Deciphering azimuthal correlations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We discuss various sources of azimuthal correlations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The integral measure $\ensuremath{\Phi}$ is applied to quantify the correlations. We first consider separately the correlations caused by the elliptic flow, resonance decays, jets, and transverse momentum conservation. An effect of randomly lost particles is also discussed. Using the PYTHIA and HIJING event generators we produce a sample of events that mimic experimental data. By means of kinematic cuts and particle selection criteria, the data are analyzed to identify a dominant source of correlations.