Impact of nuclear shape fluctuations in high-energy heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The shape of atomic nuclei is often interpreted to possess a quadrupole deformation that fluctuates around some average profile. We investigate the impact of nuclear shape fluctuations on the initial state geometry in heavy ion collisions, particularly its eccentricity ${\epsilon }_2$ and inverse size $d_{\perp }$, which can be related to the elliptic and radial flow in the final state. The fluctuation in overall quadrupole deformation enhances the variances and modifies the skewness and kurtosis of the ${\epsilon }_2$ and $d_{\perp }$ in a controllable manner. The fluctuation in triaxiality reduces the difference between prolate and oblate shape for any observable, whose values, in the large fluctuation limit, approach those obtained in collisions of rigid triaxial nuclei. The method to disentangle the mean and variance of the quadrupole deformation is discussed.

arXiv comment12 pages 9 figures

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• Exploring nuclear structure with multiparticle azimuthal correlations at the LHC
• Scaling approach to rigid and soft nuclear deformation through flow fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions
• Imprints of octupole collectivity in uranium-238 on relativistic heavy-ion flow observables
• Exploring Rapidity-Even Dipolar Flow in Isobaric Collisions at RHIC
• Topical issue on the intersection of low-energy nuclear structure and high-energy nuclear collisions