We show from covariant transport theory that, for a massless ideal gas equation of state, even a small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio $η\approx s/(4 π)$ generates significant 15-30% dissipative corrections to elliptic flow for conditions expected in mid-peripheral (b = 8 fm) Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} \sim 200$ GeV at RHIC.
Hydrodynamic behavior and the associated discussions of viscosity at RHIC has inspired a r enaissance in modeling viscous hydrodynamics. An explanation of Israel-Stewart hydrodynamics is presented here, with an emphasis on the tangible benefits compared to Navier Stokes.
We study the effects of bulk viscosity on p_T spectra and elliptic flow in heavy ion collisions at RHIC. We argue that direct effect of the bulk viscosity on the evolution of the velocity field is small, but corrections to the freezeout distributions can be significant. These effects are dominated by chemical non-equilibration in the hadronic phase. We show that a non-zero bulk viscosity in the range $ζ/s \lsim 0.05$ improves the description of spectra and flow at RHIC.
A variety of physical phenomena can lead to viscous effects. In this talk we review several sources of shear and bulk viscosity with an emphasis on the bulk viscosity associated with chiral restoration. We show that in the limit of a second order phase transition, the viscosity peaks in a singularity at the critical point.
A variety of physical phenomena can lead to viscous effects. Several sources of shear and bulk viscosity are reviewed with an emphasis on the bulk viscosity associated with chiral restoration and with chemical non-equilibrium. We show that in a mean-field treatment of the limiting case of a second order phase transition, the bulk viscosity peaks in a singularity at the critical point.
Correlation studies exhibit a ridge-like feature in rapidity and azimuthal angle, with and without a jet trigger. We ask whether the feature in untriggered correlations can be a consequence of transverse flow and viscous diffusion.
We consider the longitudinal hydrodynamic evolution of the fireball created in a relativistic heavy-ion collision. Nonzero shear viscosity reduces the colling rate of the system and hinders the acceleration of the longitudinal flow. As a consequence, the initial energy density needed to reproduce the experimental data at RHIC energies is significantly reduced. At LHC energies, we expect that shear viscosity helps to conserve a Bjorken plateau in the rapidity distributions during the expansion.
We describe ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and the LHC with a hybrid model using the IP-Glasma model for the earliest stage and viscous hydrodynamics and microscopic transport for the later stages of the collision. We demonstrate that within this framework the bulk viscosity of the plasma plays an important role in describing the experimentally observed radial flow and azimuthal anisotropy simultaneously. We further investigate the dependence of observables on the temperature below which we employ the microscopic transport description.
We report recent progress on causal viscous hydrodynamics for relativistic heavy ion collisions. For fixed specific shear viscosity eta/s, uncertainties in the elliptic flow arising from initial conditions, equation of state, bulk viscosity and numerical viscosity, and the treatment of the highly viscous hadronic stage and freeze-out procedure are analysed. A comparison of current viscous hydrodynamic results with experimental data yields a robust upper limit eta/s < 5/(4pi).
We study the elliptic flow systematically from SIS to RHIC energies in a realistic dynamical cascade model. We compile our results with the recent data from STAR and PHOBOS experiments on elliptic flow of charged particles in Au + Au collisions at RHIC energy. From the analysis of elliptic flow as a function of different dynamical variables such as transverse momenta, pseudorapidity and centrality at RHIC energy, we found a good fitting with data at 1.5 times a scaling factor to our simulation model, which characterizes that the model is required to have extra pressure generated from the subse…
We compare elliptic flow evolution from ideal hydrodynamics and covariant parton transport theory, and show that, for conditions expected at RHIC, dissipation significantly reduces elliptic flow even for extreme parton cross sections and/or densities sigma_gg * dN/dη(b=0) ~ 45 mb * 1000. The difference between transport and hydrodynamic elliptic flow is established rather early during the evolution of the system, but the buildup of elliptic flow is surprisingly insensitive to the choice of the initial (formation or thermalization) time in both models.
Results from the data obtained in the first physics run of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have shown suprisingly large elliptic flow and suprisingly small HBT radii. Attempts to explain both results in a consistant picture have so far been unsuccessful. The present work shows that a thermal model + hadronic rescattering calculation can explain both elliptic flow and HBT results from RHIC. The calculation requires a very early hadronization time of about 1 fm/c after the initial collision of the nuclei.
