Clocking hadronization at RHIC

The RHIC accelerator collided Au on Au beams at \(\sqrt {s_{NN} } = 130\) GeV in the summer of 2000. To study these collisions, the RHIC experiments have been using a number of observables. One new observable in the field of relativistic heavy ions is the balance function. The balance function can be used to measure the correlation of charged particle pairs in rapidity. The rapidity separation of a particle pair that is created at the same point indicates the time of hadronization for that pair. Preliminary balance function analyses of STAR data are reported. The calculation of a balance function for hadron gas simulations (HIJING) is also discussed in this paper. These preliminary results indicate that the balance function is a useful observable in heavy-ion collisions.