Identified charged-particle spectra of ${\pi }^{\pm }$, $K^{\pm }$, $p$, and $\overline{p}$ at midrapidity ($\left|y\right|<0.1$) measured by the $\mathit{dE}/\mathit{dx}$ method in the STAR (solenoidal tracker at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) time projection chamber are reported for $\mathit{pp}$ and $d+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathit{NN}}}=200$ GeV and for $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at 62.4, 130, and 200 GeV. Average transverse momenta, total particle production, particle yield ratios, strangeness, and baryon production rates are investigated as a function of the collision system and centrality. The transverse momentum spectra are found to be flatter for heavy particles than for light particles in all collision systems; the effect is more prominent for more central collisions. The extracted average transverse momentum of each particle species follows a trend determined by the total charged-particle multiplicity density. The Bjorken energy density estimate is at least several GeV/${\mathrm{fm}}^3$ for a formation time less than 1 fm/$c$. A significantly larger net-baryon density and a stronger increase of the net-baryon density with centrality are found in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at 62.4 GeV than at the two higher energies. Antibaryon production relative to total particle multiplicity is found to be constant over centrality, but increases with the collision energy. Strangeness production relative to total particle multiplicity is similar at the three measured RHIC energies. Relative strangeness production increases quickly with centrality in peripheral $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions, to a value about 50% above the $\mathit{pp}$ value, and remains rather constant in more central collisions. Bulk freeze-out properties are extracted from thermal equilibrium model and hydrodynamics-motivated blast-wave model fits to the data. Resonance decays are found to have little effect on the extracted kinetic freeze-out parameters because of the transverse momentum range of our measurements. The extracted chemical freeze-out temperature is constant, independent of collision system or centrality; its value is close to the predicted phase-transition temperature, suggesting that chemical freeze-out happens in the vicinity of hadronization and the chemical freeze-out temperature is universal despite the vastly different initial conditions in the collision systems. The extracted kinetic freeze-out temperature, while similar to the chemical freeze-out temperature in $\mathit{pp}$, $d+\mathrm{Au}$, and peripheral $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions, drops significantly with centrality in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions, whereas the extracted transverse radial flow velocity increases rapidly with centrality. There appears to be a prolonged period of particle elastic scatterings from chemical to kinetic freeze-out in central $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions. The bulk properties extracted at chemical and kinetic freeze-out are observed to evolve smoothly over the measured energy range, collision systems, and collision centralities.

The results from the STAR Collaboration on directed flow ($v_1$), elliptic flow ($v_2$), and the fourth harmonic ($v_4$) in the anisotropic azimuthal distribution of particles from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathit{NN}}}=200\mathrm{GeV}$ are summarized and compared with results from other experiments and theoretical models. Results for identified particles are presented and fit with a blast-wave model. Different anisotropic flow analysis methods are compared and nonflow effects are extracted from the data. For $v_2$, scaling with the number of constituent quarks and parton coalescence are discussed. For $v_4$, scaling with $v_2^2$ and quark coalescence are discussed.

Parity-odd domains, corresponding to nontrivial topological solutions of the QCD vacuum, might be created during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These domains are predicted to lead to charge separation of quarks along the system’s orbital momentum axis. We investigate a three-particle azimuthal correlator which is a $\mathcal{P}$ even observable, but directly sensitive to the charge separation effect. We report measurements of charged hadrons near center-of-mass rapidity with this observable in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ and $\mathrm{Cu}+\mathrm{Cu}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200\mathrm{GeV}$ using the STAR detector. A signal consistent with several expectations from the theory is detected. We discuss possible contributions from other effects that are not related to parity violation.

We report the beam energy ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}=7.7–200\mathrm{GeV}$) and collision centrality dependence of the mean ($M$), standard deviation ($\sigma$), skewness ($S$), and kurtosis ($\kappa$) of the net-proton multiplicity distributions in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions. The measurements are carried out by the STAR experiment at midrapidity ($|y|<0.5$) and within the transverse momentum range $0.4<p_T<0.8\mathrm{GeV}/c$ in the first phase of the Beam Energy Scan program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These measurements are important for understanding the quantum chromodynamic phase diagram. The products of the moments, $S\sigma$ and $\kappa {\sigma }^2$, are sensitive to the correlation length of the hot and dense medium created in the collisions and are related to the ratios of baryon number susceptibilities of corresponding orders. The products of moments are found to have values significantly below the Skellam expectation and close to expectations based on independent proton and antiproton production. The measurements are compared to a transport model calculation to understand the effect of acceptance and baryon number conservation and also to a hadron resonance gas model.