Physics implications of correlation data from the RHIC and LHC heavy-ion programs

Abstract

Two-dimensional angular correlation data from the STAR experiment at RHIC and from the LHC experiments provide critical information about dynamical processes in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The principal correlation structures of interest are a broad jet-related peak at small relative azimuth ($ϕ$) extending to large relative pseudorapidity ($η$), the dijet ridge at large relative azimuth, and an independent double ridge on $ϕ$ represented by a quadrupole function. The broad peak at small relative azimuth has been attributed, in large part, to initial-state fluctuations and hydrodynamic flow which produce higher-order harmonics on $ϕ$. That conjecture is challenged in this paper. It is shown that the net effect of additional higher harmonic model elements is to describe small, non-Gaussian (NG) shapes in the broad jet-related peak. The quadrupole correlation, which is also conventionally attributed to hydrodynamic flow, is considered within the Balitsky - Fadin - Kuraev - Lipatov (BFKL) Pomeron framework. Preliminary results using this model for the quadrupole correlation for particle production from 200 GeV $p+p$ collisions are shown to be consistent with recent data from STAR.