Global Results 1. Energy density [PRL 87, 52301 (2001)]

• ET at mid-rapidity measured by calorimetry: PHENIX EMCal is a good hadronic calorimeter: EThad = (1.17±0.05) ETEMCal

• <dET/dh> ~ 580 GeV (top 2% central)

• 60% larger than at SPS energies

• Bjorken's estimate of the energy

• density (longitud. expansion):

• Energy density (~5 GeV/fm3) @ RHIC > QCD critical density (~1 GeV/fm3)

• [ modulo: 1D expansion, not fully baryon-free, thermalization time estimate]