Elliptic flow fluctuations in central collisions of spherical and deformed nuclei

Abstract

Elliptic flow ($v_2$) fluctuations in central heavy-ion collisions are direct probes of the fluctuating geometry of the quark-gluon plasma, and, as such, are strongly sensitive to any deviation from spherical symmetry in the shape of the colliding nuclei. We investigate the consequences of nuclear deformation for $v_2$ fluctuations, and we assess whether current models of medium geometry are able to predict and capture such effects. Assuming linear hydrodynamic response between $v_2$ and the eccentricity of the medium, ${\epsilon }_2$, we perform accurate comparisons between model calculations of ${\epsilon }_2$ fluctuations and STAR data on cumulants of elliptic flow, in central Au+Au and U+U collisions. From these comparisons, we evince that the most distinct signatures of nuclear deformation appear in the non-Gaussianities of $v_2$ fluctuation, and we show, in particular, that the non-Gaussian $v_2$ fluctuations currently observed in central Au+Au collisions are incompatible with model calculations that implement a quadrupole coefficient of order 12\% in the ${}^{197}$Au nuclei. Finally, we make robust predictions for the behavior of higher-order cumulants of $v_2$ in collisions of non-spherical nuclei.

11 pages; 4 figures; v2: overall minor improvements, corrected mistakes in legends of Figs 2 and 4, corrected wrong statement at the beginning of the Conclusions; v3: published version, legend corrected in fig. 3(b)

References in corpus (22)

• Alternative ansatz to wounded nucleon and binary collision scaling in high-energy nuclear collisions
• Triangularity and Dipole Asymmetry in Heavy Ion Collisions
• Effects of fluctuations on the initial eccentricity from the Color Glass Condensate in heavy ion collisions
• Elliptic flow in the Gaussian model of eccentricity fluctuations
• Anisotropic flow in Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{{\mathbf{s}}_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.44$ TeV
• Hydrodynamic predictions for 5.44 TeV Xe+Xe collisions
• Energy dependence and fluctuations of anisotropic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{{\text{s}}_{\text{NN}}}=5.02$ and $2.76$ TeV
• Effect of the QCD equation of state and strange hadronic resonances on multiparticle correlations in heavy ion collisions
• Viscous Effects on the Mapping of the Initial to Final State in Heavy Ion Collisions
• Measurement of flow harmonics with multi-particle cumulants in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Elliptic flow in U+U collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV and in Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76 TeV: Prediction from a hybrid approach
• Skewness of elliptic flow fluctuations
• Non-Gaussian elliptic-flow fluctuations in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\text{NN}}}}=$ 5.02 TeV
• Predictions of elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor from 200 GeV U + U collisions at RHIC
• Predictions for multiplicities and flow harmonics in 5.44 TeV Xe+Xe collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Centrality fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions
• Photoactivation experiment on 197Au and its implications for the dipole strength in heavy nuclei
• Azimuthal Anisotropy Distributions in High-Energy Collisions
• Continuous description of fluctuating eccentricities
• Gluon Saturation Effects in Relativistic U+U Collisions
• Kurtosis of elliptic flow fluctuations
• Multi-particle azimuthal correlations for extracting event-by-event elliptic and triangular flow in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Evidence of quadrupole and octupole deformations in ${}^{96}$Zr+${}^{96}$Zr and ${}^{96}$Ru+${}^{96}$Ru collisions at ultra-relativistic energies
• Shape of atomic nuclei in heavy ion collisions
• Probing triaxial deformation of atomic nuclei in high-energy heavy ion collisions
• Probing the neutron skin with ultrarelativistic isobaric collisions
• Imaging the initial condition of heavy-ion collisions and nuclear structure across the nuclide chart
• Constraining the quadrupole deformation of atomic nuclei with relativistic nuclear collisions
• Separating the impact of nuclear skin and nuclear deformation in high-energy isobar collisions
• Correlations between flow and transverse momentum in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC with the ATLAS detector: a probe of the heavy-ion initial state and nuclear deformation
• Accessing the shape of atomic nuclei with relativistic collisions of isobars
• Possible octupole deformation of ${}^{208}$Pb and the ultracentral $v_2$ to $v_3$ puzzle
• Impact of nuclear deformation on collective flow observables in relativistic U+U collisions
• Structure of ${}^{128,129,130}$Xe through multi-reference energy density functional calculations
• Predictions for the sPHENIX physics program
• Measures of azimuthal anisotropy in high-energy collisions
• Impact of quadrupole deformation on intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions
• Impact parameter dependence of anisotropic flow: Bayesian reconstruction in ultracentral nucleus-nucleus collisions
• Momentum dependent flow correlations in deformed nuclei at collision energies available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
• Observing the deformation of nuclei with relativistic nuclear collisions
• Ultracentral Collisions of Small and Deformed Systems at RHIC: $UU$, $dAu$, ${}^{9}BeAu$, ${}^{9}Be{}^{9}Be$, ${}^{3}He{}^{3}He$, and ${}^{3}HeAu$ Collisions
• Benchmarking nuclear matrix elements of $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay with high-energy nuclear collisions
• Turning up and down strong magnetic fields in relativistic nuclear collisions
• Scaling approach to rigid and soft nuclear deformation through flow fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions
• Study of octupole deformations in Pb-Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV
• The impact of nuclear deformation on relativistic heavy-ion collisions: assessing consistency in nuclear physics across energy scales