Impact of nuclear deformation on relativistic heavy-ion collisions: assessing consistency in nuclear physics across energy scales
In the hydrodynamic framework of heavy-ion collisions, elliptic flow v2 is sensitive to the quadrupole deformation β of the colliding ions. This enables one to test whether the established knowledge on the low-energy structure of nuclei is consistent with collider data from high-energy experiments....
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
8 December 2021
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| In: |
Physical review letters
Year: 2021, Volume: 127, Issue: 24, Pages: 1-6 |
| ISSN: | 1079-7114 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.242301 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.242301 Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.242301 
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| Author Notes: | Giuliano Giacalone, Jiangyong Jia and Chunjian Zhang |
| Summary: | In the hydrodynamic framework of heavy-ion collisions, elliptic flow v2 is sensitive to the quadrupole deformation β of the colliding ions. This enables one to test whether the established knowledge on the low-energy structure of nuclei is consistent with collider data from high-energy experiments. We derive a formula based on generic scaling laws of hydrodynamics to relate the difference in v2 measured between collision systems that are close in size to the value of β of the respective species. We validate our formula in simulations of 238U+238U and 197Au+197Au collisions at top Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) energy, and subsequently apply it to experimental data. Using the deformation of 238U from low-energy experiments, we find that RHIC v2 data implies 0.16≲|β|≲0.20 for 197Au nuclei, i.e., significantly more deformed than reported in the literature, posing an interesting issue in nuclear phenomenology. |
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| Item Description: | Gesehen am 25.08.2022 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1079-7114 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.242301 |