Evidence for a long range structure in the pion emission source in Au+Au collisions at RHIC

The PHENIX experiment has recently acquired ∼1 billion minimum bias Au+Au events at during the year-2004 run. This high statistics data set, coupled with a state-of-the-art analysis technique, allows for the extraction of 3D emission sources for various particle types. These 3D sources lend fresh insight into the nature of a long-range source previously reported by PHENIX. The new results indicate an anisotropic pion emission source in the pair center of mass system (PCMS) having an extended space-time extent oriented in the outward direction. The two-proton emission source from the same data set is essentially isotropic in the PCMS. These results provide a “window” for viewing the evolution dynamics of the high energy density nuclear matter created at RHIC.