Modeling global event properties using hydrodynamics from RHIC to LHC

Abstract

The relativistic hydrodynamic model is applied to describe the expansion of the dense matter formed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The hydrodynamic expansion of the fluid, supplemented with the statistical emission of hadrons at freeze-out gives a satisfactory description of the observables for particles emitted with soft momenta. Experimental data for the transverse momentum spectra, elliptic flow and interferometry radii give constraints on the properties of the fluid, its equation of state and viscosity coefficients. The role of the fluctuations of the initial profile of the energy density is discussed.