Fluctuations of the Elliptic Flow

Abstract

We suggest to perform systematic measurements of the elliptic flow fluctuations which are sensitive to the early stage dynamics of heavy-ion collisions at high-energies. Significant flow fluctuations are shown to be generated due to the formation of topological clusters and development of the filamentation instability. The statistical noise and hydrodynamic fluctuations are also estimated.

Substantially revised version, 10 pages