Measurement of the transverse energy density in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV with the sPHENIX detector

Abstract

This paper reports measurements of the transverse energy per unit pseudorapidity ($d{E}_T/d\hat{I}\cdot$) produced in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV, performed with the sPHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The results cover the pseudorapidity range $\left|\hat{I}\cdot \right|<1.1$ and constitute the first such measurement performed using a hadronic calorimeter at RHIC. Measurements of $d{E}_T/d\hat{I}\cdot$ are presented for a range of centrality intervals and the average $d{E}_T/d\hat{I}\cdot$ as a function of the number of participating nucleons, $N_{\mathrm{part}}$, is compared to a variety of Monte Carlo heavy-ion event generators. The results are in agreement with previous measurements at RHIC, and feature an improved granularity in $\hat{I}\cdot$ and improved precision in low-$N_{\mathrm{part}}$ events.

18 pages total, 6 figures, 2 tables. All figures and tables can be found at https://www.sphenix.bnl.gov/PublicResults/sPH-BULK-2025-02 , data available at https://www.hepdata.net/record/159889