Calculations of Azimuthal Flows in Collisions of Heavy Ions Using the Reaction Plane and Two-Particle Cumulant Methods at the HYDJET++ for LHC Energies

Monte Carlo models are widely used to study relativistic heavy-ion collisions, that is matter under extreme conditions through the analysis of azimuthal distributions of secondary particles. HYDJET++ is one such model. While initially relying on the true reaction plane method for azimuthal flow calculations, this approach is impractical for experimental comparisons. We enhanced HYDJET++ by implementing additional methods used in experiments, including reaction plane and cumulant techniques. Using this updated model, we simulated Pb–Pb and Xe–Xe collisions at $$\sqrt {{{s}_{{NN}}}} = 5.02$$ TeV and $$\sqrt {{{s}_{{NN}}}} = 5.44$$ TeV per nucleon pair in c.m.s respectively, calculating $${{v}_{2}}$$ and $${{v}_{3}}$$ flows via three methods and comparing them with each other and CMS data. These improvements refine the generator’s applicability, highlight areas requiring further optimization, and expand its potential for future research.