Azimuthal correlation functions and the energy of vanishing flow in nucleus- nucleus collisions

摘要

A novel method is proposed for studying the evolution of flow phenomena with the incident energy, and for quantitatively estimating the energy of vanishing flow (also called balance energy, E(sub bal)) without reconstructing the reaction plane. We used a method based on the shapes of experimental particle-particle azimuthal correlation functions to determine E(sub bal) for three systems: Ar + Al, Zn + Ti, Zn + Ni. We compare the results with estimations using flow parameter analysis and also with theoretical expectations. (authors). 25 refs.