Probing flow fluctuations through factorization breaking of harmonic flows in heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates flow fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions by analyzing factorization-breaking coefficients, comparing model predictions with experimental data, and exploring their implications for understanding initial-state fluctuations.

Contribution

It introduces a method to probe flow fluctuations through factorization-breaking coefficients and compares model results with experimental data to enhance understanding of initial-state effects.

Findings

Model results align with preliminary experimental data.

Flow vector and flow magnitude coefficients reveal flow angle decorrelations.

Predictions made for momentum-dependent correlations between mixed flow harmonics.

Abstract

We study factorization-breaking coefficients between the momentum dependent and momentum averaged flow vectors to probe flow fluctuations caused by initial-state fluctuations in heavy-ion collision. The coefficients for the flow vector squared and flow magnitude squared could be used for the extraction of flow angle decorrelations. We compare our model results with preliminary experimental data. We also present the predictions for the momentum dependent correlation between mixed flow harmonics.