Hydrodynamic predictions for 5.02 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

TL;DR

This paper predicts how key flow observables in Pb-Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV will change from lower energies using hydrodynamics, providing a test for current models without relying on specific initial condition assumptions.

Contribution

It offers model-independent hydrodynamic predictions for 5.02 TeV Pb-Pb collisions, focusing on observable changes from previous energies.

Findings

Predicted small increases in flow and mean transverse momentum at 5.02 TeV.

Provides baseline predictions to test hydrodynamic models.

No reliance on specific initial condition models or medium viscosity values.

Abstract

We make predictions for momentum-integrated elliptic and triangular flow as well as mean transverse momentum for 5.02 TeV Pb-Pb collisions, as planned at the Large Hadron Collider. We use hydrodynamic calculations to predict the change of these observables as the center-of-mass collision energy evolves from 2.76 TeV to 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair. By using previously measured values as a baseline, we are able to make a robust prediction without relying on a particular model for initial conditions and without precise knowledge of medium properties such as viscosity. Thus, though the predicted changes are small, they can provide a significant test of the current hydrodynamic picture of heavy-ion collisions.