Experimental studies show unique sensitivities of anisotropic flow to the initial state of heavy-ion collisions. In the framework of a multiphase transport model, we study the effect of the initial fluctuations on heavy flavor flow in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at energies available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The modification of elliptic and triangular flow of D mesons, as well as charm quarks, due to event-by-event fluctuations of the collision geometry, is investigated using the two-particle correlation method. The relative flow fluctuations of heavy hadrons are examined as a function of the eccentricity fluctuations and compared with the results of light hadrons. Our study suggests that the initial geometric fluctuation has less influence on $v_2$ of D mesons than on that of light hadrons, while exerting a similar impact on the $v_3$ magnitude for both D mesons and light hadrons. Furthermore, the correlation between flow coefficients and initial eccentricities is explored for D mesons and light hadrons, incorporating the effects of final-state hadronic interactions. Our study offers insights into the differences in flow evolution between light- and heavy-flavor hadrons in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.

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• Collective flow
• Particle correlations & fluctuations
• Relativistic heavy-ion collisions