Size fluctuations of the initial source and event-by-event transverse momentum fluctuations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We show that the event-by-event fluctuations of the transverse size of the initial source, which follow directly from the Glauber treatment of the earliest stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, cause, after hydrodynamic evolution, fluctuations of the transverse flow velocity at hadronic freeze-out. This, in turn, leads to event-by-event fluctuations of the average transverse momentum, 〈p_T〉. Simulations with GLISSANDO for the Glauber phase, followed by a realistic hydrodynamic evolution and statistical hadronization carried out with THERMINATOR, lead to agreement with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) data. In particular, the magnitude of the effect, its centrality dependence, and the weak dependence on the incident energy are properly reproduced. Our results show that the bulk of the observed event-by-event 〈p_T〉 fluctuations may be explained by the fluctuations of the size of the initial source.