Elliptic and triangular flow in event-by-event (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamics

TL;DR

This paper uses event-by-event (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamics to analyze how initial state fluctuations and viscosity affect elliptic and triangular flow in heavy-ion collisions, aiding the precise determination of shear viscosity.

Contribution

It demonstrates the importance of initial fluctuations in reproducing flow measurements and suggests combined v_2 and v_3 data can better constrain eta/s.

Findings

Fluctuations are crucial for matching elliptic flow centrality dependence.

Simultaneous v_2 and v_3 measurements can refine eta/s estimates.

Viscosity impacts flow coefficients as functions of transverse momentum and pseudo-rapidity.

Abstract

We present results for the elliptic and triangular flow coefficients in Au+Au collisions at root-s=200 AGeV using event-by-event (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamic simulations. We study the effect of initial state fluctuations and finite viscosities on the flow coefficients v_2 and v_3 as functions of transverse momentum and pseudo-rapidity. Fluctuations are essential to reproduce the measured centrality dependence of elliptic flow. We argue that simultaneous measurements of v_2 and v_3 can determine eta/s more precisely.