Flow measurements-- how much have they told us, and how?Abstract: While the underlying physics changes dramatically with energy, collective flow has been observed in all heavy ion systems for beam energies spanning 5 orders of magnitude, from GANIL to the SPS. The main observed trends of flow with energy will be discussed. The connection between flow and the (model-dependent) driving physics is convoluted, and systematic flow studies have been required to constrain physical parameters in the models. Thus far, considerably more manpower has been devoted to systematic flow studies at lower energies (below AGS). Examining the information gained from these studies, as well as the methods for its extraction, may help guide us at the higher energies of RHIC. |
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