Measurement of the higher-order anisotropic flow coefficients for identified hadrons in Au + Au collisions at s N N = 200 GeV
In this paper, measurements of the anisotropic flow coefficients v 2 {Ψ 2 }, v 3 {Ψ 3 }, v 4 {Ψ 4 }, and v 4 {Ψ 2 } for identified particles (π ± , K ± , and p + ¯p) at midrapidity, obtained relative to the event planes Ψ m at forward rapidities in Au + Au collisions at s N N = 200 GeV , are presented as a function of collision centrality and particle transverse momenta p T . The v n coefficients show characteristic patterns consistent with hydrodynamical expansion of the matter produced in the collisions. For each harmonic n, a modified valence quark-number N q scaling [plotting v n {Ψ m }/(N q ) n/2 versus transverse kinetic energies (KE T )/N q ] is observed to yield a single curve for all the measured particle species for a broad range of KE T . A simultaneous blast-wave model fit to the observed v n {Ψ m }(p T ) coefficients and published particle spectra identifies radial flow anisotropies ρ n {Ψ m } and spatial eccentricities s n {Ψ m } at freeze-out. Finally, these are generally smaller than the initial-state participant-plane geometric eccentricities ε n {Ψ PP m } as also observed in the final eccentricity from quantum interferometry measurements with respect to the event plane.