Probing configuration of $\alpha$ clusters with spectator particles in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We propose to use spectator particle yield ratios to probe the configuration of $\alpha$ clusters in ${}^{12}$C and ${}^{16}$O by their collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. The idea is illustrated based on initial density distributions with various $\alpha$-cluster configurations generated by a microscopic cluster model, and without $\alpha$ clusters from mean-field calculations. The multifragmentation of the spectator matter produces more spectator light nuclei including $\alpha$ clusters in collisions of nuclei with chain structure of $\alpha$ clusters, compared to those of nuclei with a more compact structure. The yield ratio of free spectator neutrons to spectator particles with mass-to-charge ratio $A/Z=2$ scaled by their masses can be practically measured by the zero-degree calorimeter (ZDC) at RHIC and LHC, serving as a clean probe free from modeling the complicated dynamics at midrapidities.

6 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Deformation probes for light nuclei in their collisions at relativistic energies
• Directly probing existence of $\alpha$-cluster structure in ${}^{20}$Ne by relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• A study of nuclear structure of light nuclei at the Electron-Ion Collider
• Disentangling effects of nucleon size and nucleus structure in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Probing Nuclear Geometry through Multi-Particle Azimuthal Correlations and Rapidity-Even Dipolar Flow in ${}^{16}$O+${}^{16}$O Collisions
• A comparison study of collisions at relativistic energies involving light nuclei