English

Deciphering the dynamics of nuclear collisions with elongated structure of $^{20}$Ne

Nuclear Theory 2026-03-18 v3 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We investigate the role of intrinsic nuclear geometry of 20^{20}Ne nucleus in particle production in small collision systems. Discrete geometrical representations of 20^{20}Ne, including bi-pyramidal α\alpha-cluster structure in two different configurations along with NLEFT configurations, are implemented within the Monte Carlo Pythia8/Angantyr framework. The resulting particle production observables in 20^{20}Ne-20^{20}Ne collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.36 TeV are systematically compared with those obtained using conventional Woods-Saxon description as well as with the available hydrodynamic model calculations. We investigate the sensitivity of charged particle multiplicity, transverse momentum distributions and mean transverse momentum pT\langle p_T \rangle to nuclear geometry, α\alpha-clustering, and orientation effects of 20^{20}Ne nucleus. While explicit clustering and orientation dependence lead to a noticeable modifications in final state charged particle multiplicity, their impact on transverse momentum spectra and pT\langle p_T \rangle remain modest in central collisions. The results highlight the role of intrinsic nuclear geometry and specific orientation of the colliding nuclei, providing insight into the dynamics of small systems in non-hydrodynamic particle production framework.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.14262,
  title  = {Deciphering the dynamics of nuclear collisions with elongated structure of $^{20}$Ne},
  author = {Deependra Sharma and Arpit Singh and Sadhana Dash},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.14262},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

11 pages, 9 figures