International Journal of Physics

International Journal of Physics | Vol. 15, No. 4, April 2024 | pp. 25–32

DOI: 10.46882/2024/IJP/000168

Research Article

Title: Relativistic Hydrodynamic Simulations of Particle Generation Cascades in Asymmetric Argon-Gold Collisions

Names of Authors: H. L. Mueller¹, S. C. O’Brien²

Authors’ Affiliations:
¹ Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany
² School of Physics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Abstract: High-energy asymmetric heavy-ion collisions provide a vital experimental testing ground for decoupling localized cold nuclear matter parameters from collective hot quark-gluon plasma behaviors in intermediate configurations. This study presents a relativistic hydrodynamic modeling framework to simulate particle production cascades during asymmetric argon-gold (Ar-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 compute transverse momentum spectra and azimuthal anisotropy coefficients. The initial energy density distributions were generated via a Glauber-Gribov color-fluctuation model to track localized sub-nucleon scale features. The numerical simulations show that expanding fireballs develop a substantial radial flow profile, shifting the mean transverse momentum of protons up to 1.42 GeV/c in central runs. The calculated elliptic flow coefficient (v²) displays a strong mass-ordering signature, which matches experimental measurements gathered by specialized forward tracking spectrometers within a tight ±6.0% margin. This close agreement implies that small-scale systems can achieve brief collective hydrodynamic expansion.

Keywords: Relativistic hydrodynamics; particle production; argon-gold collisions; elliptic flow; color-fluctuation model; statistical hadronization

Manuscript Timeline: Received: January 08, 2024; Revised: February 17, 2024; Accepted: March 09, 2024; Published: April 10, 2024

Citation: Mueller, H. L., & O’Brien, S. C. (2024). Relativistic Hydrodynamic Simulations of Particle Generation Cascades in Asymmetric Argon-Gold Collisions. International Journal of Physics, 15(4), 25–32.