Anisotropic azimuthal distributions of identified particles in Au+Au collisions at 11.5 A GeV/c Original Research Article

Anisotropy in the azimuthal distribution of the reaction products in heavy-ion collisions is an important observable which, in particular, contains information on the evolution and amplitude of the pressure gradient in the compressed nuclear matter formed in the collision and thus on its equation of state. It was first observed in ultra-relativistic collisions in 1994 [1] and is now considered one of the best tools to elucidate the dynamics of heavy-ion collisions. In this contribution we present recent results on the study of azimuthal distributions of produced particles in Au+Au collisions at 11.5A GeV/c obtained from the analysis of the last E877 data taking run in 1995. Other E877 results on the flow of particles, particularly on the elliptical flow, are also presented in the contribution of K. Filimonov at this conference [2].