Isolation of Flow and Nonflow Correlations by Two- and Four-Particle Cumulant Measurements of Azimuthal Harmonics in $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} =$ 200 GeV Au+Au Collisions

Understand

A data-driven method was applied to measurements of Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} =$ 200 GeV made with the STAR detector at RHIC to isolate pseudorapidity distance $\Delta\eta$-dependent and $\Delta\eta$-independent correlations by using two- and four-particle azimuthal cumulant measurements.

• We identified a component of the correlation that is $\Delta\eta$-independent, which is likely dominated by anisotropic flow and flow fluctuations.
• It was also found to be independent of $\eta$ within the measured range of pseudorapidity $|\eta|<1$.
• The relative flow fluctuation was found to be $34\% \pm 2\% (stat.) \pm 3\% (sys.)$ for particles of transverse momentum $p_{T}$ less than $2$ GeV/$c$.