The role of longitudinal decorrelations for measurements of anisotropic flow in small collision systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates how longitudinal decorrelations affect anisotropic flow measurements in small collision systems using a (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamic model, highlighting the significance of rapidity dependence for data interpretation.

Contribution

It introduces the role of longitudinal decorrelations in understanding anisotropic flow in small systems, emphasizing the impact of rapidity-dependent geometry on experimental results.

Findings

Rapidity dependence significantly influences flow measurements.

Longitudinal decorrelations affect the interpretation of anisotropic flow.

Differences between STAR and PHENIX results are partly due to rapidity effects.

Abstract

Within a (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamic model we compute anisotropic flow in small system collisions as performed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and measured by the STAR and PHENIX Collaborations. We emphasize the importance of the rapidity dependence of the geometry for interpreting the differences encountered in measurements by the two collaborations.