Transverse momentum decorrelation of the flow vector in Pb–Pb collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{_{\textrm{NN}}}}$$ s NN = 5.02 TeV

Abstract Anisotropic flow, typically defined as the azimuthal correlations of the produced particles with respect to the common symmetry plane over a large kinematic, has been a popular approach in the last three decades to explore the properties of hot and dense QCD matter in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. These flow studies are usually based on the multi-particle correlations method, assuming that multi-particle correlations can be factorized into the product of flow coefficients. However, recent LHC measurements, based on new four-particle correlation observables, show evidence of flow angle decorrelation and flow magnitude decorrelation. These decorrelations break the assumption of the common symmetry plane and factorization. In this paper, we perform systematic studies to investigate the decorrelation with A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model. We examine different tunings of the initial conditions, partonic cross sections, and hadronic interactions, revealing that the decorrelations are mainly driven by the initial geometry fluctuations while weakly influenced by the system’s dynamic evolution. Comparison to experimental data and the AMPT calculations presented in this paper promotes a new possibility to further constraints on the initial conditions of the heavy-ion collisions