Alternative Contributions to the Angular Correlations Observed at RHIC Associated with Parity Fluctuations

TL;DR

This paper offers alternative explanations for angular correlations observed at RHIC, attributing them to charge and momentum conservation effects combined with elliptic flow, challenging the parity fluctuation interpretation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpretation of RHIC angular correlation data, emphasizing conservation effects over parity fluctuations.

Findings

Correlations from charge and momentum conservation can mimic parity fluctuation signals.

Estimated effects of other correlations are negligible.

Charge and momentum conservation effects produce correlations similar in magnitude to observed data.

Abstract

Recent measurements at RHIC of angular correlations of same-sign vs. opposite sign pairs have been interpreted as evidence for large-scale fluctuations of parity-odd fields. In this paper, we provide alternative explanations of the same phenomena based on correlations from charge and momentum conservation overlaid with elliptic flow. These effects are shown to produce correlations with similar magnitudes as those measured. Other correlations are also considered, but estimates of their size suggest they are inconsequential.