Anisotropic flow in event-by-event ideal hydrodynamic simulations of sqrt(s_{NN})=200 GeV Au+Au collisions

TL;DR

This study uses ideal hydrodynamic simulations to accurately reproduce and analyze anisotropic flow measurements in high-energy Au+Au collisions, confirming the quark-gluon plasma's collective behavior and low viscosity.

Contribution

First comprehensive event-by-event ideal hydrodynamic simulation comparison with complete flow measurements at top RHIC energy.

Findings

Good agreement with measured flow coefficients v_2, v_3, v_4.

Confirmation of low-viscosity quark-gluon plasma.

Prediction for v_5 flow coefficient.

Abstract

We calculate flow observables with the NeXSPheRIO ideal hydrodynamic model and make the first comparison to the complete set of mid-rapidity flow measurements made by the PHENIX collaboration in top energy Au+Au collisions. A simultaneous calculation of v_2, v_3, v_4, and the first event-by-event calculation of quadrangular flow defined with respect to the v_2 event plane (v_4{Psi_2}) gives good agreement with measured values, including the dependence on both transverse momentum and centrality. This provides confirmation that the collision system is indeed well described as a quark-gluon plasma with an extremely small viscosity, and that correlations are dominantly generated from collective effects. In addition we present a prediction for v_5.