Fluctuating Initial Conditions and Anisotropic Flows

TL;DR

This paper investigates how initial geometric irregularities influence anisotropic flow patterns in heavy-ion collisions, comparing flow coefficients with initial eccentricities and introducing a toy model to explain observed disconnects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the relationship between initial condition fluctuations and anisotropic flow, including higher-order correlations and a toy model for event-level discrepancies.

Findings

Flow coefficients correlate with initial eccentricities up to sixth order.

Lack of direct connection between flow coefficients and eccentricities at the event level.

Comparison of initial condition angles with particle distribution angles.

Abstract

In this work we study the connection between anisotropic flows and lumpy initial conditions for Au+Au collisions at 200GeV. We present comparisons between anisotropic flow coefficients and eccentricities up to sixth order, and between initial condition reference angles and azimuthal particle distribution angles. We also present a toy model to justify the lack of connection between flow coefficients and eccentricities for individual events.