Using CMBR analysis tools for flow anisotropies in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper adapts CMBR anisotropy analysis tools to study flow anisotropies in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, enabling direct determination of elliptic flow without event-plane analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of CMBR analysis techniques to extract flow coefficients in heavy-ion collisions, simplifying the process of measuring elliptic flow.

Findings

Root-mean square flow coefficients reveal initial state anisotropies.

Elliptic flow can be directly obtained without event-plane determination.

Technique demonstrates potential for improved flow analysis in RHICE.

Abstract

Recently we have shown that there are crucial similarities in the physics of cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) anisotropies and the flow anisotropies in relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments (RHICE). We also argued that, following CMBR anisotropy analysis, a plot of root-mean square values of the flow coefficients, calculated in a lab fixed frame for RHICE, can yield important information about the nature of initial state anisotropies and their evolution. Here we demonstrate the strength of this technique by showing that elliptic flow for non-central collisions can be directly determined from such a plot without any need for the determination of event-plane.