Extraction of Source Images in Au+Au and d+Au collisions at RHIC Original Research Article

The PHENIX Collaboration has performed a systematic study of two-pion correlations in Au+Au and d+Au collisions at RHIC View the MathML source. The correlations have been analyzed using the Imaging technique of Brown and Danielewicz to extract the two-pion source functions as a function of mT and centrality. The source images are characterised by a short-range Gaussian-like core and a long-range exponential-like tail with a characteristic radius about 3 times that of the Gaussian core. The mT and centrality dependence of the source parameters indicate that the two structures are intricately related.