Kaon femtoscopy in $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV central Au+Au collsions at STAR

Abstract

Three-dimensional analyses of the pion source revealed a heavy, non-Gaussian tail in the direction of the pair transverse momentum. The interpretation of these pion sources in terms of pure hydrodynamical evolution is, however, complicated by the strong contribution of feed-down from long-lived resonances to the source. On the other hand, kaons provide a much cleaner probe of the expanding fireball. Here we present a recent three-dimensional kaon correlation analysis using Cartesian harmonics decomposition technique. In contrary to pions, the three-dimensional source function of kaons is largely Gaussian. Comparison with thermal simulations and a hydrokinetic model show that resonance decays, as well as non-zero emission duration and/or rescattering in the hadronic phase play an important role. The analysis of the three dimensional extent of the kaon source w.r.t. the pair transverse momentum favors the hydrokinetic model over the exact mT-scaling featured by perfect hydrodynamical models.