Spectator charge splitting of directed flow in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

We estimate the effect of the spectator charge on distortion of single charged pion distributions as well as on azimuthal anisotropies in heavy ion collisions. A large electromagnetic effect on directed flow $v_1$ is predicted in good agreement with existing WA98 as well as RHIC data. This effect results in a splitting of $v_1$ for positive and negative pions. Detailed analysis of this phenomenon may provide new information on the collision dynamics.

Comments: 7 pages, 8 figures a talk by A. Szczurek at the European Society Conference on High Energy Physics, 18-24 July 2013, Stockholm, Sweden