Effect of global momentum conservation on longitudinal flow decorrelation

Abstract

We calculate the longitudinal flow decorrelation coefficients, i.e., $r_n(\eta,\eta_r)$ for $n=2,3$, in the presence of hydro-like flow and the global momentum conservation (GMC) constraint. The longitudinal flow decorrelation is weakened due to the GMC constraint. The GMC effect is sensitive to the total number of particles involved in GMC, the average longitudinal momentum, the transverse momentum, and the reference pseudorapidity. Our results of the $r_2(\eta,\eta_{rA})/r_2(\eta,\eta_{rB})$ ratio between two reference pseudorapidity bins are consistent with the experimental measurements. We predict that the modification effect of GMC on longitudinal flow decorrelation is more noticeable at BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider energies than at CERN Large Hadron Collider energies. Our finding provides a new perspective for understanding the longitudinal flow decorrelation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.