The shape of differential radial flow $v_0(p_T)$, not its zero-crossing, carries physical information

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Main Authors: Bhatta, Somadutta, Dimri, Aman, Jia, Jiangyong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Bhatta, Somadutta
Dimri, Aman
Jia, Jiangyong
author_facet Bhatta, Somadutta
Dimri, Aman
Jia, Jiangyong
contents Radial flow, a key collective phenomenon in heavy-ion collisions, manifests itself through event-by-event fluctuations of transverse-momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) spectra. The $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-differential radial flow observable, $v_0(p_{\mathrm{T}})$, was introduced to quantify local spectral-shape fluctuations, but it is unavoidably influenced by global multiplicity fluctuations. Using the HIJING model, we show that different event-activity definitions for centrality classification and different spectral normalization schemes generate a constant vertical offset in $v_0(p_{\mathrm{T}})$ without altering its shape. This offset reflects the impact of residual volume/centrality fluctuations rather than genuine dynamical radial flow fluctuations. Accordingly, only the shape of $v_0(p_{\mathrm{T}})$, or equivalently its derivative $dv_0(p_{\mathrm{T}})/dp_{\mathrm{T}}$, carries physical information about radial-flow dynamics; its zero crossing does not. Practical implications include the need to vertically align measurements from different experiments before comparison, thereby removing normalization ambiguities when constraining QGP properties.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_20008
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The shape of differential radial flow $v_0(p_T)$, not its zero-crossing, carries physical information
Bhatta, Somadutta
Dimri, Aman
Jia, Jiangyong
Nuclear Theory
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Experiment
Radial flow, a key collective phenomenon in heavy-ion collisions, manifests itself through event-by-event fluctuations of transverse-momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) spectra. The $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-differential radial flow observable, $v_0(p_{\mathrm{T}})$, was introduced to quantify local spectral-shape fluctuations, but it is unavoidably influenced by global multiplicity fluctuations. Using the HIJING model, we show that different event-activity definitions for centrality classification and different spectral normalization schemes generate a constant vertical offset in $v_0(p_{\mathrm{T}})$ without altering its shape. This offset reflects the impact of residual volume/centrality fluctuations rather than genuine dynamical radial flow fluctuations. Accordingly, only the shape of $v_0(p_{\mathrm{T}})$, or equivalently its derivative $dv_0(p_{\mathrm{T}})/dp_{\mathrm{T}}$, carries physical information about radial-flow dynamics; its zero crossing does not. Practical implications include the need to vertically align measurements from different experiments before comparison, thereby removing normalization ambiguities when constraining QGP properties.
title The shape of differential radial flow $v_0(p_T)$, not its zero-crossing, carries physical information
topic Nuclear Theory
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.20008