Autocorrelations from the scale dependence of transverse-momentum fluctuations in Hijing-simulated Au-Au collisions at s(NN)**(1/2) = 200-GeV

Abstract We present measurements of the scale (bin-size) dependence of event-wise mean transverse momentum 〈 p t 〉 fluctuations for Au–Au collisions at s N N = 200 GeV simulated with the Hijing-1.37 Monte Carlo. We invert those scale distributions to obtain autocorrelation distributions on pseudorapidity η and azimuth ϕ difference variables ( η Δ , ϕ Δ ) . The autocorrelations have a simple structure dominated by a same-side (on azimuth) peak with similar widths on the two difference variables. With jet quenching imposed, the same-side peak widths increase slightly in both directions, and the amplitude is substantially reduced. The same-side peaks are attributed to minijets, observed in this study as local velocity correlations of charged particles with p t 2 GeV / c .