Elliptic Flow in Pb+Pb Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV at the LHC Using Boltzmann Transport Equation with Non-extensive Statistics

Abstract

Elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions is an important signature of a possible de-confinement transition from hadronic phase to partonic phase. In the present work, we use non-extensive statistics, which has been used for transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) distribution in proton+proton ($p+p$) collisions, as the initial particle distribution function in Boltzmann Transport Equation (BTE). A Boltzmann-Gibbs Blast Wave (BGBW) function is taken as an equilibrium function to get the final distribution to describe the particle production in heavy-ion collisions. In this formalism, we try to estimate the elliptic flow in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV at the LHC for different centralities. The elliptic flow ($v_2$) of identified particles seems to be described quite well in the available $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ range. An approach, which combines the non-extensive nature of particle production in $p+p$ collisions through an evolution in kinetic theory using BTE, with BGBW equilibrium distribution is successful in describing the spectra and elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions.

Comments: 9 pages and 12 Figures, Published version in EPJA