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Disentangling initial-state and evolution effects in heavy-ion collisions using EPOS and PHSD

Mahbobeh Jafarpour1,*, Vadym Voronyuk2, Klaus Werner1,†, Elena Bratkovskaya3,4,5, and Damien Vintache1

  • *Contact author: mahbobeh.jafarpour@subatech.in2p3.fr
  • †Contact author: Werner@subatech.in2p3.fr
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Phys. Rev. C 113, 014910 – Published 21 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/k41y-p793

Abstract

In this study we examine the impact of the initial stage and dynamical evolution on final-state observables in heavy-ion collisions. For this goal we develop a novel approach, EPOSir+PHSDe, which employs energy-conserving multiple parallel scattering approach, accommodating factorization and saturation (EPOS) initial conditions as the starting point for parton and hadron evolution within the parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) microscopic transport approach. By examining the space-time evolution of matter in this model and comparing to EPOS (which starts with an S-matrix approach for parallel scatterings for the initial conditions and uses a hydrodynamic evolution for the quark-gluon plasma stage with the UrQMD as afterburner) and PHSD (which starts with primary high-energy NN scattering realized via the LUND string model and continues with fully microscopic transport dynamics for strongly interacting partonic and hadronic matter), we identify the key differences in the final particle distributions among the three approaches. Our analysis focuses on rapidity, transverse momentum spectra, and flow harmonics v2 for Au+Au collisions at the invariant energy of sNN=200 GeV. We find a dominant influence of dynamical evolution over the initial conditions on the final observables.

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Phys. Rev. C 113, 014910– Published 21 January, 2026
  • Received 5 September 2025
  • Accepted 24 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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