Scale-dependence of transverse momentum correlations in PbAu collisions at 158A GeV/c

Abstract We present results on transverse momentum correlations of charged particle pairs produced in Pb Au collisions at 158 A GeV / c at the Super Proton Synchrotron. The transverse momentum correlations have been studied as a function of collision centrality, angular separation of the particle pairs, transverse momentum and charge sign. We demonstrate that the results are in agreement with previous findings in scale-independent analyses at the same beam energy. Employing the two-particle momentum correlator 〈 Δ p t , i , Δ p t , j 〉 and the cumulative p t variable x ( p t ) , we identify, using the scale-dependent approach presented in this paper, different sources contributing to the measured correlations, such as quantum and Coulomb correlations, elliptic flow and mini-jet fragmentation.