Centrality and Transverse Momentum Dependence of Collective Flow in 158 A GeV Pb+Pb Collisions Measured via Inclusive Photons

Abstract

Directed and elliptic flow of inclusive photons near mid-rapidity in $158 $A GeV Pb+Pb collisions has been studied. The data have been obtained with the photon spectrometer LEDA of the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The flow strength has been measured for various centralities as a function of $p_T$ and rapidity over $0.18 < p_T < 1.5 \mathrm{GeV}/c$ and $2.3 < y < 2.9$. The angular anisotropy has been studied relative to an event plane obtained in the target fragmentation region that shows the elliptic flow to be in-plane. The elliptic flow has also been studied using two-particle correlations and shown to give similar results. A small directed flow component is observed. Both the directed and elliptic flow strengths increase with $p_T$. The photon flow results are used to estimate the corresponding neutral pion flow.