In this article, we briefly review the recent progress related to extracting the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) specific shear viscosity from the flow data measured at Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Results from the data obtained in the first physics run of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have shown suprisingly large elliptic flow and suprisingly small HBT radii. Attempts to explain both results in a consistant picture have so far been unsuccessful. The present work shows that a simple thermal-like initial state model coupled to a hadronic rescattering calculation can explain reasonably well both elliptic flow and HBT results from RHIC. The calculation suggests a very early hadronization time of about 1 fm/c after the initial collision of the nuclei.
Elliptic flow at RHIC is computed event-by-event with NeXSPheRIO. Reasonable agreement with experimental results on $v_2(η)$ is obtained. Various effects are studied as well: reconstruction of impact parameter direction, freeze out temperature, equation of state (with or without crossover), emission mecanism.
Recent PHOBOS measurements of the excitation function for the pseudo-rapidity dependence of elliptic flow in Au+Au collisions at RHIC, have posed a significant theoretical challenge. Here we show that these differential measurements, as well as the RHIC measurements on transverse momentum satisfy a universal scaling relation predicted by the Buda-Lund model, based on exact solutions of perfect fluid hydrodynamics. We also show that recently found transverse kinetic energy scaling of the elliptic flow is a special case of this universal scaling.
Recent PHOBOS measurements of the excitation function for the pseudo-rapidity dependence of elliptic flow in Au+Au collisions at RHIC, have posed a significant theoretical challenge. We show here that these data are described by the Buda-Lund model. A universal scaling curve, predicted by the Buda-Lund hydro model, describes not only PHOBOS data, but also recent, detailed PHENIX and STAR elliptic flow data. This is a consequence of perfect fluid hydrodynamics as implemented in the Buda-Lund hydro model.
The ellipsoidally symmetric Buda-Lund hydrodynamic model describes naturally the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity dependence of the elliptic flow in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 130$ and 200 GeV. The result confirms the indication of quark deconfinement in Au+Au collisions at RHIC, obtained from Buda-Lund hydro model fits to combined spectra and HBT radii of BRAHMS, PHOBOS, PHENIX and STAR.
The interplay between shear and bulk viscosities on the flow harmonics, $v_n$'s, at RHIC is investigated using the newly developed relativistic 2+1 hydrodynamical code v-USPhydro that includes bulk and shear viscosity effects both in the hydrodynamic evolution and also at freeze-out. While shear viscosity is known to attenuate the flow harmonics, we find that the inclusion of bulk viscosity decreases the shear viscosity-induced suppression of the flow harmonics bringing them closer to their values in ideal hydrodynamical calculations. Depending on the value of the bulk viscosity to entropy den…
Fluctuations in nucleon positions can affect the spatial eccentricity of the overlap zone in nucleus-nucleus collisions. We show that elliptic flow should be scaled by different eccentricities depending on which method is used for the flow analysis. These eccentricities are estimated semi-analytically. When $v_2$ is analyzed from 4-particle cumulants, or using the event plane from directed flow in a zero-degree calorimeter, the result is shown to be insensitive to eccentricity fluctuations.
Using the perturbative method for the simulation of charmed particles, the dynamical origin of charm quark elliptic flow is studied in the framework of a multi-phase transport (AMPT) model. Besides the expected ordering relative to that of light quarks according to quark masses, charm quark elliptic flow is seen to be sensitive to the parton scattering cross section. To describe the observed large elliptic flow of electrons from the decay of charmed mesons, a charm quark elastic scattering cross section much larger than that estimated from the perturbative QCD is required.
Charm elliptic flow in heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is studied in a multiphase transport model. Assuming that the cross section for charm quark scattering with other light quarks is the same as that between light quarks, we find that both charm and light quark elliptic flows are sensitive to the value of the cross section. Compared to that of light quarks, the elliptic flow of charm quarks is smaller at low transverse momentum but approaches comparable values at high transverse momentum. Similar features are seen in the elliptic flow of charmed mesons as w…
Differential elliptic flow and particle spectra are calculated taking into account the finite transport opacity of the gluon plasma produced in Au+Au at Ecm ~ 130 A GeV at RHIC. Covariant numerical solutions of the ultrarelativistic Boltzmann equation are obtained using the MPC parton cascade technique. For typical pQCD (~3 mb) elastic cross sections, extreme initial gluon densities, dN/deta ~ 15000, are required to reproduce the elliptic flow saturation pattern reported by STAR. However, we show that the solutions depend mainly on the transport opacity, $χ=\int dz σ_tρ_g$, and thus the data c…
Relativistic viscous hydrodynamic fits to RHIC data on the centrality dependence of multiplicity, transverse and elliptic flow for sqrt{s}=200 GeV Au+Au collisions are presented. For Glauber-type initial conditions, while data on integrated v_2 is consistent with a ratio of viscosity over entropy density up to eta/s=0.16, data on minimum bias v_2 seems to favor a much smaller viscosity over entropy ratio, below the bound from the AdS/CFT conjecture. Some caveats on this result are discussed.
