Elliptic flow of thermal photons in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV

Abstract

The transverse momentum (pt) dependence, the centrality dependence and the rapidity dependence of the elliptic flow of thermal photons in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV are predicted, based on a three-dimensional ideal hydrodynamic description of the hot and dense matter. The elliptic flow parameter $v_{2}$, i.e. the second Fourier coefficient of azimuthal distribution, of thermal photons, first increases with $\pt$ and then decreases for $\pt>$ 2 GeV/$c$, due to the weak transverse flow at the early stage. The $\pt$-integrated $v_{2}$ first increases with centrality, reaches a maximum at about 50% centrality, and decreases. The rapidity dependence of the elliptic flow $v_{2}(y)$ of direct photons (mainly thermal photons) is very sensitive to the initial energy density distribution along longitudinal direction, which provides a useful tool to extract the realistic initial condition from measurements.