Harmonic flow correlations in Au+Au reactions at 1.23 AGeV: a new testing ground for the equation-of-state and expansion geometry

Abstract

Abstract Correlations between the harmonic flow coefficients $$v_1$$ v 1 , $$v_2$$ v 2 , $$v_3$$ v 3 and $$v_4$$ v 4 of nucleons in semi-peripheral Au+Au collisions at a beam energy of 1.23 AGeV are investigated within the hadronic transport approach ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD). In contrast to ultra-relativistic collision energies (where the flow coefficients are evaluated with respect to the respective event plane), we predict strong correlations between the flow harmonics with respect to the reaction plane. Based on an event-by-event selection of the midrapidity final state elliptic flow of nucleons we show that as a function of rapidity, (I) the sign of the triangular flow changes, (II) that the shape of $$v_4$$ v 4 changes from convex to concave, and (III) that $$v_3\propto v_1v_2$$ v 3 ∝ v 1 v 2 and $$v_4\propto v_2^2$$ v 4 ∝ v 2 2 for all different event classes, indicating strong correlations between all investigated harmonic flow coefficients.