Microscopic description of anisotropic flow in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Abstract

Anisotropic flow of hadrons is studied in heavy ion collisions at SPS and RHIC energies within the microscopic quark-gluon string model. The model was found to reproduce correctly many of the flow features, e.g., the wiggle structure of direct flow of nucleons at midrapidity, or centrality, rapidity, and transverse momentum dependences of elliptic flow. Further predictions are made. The differences in the development of the anisotropic flow components are linked to the freeze-out conditions, which are quite different for baryons and mesons.