Hints of incomplete thermalization in RHIC data
Abstract
Description
The large elliptic flow observed in Au-Au collisions at RHIC is often put forward as a compelling evidence for the formation of a strongly-interacting quark-gluon plasma. The main argument is that the measured elliptic flow is as large as the value given by fluid-dynamics models that assume complete thermalization. It is argued that this claim may not be justified, since a detailed examination of experimental data rather suggests that the system created is not fully equilibrated at the time when anisotropic flow develops.
8 pages, 2 eps-figures, Talk given at the Workshop on QGP Thermalization (QGPTH05), Vienna, 10-12 Aug 2005
8 pages, 2 eps-figures, Talk given at the Workshop on QGP Thermalization (QGPTH05), Vienna, 10-12 Aug 2005