Relativistic Hydrodynamic Simulations of Directed Flow Fluctuations in Asymmetric Carbon-Gold Collisions

International Journal of Physics | Vol. 10, No. 3, March 2019 | pp. 17–24

DOI: 10.46882/2019/IJP/000107

Research Article

Title: Relativistic Hydrodynamic Simulations of Directed Flow Fluctuations in Asymmetric Carbon-Gold Collisions

Names of Authors: S. C. O’Brien¹, A. M. El-Chemali²

Authors’ Affiliations: ¹School of Physics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; ²Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon

Abstract: High-energy asymmetric nuclear collisions provide a unique experimental platform to probe the initial-state spatial geometry fluctuations required to form a brief droplet of quark-gluon plasma. This study presents a relativistic hydrodynamic simulation framework to model particle production cascades and evaluate directed flow fluctuations in carbon-gold (C-Au) collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200.0 GeV per nucleon pair. We utilized a 3+1 dimensional viscous hydrodynamic code coupled with a statistical hadronization module to calculate final-state transverse momentum spectra. The initial energy density distributions were generated via a Monte Carlo Glauber model to track sub-nucleon scale configurations. The numerical simulations show that expanding fireballs develop a substantial radial flow profile, shifting the mean transverse momentum of protons up to 1.12 GeV/c in central events. The calculated directed flow coefficient (v1) displays a strong mass-ordering signature, which matches experimental tracking data from specialized heavy-ion detectors within a tight ±5.5% margin. This agreement implies that small-scale asymmetric nuclear interaction zones can briefly sustain fluid-like collective expansion profiles. These findings clarify the boundary constraints of fluid behavior in subatomic physics.

Keywords: Relativistic hydrodynamics; quark-gluon plasma; directed flow; asymmetric collisions; Glauber model; statistical hadronization

Manuscript Timeline: Received: December 14, 2018; Revised: January 20, 2019; Accepted: February 08, 2019; Published: March 11, 2019

Citation: O’Brien, S. C., & El-Chemali, A. M. (2019). Relativistic Hydrodynamic Simulations of Directed Flow Fluctuations in Asymmetric Carbon-Gold Collisions. International Journal of Physics, 10(3), 17–24.

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