Scaling properties of azimuthal anisotropy in Au+Au and Cu+Cu Collisions at sqrt[s NN]=200 GeV

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Apr 20;98(16):162301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.162301. Epub 2007 Apr 16.

Abstract

Differential measurements of elliptic flow (v2) for Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sqrt[sNN]=200 GeV are used to test and validate predictions from perfect fluid hydrodynamics for scaling of v2 with eccentricity, system size, and transverse kinetic energy (KE T). For KE T identical with mT-m up to approximately 1 GeV the scaling is compatible with hydrodynamic expansion of a thermalized fluid. For large values of KE T mesons and baryons scale separately. Quark number scaling reveals a universal scaling of v2 for both mesons and baryons over the full KE T range for Au+Au. For Au+Au and Cu+Cu the scaling is more pronounced in terms of KE T, rather than transverse momentum.