The Lee-Yang zeroes method is applied to study elliptic flow ($v_2$) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200A$~GeV, with the UrQMD model. In this transport approach, the true event plane is known and both the nonflow effects and event-by-event $v_2$ fluctuations exist. Although the low resolutions prohibit the application of the method for most central and peripheral collisions, the integral and differential elliptic flow from the Lee-Yang zeroes method agrees with the exact $v_2$ values very well for semi-central collisions.
The pseudo-rapidity dependence of the elliptic flow at various excitation energies measured by the PHOBOS Collaboration in Au+Au collisions at RHIC is one of the surprising results that has not been explained before in terms of hydrodynamical models. Here we show that these data are in agreement with theoretical predictions based on perfect fluid hydrodynamics. We also show that these PHOBOS data satisfy the universal scaling relation predicted by the Buda-Lund hydrodynamical model, based on exact solutions of perfect fluid hydrodynamics.
We argue that RHIC data, in particular those on the anisotropic flow coefficients v_2 and v_4, suggest that the matter produced in the early stages of nucleus-nucleus collisions is incompletely thermalized. We interpret the parameter (1/S)(dN/dy), where S is the transverse area of the collision zone and dN/dy the multiplicity density, as an indicator of the number of collisions per particle at the time when elliptic flow is established, and hence as a measure of the degree of equilibration. This number serves as a control parameter which can be varied experimentally by changing the system size…
We systematically investigate the pion transverse momentum spectrum, elliptic flow, and Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) interferometry in the granular source model for the heavy ion collisions of Au-Au at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 200 GeV and Pb-Pb at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 2.76 TeV with different centralities. The granular source model can well reproduce the experimental results of the heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We examine the parameters involved in the granular source model. The experimental data of the momentum spectrum, elliptic flow,…
Within a covariant parton cascade, we discuss the impact of both finite shear viscosity $η$ and freeze-out dynamics on the elliptic flow generated at RHIC. We find that the enhancement of $η/s$ in the cross-over region of the QGP phase transition cannot be neglected in order to extract the information from the QGP phase. We also point out that the elliptic flow $v_2(p_T)$ for a fluid at $η/s \sim 0.1-0.2$ is consistent with the one needed by quark number scaling drawing a nice consistency between the nearly perfect fluid property of QGP and the coalescence process.
Using the (2+1)-dimensional ultrarelativistic viscous hydrodynamics+hadron cascade, VISHNU, hybrid model, we study the $p_{\rm T}$-spectra and elliptic flow of $Λ$, $Ξ$, and $Ω$ in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV and in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=2.76 TeV. Comparing our model results with the data measurements, we find that the VISHNU model gives general descriptions of the measurements of these strange and multi-strange hadrons at several centrality classes at RHIC and LHC. Mass ordering of elliptic flow $v_{2}$ among $π$, $K$, $p$, $Λ$, $Ξ$, and $Ω$ are further investiga…
We argue that measurements of identified-particle elliptic flow in a wide energy range could shed light on the possible phase change in high-energy heavy ion collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). When the hadronization process is dominated by quark coalescence, the number-of-constituent-quark (NCQ) scaling for the identified-particle elliptic flow can serve as a probe for studying the strong interacting partonic matter. In the upcoming RHIC low-energy runs, the NCQ scaling behavior may be broken because of the change of the effective degrees of freedom of the hot dense …
The pseudo-rapidity dependence of the elliptic flow at various excitation energies measured by the PHOBOS Collaboration in Au+Au collisions at RHIC is one of the surprising results that has not been explained before in terms of hydrodynamical models. Here we show that these data are in agreement with theoretical predictions and satisfy the universal scaling relation predicted by the Buda-Lund hydrodynamical model, based on exact solutions of perfect fluid hydrodynamics. We also show a theoretical prediction on the rapidity and transverse momentum scaling of the HBT radii measured in heavy ion …
