Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Fluctuations of anisotropic flow in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

ContributorsATLAS Collaboration
Published inThe journal of high energy physics, vol. 01, no. 1, p. 59
Publication date2020
First online date2020-01-09
Abstract

Multi-particle azimuthal cumulants are measured as a function of centrality and transverse momentum using 470 μb$^{−1}$ of Pb+Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} $ = 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. These cumulants provide information on the event-by-event fluctuations of harmonic flow coefficients v$_{n}$ and correlated fluctuations between two harmonics v$_{n}$ and v$_{m}$. For the first time, a non-zero four-particle cumulant is observed for dipolar flow, v$_{1}$. The four-particle cumulants for elliptic flow, v$_{2}$, and triangular flow, v$_{3}$, exhibit a strong centrality dependence and change sign in ultra-central collisions. This sign change is consistent with significant non-Gaussian fluctuations in v$_{2}$ and v$_{3}$. The four-particle cumulant for quadrangular flow, v$_{4}$, is found to change sign in mid-central collisions. Correlations between two harmonics are studied with three- and four-particle mixed-harmonic cumulants, which indicate an anti-correlation between v2 and v3, and a positive correlation between v$_{2}$ and v$_{4}$. These correlations decrease in strength towards central collisions and either approach zero or change sign in ultra-central collisions. To investigate the possible flow fluctuations arising from intrinsic centrality or volume fluctuations, the results are compared between two different event classes used for centrality definitions. In peripheral and mid-central collisions where the cumulant signals are large, only small differences are observed. In ultra-central collisions, the differences are much larger and transverse momentum dependent. These results provide new information to disentangle flow fluctuations from the initial and final states, as well as new insights on the influence of centrality fluctuations.

Keywords
  • Hadron-Hadron scattering (experiments)
  • Heavy-ion collision
  • Collective flow
  • Event-by-event fluctuation
  • Particle correlations and fluctuations
  • Flow: fluctuation
  • Flow: anisotropy
  • Correlation
  • ATLAS
  • Transverse momentum dependence
  • Impact parameter
  • Triangular flow
  • Non-Gaussianity
  • Elliptic flow
  • CERN LHC Coll
  • Experimental results
  • 5020 GeV-cms/nucleon
Citation (ISO format)
ATLAS Collaboration. Fluctuations of anisotropic flow in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector. In: The journal of high energy physics, 2020, vol. 01, n° 1, p. 59. doi: 10.1007/JHEP01(2020)051
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Additional URL for this publicationhttps://link.springer.com/10.1007/JHEP01(2020)051
Journal ISSN1029-8479
6views
10downloads

Technical informations

Creation05/02/2026 10:13:37
First validation12/02/2026 15:13:23
Update10/04/2026 07:36:27
Status update10/04/2026 07:36:27
Last indexation10/04/2026 07:40:02
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack