Deciphering Azimuthal Correlations in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the sources of azimuthal correlations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, using the Phi measure and event generators to identify dominant correlation mechanisms.

Contribution

It systematically distinguishes various correlation sources and demonstrates how to identify the dominant one using simulated data and kinematic analysis.

Findings

Elliptic flow significantly contributes to azimuthal correlations.

Resonance decays and jets also influence correlation patterns.

The Phi measure effectively quantifies different correlation sources.

Abstract

We discuss various sources of azimuthal correlations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The integral measure Phi is applied to quantify the correlations. We first consider separately the correlations caused by the elliptic flow, resonance decays, jets and transverse momentum conservation. An effect of randomly lost particles is also discussed. Using the PYTHIA and HIJING event generators we produce a sample of events which mimic experimental data. By means of kinematic cuts and particle's selection criteria, the data are analyzed to identify a dominant source of correlations.