light quarks, hadron v_2 at high pT decreases with relative strangeness content.
Cite
@article{arxiv.nucl-th/0302014,
title = {Elliptic flow at large transverse momenta from quark coalescence},
author = {Denes Molnar and Sergei A. Voloshin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:nucl-th/0302014},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Minor changes, extended discussion. To appear in PRL