Initial state fluctuations and final state correlations: status and open questions

Abstract

The recent appreciation of the importance of event-by-event fluctuations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions has lead to a large amount of diverse theoretical and experimental activity. In particular, there is significant interest in understanding the fluctuations in the initial stage of a collision, how exactly these fluctuations are propagated through the system evolution, and how they are manifested in correlations between measured particles. In order to address these questions a workshop was organized on ‘initial state fluctuations and final state correlations’, held at ECT* in Trento, Italy during the week of 2–6 July 2012. The goal was to collect recent work in order to provide a coherent picture of the current status of our understanding, to identify important questions that remain open, and to set a course for future research. Here we report the outcome of the presentations and discussions, focusing on the most important conclusions.