Measurements of correlations of anisotropic flow harmonics in Pb--Pb Collisions with ALICE

TL;DR

This paper presents the first measurements of correlations between different anisotropic flow harmonics in Pb--Pb collisions using ALICE data, providing insights into initial conditions and system evolution.

Contribution

It introduces the first experimental measurement of flow harmonic correlations using multi-particle cumulants and compares results with theoretical models.

Findings

Correlation strength depends on flow fluctuations

Data constrains initial conditions in heavy-ion collision models

Comparison with models highlights areas for theoretical improvement

Abstract

We report the first measurements of the correlation strength between various anisotropic flow harmonics, using ALICE data. This correlation strength is characterized with multi-particle cumulants of mixed harmonics, which by construction depend only on the fluctuations of magnitudes of the anisotropic flow vectors. A detailed comparison to theoretical model calculations, including HIJING, Monte Carlo Glauber and hydrodynamics is also presented. These studies further constrain initial conditions, the properties and the evolution of the system to be used in theoretical simulations of heavy-ion collisions.