We calculate $p_T$ spectra and elliptic flow for tip-tip and body-body configurations of full overlap uranium-uranium (U+U) collisions using a hydrodynamic model with smooth initial density distribution and compare the results with those obtained from Au+Au collisions at RHIC. Production of thermal photons is seen to be significantly larger for tip-tip collisions compared to body-body collisions of uranium nuclei in the region $p_T >$ 1 GeV. The thermal photon spectrum from body-body collisions is found to be close to the spectrum from most central Au+Au collisions at RHIC. The elliptic flow p…
The ellipsoidally symmetric extension of Buda-Lund hydrodynamic model is shown here to yield a natural description of the pseudorapidity dependence of the elliptic flow $v_2(η)$, as determined recently by the PHOBOS experiment for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 130$ and 200 GeV. With the same set of parameters, the Buda-Lund model describes also the transverse momentum dependence of $v_2$ of identified particles at mid-rapidity. The results confirm the indication for quark deconfinement in Au+Au collisions at RHIC, obtained from a successful Buda-Lund hydro model fit to the single partic…
We continue the analysis of the preceding talk with a discussion of the elliptic flow and the HBT pion correlation radii. It is shown that the thermal model can be extended to describe these phenomena. The description of the elliptic flow involves an appropriate deformation of the freeze-out hypersurface and flow velocity. The obtained results agree reasonably with the data for soft (< 2 GeV) transverse momenta. For the pionic HBT correlation radii the experimental feature that R_out/R_side ~ 1 is naturally obtained. The reproduction of individual R_side and R_out can be achieved with the incl…
We study real photons produced in heavy ion collisions at RHIC, and we calculate their spectrum and its azimuthal momentum anisotropy. The photons from a variety of sources are included, and the interplay and the time-evolution of those sources are modelled in a full 3D hydrodynamic simulation. We quantify the v_2 of thermal photons produced in ideal and viscous fluids, and the consequences of using different initial conditions are explored.
Ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are thought to have produced a state of matter called the quark-gluon plasma, characterized by a very small shear-viscosity to entropy-density ratio $η/s$, near the lower bound predicted for that quantity by AdS/CFT methods. As the produced matter expands and cools, it evolves through a phase described by a hadron gas with rapidly increasing $η/s$. We calculate $η/s$ as a function of temperature in this phase both in and out of chemical equilibrium and find that its value poses a challenge for viscous relativi…
We discuss one of the most prominent features of the very recent preliminary elliptic flow data of $J/Ψ$ meson from the PHENIX collaboration \cite{Silvestre:2008tw}. Even within the the rather large error bars of the measured data a negative elliptic flow parameter ($v_2$) for $J/Ψ$ in the range of $p_T=0.5-2.5 \GeV/c$ is visible. We argue that this negative elliptic flow at intermediate $p_T$ is a clear and qualitative signature for the collectivity of charm quarks produced in nucleus-nucleus reactions at RHIC. Within a parton recombination approach we show that a negative elliptic flow puts …
We employed the new issue of a parton and hadron cascade model PACIAE 2.1 to systematically investigate the charged particle elliptic flow parameter $v_2$ in the relativistic nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. With randomly sampling the transverse momentum $x$ and $y$ components of the particles generated in string fragmentation on the circumference of an ellipse instead of circle originally, the calculated charged particle $v_2(η)$ and $v_2(p_T)$ fairly reproduce the corresponding experimental data in the Au+Au/Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=0.2/2.76 TeV. In addition, the charg…
Using viscous relativistic hydrodynamics we show that systematic studies of the impact parameter dependence of the eccentricity scaled elliptic flow can distinguish between different models for the calculation of the initial source eccentricity. This removes the largest present uncertainty in the extraction of the specific viscosity of the matter created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions from precise elliptic flow measurements.
We predict how differential elliptic flow v2(pT) changes from RHIC to LHC collision energies (Pb+Pb at 5.5 TeV/nucleon), ASSUMING that the quark-gluon system created has a ``minimal'' shear viscosity eta/s = 1/(4*pi) at both RHIC and the LHC.
