Initial state geometry and the role of hydrodynamics in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and deuteron-nucleus collisions

Adam Bzdak, Bjoern Schenke, Prithwish Tribedy, Raju Venugopalan

Published 2013-04-11, updated 2013-05-31Version 3

We apply the successful Monte Carlo Glauber and IP-Glasma initial state models of heavy ion collisions to the much smaller size systems produced in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and deuteron- nucleus collisions. We observe a significantly greater sensitivity of the initial state geometry to details of multi-particle production in these models compared to nucleus-nucleus collisions. In particular, we find that the size of the system produced in p+A collisions is very similar to the one produced in p+p collisions, and predict comparable Hanbury-Brown-Twiss radii in the absence of flow in both systems. Differences in the eccentricities computed in the models are large, while differences amongst the generated flow coefficients v_2 and v_3 are smaller. For a large number of participants in proton-lead collisions, the v_2 generated in the IP-Glasma model is comparable to the value obtained in proton-proton collisions. Viscous corrections to flow are large over characteristic lifetimes in the smaller size systems. In contrast, viscous contributions are significantly diminished over the longer space-time evolution of a heavy ion collision.