Correlation between particle spectra and elliptic flow

Abstract

We introduce a new observable to probe the collective nature of the radial expansion of the quark-gluon plasma. This observable, dubbed $v_{02}(p_T)$, represents the correlation of the spectrum with elliptic flow, in the same way as the recently measured $v_0(p_T)$ represents the correlation of the spectrum with the transverse momentum per particle. The advantage of $v_{02}(p_T)$ over $v_0(p_T)$ is that it is measured using a three-particle cumulant, as opposed to a pair correlation, which significantly reduces the sensitivity to nonflow effects. We predict non-trivial differences between $v_{02}(p_T)$ and $v_0(p_T)$ in semi-central Pb+Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the basis of hydrodynamic simulations. A hint of these differences can be seen in the modification of $p_T$ spectra observed by ALICE in event-shape-engineered events.