English

Probing Nuclear Geometry through Multi-Particle Azimuthal Correlations and Rapidity-Even Dipolar Flow in ${}^{16}$O+${}^{16}$O Collisions

Nuclear Theory 2026-02-10 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We study symmetric and asymmetric cumulants as well as rapidity-even dipolar flow in 16{}^{16}O+16{}^{16}O collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200~GeV to explore α\alpha-clustering phenomena in light nuclei within the viscous relativistic hydrodynamics framework. Signatures of α\alpha-clustering manifest in the anisotropic flow coefficients and their correlations -- particularly in observables involving elliptic-triangular flow correlations. We show that final-state symmetric and asymmetric cumulants -- especially NSC(2,3)\mathrm{NSC}(2,3) and NAC2,1(2,3)\mathrm{NAC}_{2,1}(2,3) -- are sensitive to the initial nuclear geometry. Additionally, we observe a significant difference in rapidity-even dipolar flow, v1evenv_1^{\text{even}}, between α\alpha-clustered and Woods--Saxon configurations in high-multiplicity events. These findings underscore the pivotal role of nuclear structure in heavy-ion collision dynamics and provide observables for distinguishing nuclear geometries, particularly in ultra-central collisions.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.11713,
  title  = {Probing Nuclear Geometry through Multi-Particle Azimuthal Correlations and Rapidity-Even Dipolar Flow in ${}^{16}$O+${}^{16}$O Collisions},
  author = {Kaiser Shafi and Sandeep Chatterjee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.11713},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

14 pages, 7 figures