Influence of initial state fluctuations on the production of thermal photons

Abstract

Inhomogeneities in the initial QCD matter density distribution increase the production of thermal photons significantly compared to a smooth initial-state-averaged profile in the region $p_T>1$ GeV/$c$ in an ideal hydrodynamic calculation. This relative enhancement is more pronounced for peripheral collisions, for smaller size systems as well as for lower beam energies. A suitably normalized ratio of central-to-peripheral yield of thermal photons reduce the uncertainties in the hydrodynamical initial conditions and can be a useful parameter to study the density fluctuations and their size. The fluctuations in the initial density distribution also lead to a larger elliptic flow of thermal photons for $p_T>$ 2.0 GeV/$c$ compared to the flow from a smooth profile.

Comments: 4 pages, 3 figures, talk given at the Quark Matter 2012 International Conference, August 13-18, Washington D.C., USA