Anisotropic transverse flow is studied in Pb+Pb and Au+Au collisions at SPS and RHIC energies. The centrality and transverse momentum dependence at midrapidity of the elliptic flow coefficient v_2 is calculated in the hydrodynamic and low density limits. Hydrodynamics is found to agree well with the RHIC data for semicentral collisions up to transverse momenta of 1-1.5 GeV/c, but it considerably overestimates the measured elliptic flow at SPS energies. The low density limit LDL is inconsistent with the measured magnitude of v_2 at RHIC energies and with the shape of its p_t-dependence at both …
Current status of dynamical modeling of relativistic heavy ion collisions and hydrodynamic description of the quark gluon plasma is reported. We find the hadronic rescattering effect plays an important role in interpretation of mass splitting pattern in the differential elliptic flow data observed at RHIC. To demonstrate this, we predict the elliptic flow parameter for phi mesons to directly observe the flow just after hadronisation. We also discuss recent applications of outputs from hydrodynamic calculations to J/psi suppression, thermal photon radiation and heavy quark diffusion.
Effect of shear viscosity on elliptic flow is studied in causal dissipative hydrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions. Elliptic flow is reduced in viscous dynamics. Causal evolution of minimally viscous fluid ($η/s$=0.08), can explain the PHENIX data on elliptic flow in 16-23% Au+Au collisions up to $p_T\approx$3.6 GeV. In contrast, ideal hydrodynamics, can explain the same data only up to $p_T\approx$1.5 GeV. $p_T$ spectra of identified particles are also better explained in minimally viscous fluid than in ideal dynamics. However, saturation of elliptic flow at large $p_T$ is not reproduced.
Directed flow in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions is analyzed using the reaction plane from elliptic flow, which reduces the bias from nonflow effects. We combine this method with the determination of elliptic flow from Lee-Yang zeroes. The resulting method is more consistent and somewhat easier to implement than the previously used method based on three-particle cumulants, and is also less biased by nonflow correlations. Error terms from residual nonflow correlations are carefully estimated, as well as statistical errors. We discuss the application of the method at RHIC and LHC.
The specific shear viscosity (eta/s)_QGP of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) can be extracted from elliptic flow data in heavy-ion collisions by comparing them with the dynamical model VISHNU which couples a viscous fluid dynamic description of the QGP with a microscopic kinetic description of the late hadronic rescattering and freeze-out stage. A robust method for fixing (eta/s)_QGP from the collision centrality dependence of the eccentricity-scaled charged hadron elliptic flow is presented. The systematic uncertainties associated with this extraction method are discussed, with specific attention to …
The large elliptic flow observed in Au-Au collisions at RHIC is often put forward as a compelling evidence for the formation of a strongly-interacting quark-gluon plasma. The main argument is that the measured elliptic flow is as large as the value given by fluid-dynamics models that assume complete thermalization. It is argued that this claim may not be justified, since a detailed examination of experimental data rather suggests that the system created is not fully equilibrated at the time when anisotropic flow develops.
In this contribution we present an alternative scenario for the large elliptic flow observed in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Motivated by recent results from Lattice QCD on flavor off-diagonal susceptibilities we argue that the matter right above $T_{c}$ can be described by single-particle dynamics in a repulsive single-particle potential, which in turn gives rise to elliptic flow. These ideas can be tested experimentally by measuring elliptic flow of heavy quarks, preferably via the measurement of $J/Ψ$ elliptic flow.
The correlation between the elliptic flow $v_2$ scaled by the impact parameter $b$ and the shear viscosity $η$ as well as the specific viscosity $η/s$, defined as the ratio of the shear viscosity to the entropy density $s$, is investigated for the first time in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions based on an isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamic model. The elliptic flow is calculated at balance energies to exclude the geometric influence such as the blocking effect from the spectators. Our study shows that $v_{2}/b$ decreases almost linearly with increasing $η$, consistent with that…
We calculate transverse-momentum ($p_t$) spectra and elliptic flow of $J/ψ$'s in $Au$-$Au$ and $Cu$-$Cu$ collisions at RHIC. We employ an earlier constructed 2-component approach for direct and regenerated charmonia which is fairly consistent with the centrality dependence of inclusive $J/ψ$ yields at SPS and RHIC. Discrepancies with high-$p_t$ data in $Cu$-$Cu$ collisions are addressed by implementing effects of a finite formation time and an estimate of $B$ meson feeddown, which largely resolve the problem. The sensitivity of the spectra to the Cronin effect and different in-medium dissociat…
Experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) suggest that the state of matter produced in the experiments has a low shear-viscosity to entropy-density ratio. We ask here the question what is this ratio in usual finite nuclei at low temperature. We use the experimental and theoretical results for the widths of giant vibrational states in nuclei in order to calculate the above ratio. We find that the values of this ratio are not very different from the ones found in the RHIC experiments.
