English

Nonlinear response of flow harmonics in Gubser flow with participant-reaction planes mismatch

Nuclear Theory 2026-04-14 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Nuclear Experiment

Abstract

We investigate the nonlinear response of flow harmonics v2,v4v_2,v_4 to initial-state eccentricities ϵ2,ϵ4\epsilon_2,\epsilon_4 within the Gubser-flow framework. By extending the perturbative solutions of Gubser flow, we derive analytic nonlinear response relations connecting the eccentricities ϵ2,ϵ4\epsilon_2,\epsilon_4 to the flow harmonics v2,v4v_2,v_4. Our results reproduce the well-known result v4/v221/2v_4/v_2^2 \to 1/2 in large transverse momentum pTp_T limit. Furthermore, we study the effects of a mismatch between the participant and reaction planes. We find that the conventional nonlinear response coefficients acquire an additional factor determined by the participant-plane angles, which is often approximated as statistical noise driven by event-by-event fluctuations. This factor can modify both the strength but even the sign of the effective nonlinear response coefficient, making it sensitive to the initial configuration of the colliding nuclei. Our study provides new analytical insight into the origin of collective phenomena in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.11058,
  title  = {Nonlinear response of flow harmonics in Gubser flow with participant-reaction planes mismatch},
  author = {Xiang Ren and Jin-Yu Hu and Hao-jie Xu and Shi Pu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.11058},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

16 pages, 4 figures