STAR physics results summaries

Thanks to its large acceptance and multi-purpose design, STAR is capable of performing a wide variety of measurements, each contributing uniquely to the picture of heavy-ion collisions developing at RHIC. Click on the links below for short summaries of some of STAR's physics results, which are grouped by topic. Note: Physics results that overlap multiple topics may be listed more than once, and summaries are still being added.

Event-wise observables
Event-wise observables such as collective flow and non-statistical fluctuations are vital for studying the characteristics of the system that may be sensitive to new states of matter and phase transitions.

HBT and interferometry
Two- and three-particle correlations techniques can be used to extract information on source size, lifetime, and chaoticity.

High-pT phenomena
The isolation of hard processes at high transverse momentum allow studies of phenomena such as jets and energy dissipation.

Spectra and yields
Measuring as many particles and resonances as possible allows for the most complete reconstruction of the conditions in the collision.

Strange particles
Strangeness production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions provides unique probes of particle production mechanisms and the extent to which the formed system is equilibrated.

related pages

STAR publications
Searchable list of publications, with links to online papers, data tables and figures.

STAR presentations
Database of presentations and preprint references for STAR talks, for the period beginning January, 2004.