Incident energy dependence of pt correlations at relativistic energies -: art. no. 044902

We present results for two-particle transverse momentum correlations, <Delta p(t,i)Delta p(t,j)>, as a function of event centrality for Au+Au collisions at root SNN = 20, 62, 130, and 200 GeV at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We observe correlations decreasing with centrality that are similar at all four incident energies. The correlations multiplied by the multiplicity density increase with incident energy, and the centrality dependence may show evidence of processes such as thermalization, jet production, or the saturation of transverse flow. The square root of the correlations divided by the event-wise average transverse momentum per event shows little or no beam energy dependence and generally agrees with previous measurements made at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron.