Abstract:
A novel state of matter has been hypothesized to exist
during the early stage of relativistic heavy ion collisions,
with normal hadrons not appearing until several fm/c after
the start of the reaction. To test this hypothesis,
correlations between charges and their associated
anticharges are evaluated with the use of balance functions.
It is shown that late-stage hadronization is characterized
by tightly correlated charge/anticharge pairs when measured
as a function of relative rapidity.