Momentum spectra, anisotropic flow, and ideal fluids

If the matter produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions reaches thermal equilibrium, its subsequent evolution follows the laws of ideal fluid dynamics. We show that general predictions can be made on this basis alone, irrespective of the details of the hydrodynamical model. We derive several scaling rules for momentum spectra and anisotropic flow (in particular the elliptic flow, nu(2), and the hexadecupole flow, nu(4)) of identified particles. Comparison with existing data is briefly discussed, and qualitative predictions are made for LHC. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.