Neutron skin and centrality classification in high-energy heavy-ion collisions at the LHC

Abstract

The concept of centrality in high-energy nuclear collisions has recently become a subject of an active debate. In particular, the experimental methods to determine the centrality that have given reasonable results for many observables in high-energy lead-lead collisions at the LHC have led to surprising behaviour in the case of proton-lead collisions. In this letter, we discuss the possibility to calibrate the experimental determination of centrality by asymmetries caused by mutually different spatial distributions of protons and neutrons inside the nuclei --- a well-known phenomenon in nuclear physics known as the neutron-skin effect.

11 pages, to appear in PLB

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Determination of the neutron skin of ${}^{208}$Pb from ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions
• Progress in the Glauber model at collider energies
• Imaging the initial condition of heavy-ion collisions and nuclear structure across the nuclide chart
• The Present and Future of QCD
• Influence of nuclear structure in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Effects of neutron-skin thickness on direct hard photon emission from reactions induced by the neutron-rich projectile ${}^{50}$Ca
• Centrality dependence of electroweak boson production in PbPb collisions at the LHC
• Peeling away neutron skin in ultracentral collisions of relativistic nuclei
• Neutron-skin effect and centrality dependence of high-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ observables in nuclear collisions