Measurement of flow harmonics with multi-particle cumulants in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

ATLAS measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy in lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV are shown using a dataset of approximately 7 $\mu$b${}^{-1}$ collected at the LHC in 2010. The measurements are performed for charged particles with transverse momenta $0.5<p_T<20$ GeV and in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta |<2.5$. The anisotropy is characterized by the Fourier coefficients, $v_n$, of the charged-particle azimuthal angle distribution for n = 2-4. The Fourier coefficients are evaluated using multi-particle cumulants calculated with the generating function method. Results on the transverse momentum, pseudorapidity and centrality dependence of the $v_n$ coefficients are presented. The elliptic flow, $v_2$, is obtained from the two-, four-, six- and eight-particle cumulants while higher-order coefficients, $v_3$ and $v_4$, are determined with two- and four-particle cumulants. Flow harmonics $v_n$ measured with four-particle cumulants are significantly reduced compared to the measurement involving two-particle cumulants. A comparison to $v_n$ measurements obtained using different analysis methods and previously reported by the LHC experiments is also shown. Results of measurements of flow fluctuations evaluated with multi-particle cumulants are shown as a function of transverse momentum and the collision centrality. Models of the initial spatial geometry and its fluctuations fail to describe the flow fluctuations measurements.

17 pages plus author list + cover pages (31 pages total), 14 figures, 2 tables, submitted to EPJC, All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2012-04/

References in corpus (5)

• The eccentricity in heavy-ion collisions from Color Glass Condensate initial conditions
• Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV
• Fluctuating initial conditions in heavy-ion collisions from the Glauber approach
• Elliptic flow fluctuations and correlations in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV
• Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of neutral pions in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV

Cited by in corpus (5)

• $v_4$, $v_5$, $v_6$, $v_7$: nonlinear hydrodynamic response versus LHC data
• Characterizing flow fluctuations with moments
• Skewness of elliptic flow fluctuations
• Anisotropic flow of the fireball fed by hard partons
• Event patterns extracted from anisotropic spectra of charged particles produced in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV