Influence of the shear viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma on elliptic flow in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We investigate the influence of a temperature-dependent shear viscosity over entropy density ratio eta/s on the transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flow of hadrons in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We find that the elliptic flow in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC is dominated by the viscosity in the hadronic phase and in the phase transition region, but largely insensitive to the viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). At the highest LHC energy, the elliptic flow becomes sensitive to the QGP viscosity and insensitive to the hadronic viscosity.

4 pages, 3 figures, version accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, clarified the temperature regions and phases where elliptic flow is most sensitive to viscosity

References in corpus (8)

• Viscosity in Strongly Interacting Quantum Field Theories from Black Hole Physics
• Viscosity Information from Relativistic Nuclear Collisions: How Perfect is the Fluid Observed at RHIC?
• 200 A GeV Au+Au collisions serve a nearly perfect quark-gluon liquid
• On the Strongly-Interacting Low-Viscosity Matter Created in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions
• Hydrodynamic Models for Heavy Ion Collisions
• Strongly coupled plasma with electric and magnetic charges
• Systematic parameter study of hadron spectra and elliptic flow from viscous hydrodynamic simulations of Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Chemical freeze-out temperature in hydrodynamical description of Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV

Cited by in corpus (1)

• The stickiness of sound: An absolute lower limit on viscosity and the breakdown of second order relativistic hydrodynamics