Initial state fluctuations and higher harmonic flow in heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive framework combining initial gluon field dynamics with hydrodynamic evolution to accurately model and reproduce experimental flow coefficients and their fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integrated model that incorporates initial state fluctuations and viscous hydrodynamics to match experimental flow data and multiplicity fluctuations.

Findings

Successfully reproduces experimental flow coefficients v2-v5.

Accurately models event-by-event flow distributions measured by ATLAS.

Captures negative binomial fluctuations of gluon multiplicities.

Abstract

A framework combining Yang-Mills dynamics of the pre-equilibrium glasma with relativistic viscous hydrodynamic evolution of the quark-gluon plasma and hadron gas phases is presented. Event-by-event fluctuations of nucleon positions and color charges are taken into account, leading to negative binomial fluctuations of gluon multiplicities. Experimental anisotropic flow coefficients v2-v5 of charged hadron distributions in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider are well described. Furthermore, event-by-event distributions of v2, v3 and v4 measured by the ATLAS collaboration are reproduced.