Anisotropic flow at the LHC measured with the ALICE detector

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of anisotropic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC, showing that the created system behaves like an almost perfect fluid and aligns well with hydrodynamical models.

Contribution

First measurements of anisotropic flow at 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector, demonstrating fluid-like behavior consistent with hydrodynamical models.

Findings

System behaves like an almost perfect fluid.

Hydrodynamical models describe the data well.

Flow measurements are consistent with lower energy results.

Abstract

The ALICE detector at the LHC recorded first Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV in November and December of 2010. We report on the measurements of anisotropic flow for charged and identified particles. From the comparison with measurements at lower energies and with model predictions we find that the system created at these collision energies is described well by hydrodynamical model calculations and behaves like an almost perfect fluid.