Speaker
Dr
Axel Drees
(Stony Brook University)
Description
Over the past years PHENIX has published numerous results on direct photon production from Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV. The
results show a large direct photon excess at low momentum, which increases with centrality, while the inverse slope of ~240
MeV remains independent of centrality within errors. The direct photons are emitted with a large anisotropy with respect to
the reaction plan, both second and third order anisotropy coefficients have been observed. The data are qualitative
consistent with thermal radiation emitted from the hot matter created in the collisions. Quantitative model comparisons are
challenged by the tension between high yield, which one expects to build up early in the collision, and large anisotropy,
which one expects from the later stages in the collision. Several analyses of data sets with higher statistics, with different
collision systems, and different beam energies are underway to provide more constraints. In this talk I will review the latest
PHENIX results, including new results from lower beam energy.
Primary author
Dr
Axel Drees
(Stony Brook University)
