Anisotropic Flow and flow fluctuations at the Large Hadron Collider

Abstract

One of the fundamental questions in the phenomenology of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is what the properties of matter are at the extreme densities and temperatures where quarks and gluons are in a new state of matter, the so-called Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Collisions of high-energy heavy-ions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), allow us to create and study the properties of such a system in the laboratory. Anisotropic flow (vn) is strong evidence for the existence of QGP, and has been described as one of the most important observations measured in the ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this thesis, the anisotropic flow of not only charged particles but also identified particles are presented. In addition, the investigations of correlations and fluctuations of both flow angle (symmetry plane) and magnitude were discussed. The main goal of this thesis is to understand the nature of anisotropic flow and its response to the initial geometry of the created system as well as its fluctuations.