Alternative Contributions to the Angular Correlations Observed at RHIC Associated with Parity Fluctuations

Abstract

Recent measurements at RHIC of angular correlations of same-sign vs. opposite sign pairs have been interpreted as evidence for large-scale fluctuations of parity-odd fields. In this paper, we provide alternative explanations of the same phenomena based on correlations from charge and momentum conservation overlaid with elliptic flow. These effects are shown to produce correlations with similar magnitudes as those measured. Other correlations are also considered, but estimates of their size suggest they are inconsequential.