Anisotropic flow of charged particles at $\mathbf{\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76}$ TeV measured with the ALICE detector

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of anisotropic flow coefficients in lead-lead collisions at 2.76 TeV using the ALICE detector, providing insights into the properties of the quark-gluon plasma as an almost ideal fluid.

Contribution

It presents new measurements of elliptic, triangular, quadrangular, and pentagonal flow coefficients using multi-particle correlation techniques at LHC energies.

Findings

Evidence of strong collective flow in heavy-ion collisions.

Flow coefficients are sensitive to initial spatial anisotropy.

Results support the fluid-like behavior of quark-gluon plasma.

Abstract

Measurements of anisotropic flow in heavy-ion collisions provide evidence for the creation of strongly interacting matter which appears to behave as an almost ideal fluid. Anisotropic flow signals the presence of multiple interactions and is very sensitive to the initial spatial anisotropy of the overlap region in non-central heavy-ion collisions. In this article we report measurements of elliptic $v_2$, triangular $v_3$, quadrangular $v_4$ and pentagonal $v_5$ flow. These measurements have been performed with 2- and multi-particle correlation techniques.