The gluon plasma at RHIC

Abstract

Differential elliptic flow and particle spectra are calculated from covariant Boltzmann transport theory taking into account the finite transport opacity of the gluon plasma produced in Au+Au at $E_{cm}\sim 130$ $A$ GeV at RHIC. The solutions are shown to depend mainly on the transport opacity, $\chi=\int dz \sigma_t\rho_g$. The elliptic flow saturation pattern reported by STAR indicates that $\chi_{b=0} \sim 25$, i.e., the gluon plasma is $\sim 80$ times more opaque than the pQCD estimate based on HIJING. Such large opacities are also consistent with the measured charged hadron spectra.