We estimate the effects of viscosity on the phase space distribution appearing in the Cooper-Frye formula within the framework of the Grad's fourteen moment method and find that there are non-trivialities in the discussion of a multi-component system. We calculate the viscous corrections of particle spectra and elliptic flow coefficients from the distortion of the distribution using the flow and the hypersurface taken from a (3+1)-dimensional ideal hydrodynamic simulation. We see that the bulk viscosity have visible effects on particle spectra. The results suggest we should treat both shear an…
From covariant transport theory, a significant ~10% light quark elliptic flow at RHIC implies an elliptic flow of similar magnitude for charm quarks, at moderately large pT > 2.5 - 3 GeV. At lower transverse momenta, charm quark elliptic flow reduces progressively, reminiscent of the mass ordering pattern in ideal hydrodynamics. From the quark flows we predict the elliptic flow of D mesons at RHIC via quark coalescence. The large parton opacities needed to generate the light quark flow also lead to substantial ~40-50% secondary charm production.
We show that the centrality and system-size dependence of elliptic flow measured at RHIC are fully described by a simple model based on eccentricity scaling and incomplete thermalization. We argue that the elliptic flow is at least 25% below the (ideal) ``hydrodynamic limit'', even for the most central Au-Au collisions. This lack of perfect equilibration allows for estimates of the effective parton cross section in the Quark-Gluon Plasma and of its viscosity to entropy density ratio. We also show how the initial conditions affect the transport coefficients and thermodynamic quantities extracte…
Using a hydrodynamic model, we predict the transverse momentum dependence of the spectra and the elliptic flow for different hadrons in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s) = 130 A GeV. The dependence of the differential and p_t-integrated elliptic flow on the hadron mass, equation of state and freeze-out temperature is studied both numerically and analytically.
The cumulant method is applied to study elliptic flow ($v_2$) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$AGeV, with the UrQMD model. In this approach, the true event plane is known and both the non-flow effects and event-by-event spatial ($ε$) and $v_2$ fluctuations exist. Qualitatively, the hierarchy of $v_2$'s from two, four and six-particle cumulants is consistent with the STAR data, however, the magnitude of $v_2$ in the UrQMD model is only 60% of the data. We find that the four and six-particle cumulants are good measures of the real elliptic flow over a wide range of centralities except for th…
We calculate elliptic and triangular flow parameters of thermal photons using an event-by-event hydrodynamic model with fluctuating initial conditions at 200A GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC and at 2.76A TeV Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC for three different centrality bins. The photon elliptic flow shows strong centrality dependence where $v_2(p_T)$ increases towards peripheral collisions both at RHIC and at the LHC energies. However, the triangular flow parameter does not show significant dependence to the collision centrality. The elliptic as well as the triangular flow parameters found to undere…
Elliptic flow measurements at RHIC suggest that quark gluon plasma flows with very little viscosity compared to weak coupling expectations, challenging theorists to explain why this fluid is so nearly ``perfect''. It is therefore vital to find quantitative experimental information on the viscosity of the plasma. We propose that measurements of transverse momentum fluctuations can be used to determine the shear viscosity. We use current data to estimate the viscosity-to-entropy ratio in the range from 0.08 to 0.3, and discuss how future measurements can reduce this uncertainty.
The hydrodynamic model is used to describe the single-particle spectra and elliptic flow of hadrons at RHIC and to predict the emission angle dependence of HBT correlations at RHIC and LHC energies.
Predictions of elliptic flow ($v_2$) and nuclear modification factor ($R_{AA}$) are provided as a function of centrality in U + U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV. Since the $^{238}$U nucleus is naturally deformed, one could adjust the properties of the fireball, density and duration of the hot and dense system, for example, in high energy nuclear collisions by carefully selecting the colliding geometry. Within our Monte Carlo Glauber based approach, the $v_2$ with respect to the reaction plane $v_2^{RP}$ in U + U collisions is consistent with that in Au + Au collisions, while the $v…
The recent results on anisotropic flow in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions along with recent methodical developments and achievements in the understanding of the phenomena, are reviewed. The emphasis is given to the elliptic flow results.