Flow at the SPS and RHIC as a Quark Gluon Plasma Signature

Abstract

Radial and elliptic flow in non-central heavy ion collisions can constrain the effective Equation of State(EoS) of the excited nuclear matter. To this end, a model combining relativistic hydrodynamics and a hadronic transport code(RQMD [17]) is developed. For an EoS with a first order phase transition, the model reproduces both the radial and elliptic flow data at the SPS. With the EoS fixed from SPS data, we quantify predictions at RHIC where the Quark Gluon Plasma(QGP) pressure is expected to drive additional radial and elliptic flow. Currently, the strong elliptic flow observed in the first RHIC measurements does not conclusively signal this nascent QGP pressure. Additional measurements are suggested to pin down the EoS.