Energy Dependence of Elliptic Flow over a Large Pseudorapidity Range in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>Au</mml:mi><mml:mo>+</mml:mo><mml:mi>Au</mml:mi></mml:math>Collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

Abstract

This Letter describes the measurement of the energy dependence of elliptic flow for charged particles in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions using the PHOBOS detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Data taken at collision energies of $\sqrt{{s}_{NN}}=19.6$, 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV are shown over a wide range in pseudorapidity. These results, when plotted as a function of ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}=|\ensuremath{\eta}|\ensuremath{-}{y}_{\mathrm{beam}}$, scale with approximate linearity throughout ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, implying no sharp changes in the dynamics of particle production as a function of pseudorapidity or increasing beam energy.