STAR results from the first RHIC year

Abstract

An overview is presented of the results of the STAR experiment from the analysis of Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}} = 130$ GeV acquired during the first year of RHIC operation. The transverse momentum distribution of negative hadrons has been studied out to 6 GeV/$c$ in central Au+Au collisions and elliptic flow measurements out to 4.5 GeV/$c$ in non-central collisions. This allows us to study hard processes and potentially effects of nuclear matter on parton propagation. Soft processes, which dominate particle production below around 2 GeV/$c$, have also been studied through the identified spectra of kaons, $\bar{p}$, and strange baryons.