Eccentricity fluctuations from the Color Glass Condensate at RHIC and LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates initial eccentricity fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions using a Monte Carlo Color Glass Condensate approach, showing they nearly account for observed elliptic flow fluctuations at RHIC and providing extrapolations for LHC energies.

Contribution

It introduces a Monte Carlo method within the Color Glass Condensate framework to quantify eccentricity fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Eccentricity fluctuations nearly saturate elliptic flow fluctuations at RHIC.

Method provides a way to extrapolate fluctuations to LHC energies.

Supports the significance of initial state fluctuations in flow observables.

Abstract

In this brief note, we determine the fluctuations of the initial eccentricity in heavy-ion collisions caused by fluctuations of the nucleon configurations. This is done via a Monte-Carlo implementation of a Color Glass Condensate $k_t$-factorization approach. The eccentricity fluctuations are found to nearly saturate elliptic flow fluctuations measured recently at RHIC. Extrapolations to LHC energies are shown.