  The hydrodynamic (hydro) model applied to data from the relativistic heavy
ion collider (RHIC) suggests that a dense QCD medium opaque to partons is
formed in more-central Au-Au collisions. However, two-component spectrum
analysis reveals a hard component, consistent with parton fragmentation
described by pQCD, which can masquerade as "radial flow." Minimum-bias angular
correlations reveal that most scattered partons survive as "minijets" even in
central Au-Au collisions. Such alternative methods quantitatively describe
spectrum and correlation structure via pQCD calculations. RHIC collisions
appear to be dominated by parton scattering and fragmentation even in central
Au-Au collisions.
