Exploring the compactness of $\alpha$ cluster in ${}^{16}$O nuclei with relativistic ${}^{16}$O+${}^{16}$O collisions

Abstract

Probing the $\alpha$ cluster of ${}^{16}$O with the relativistic ${}^{16}$O+${}^{16}$O collisions has raised great interest in the heavy ion community. However, the effects of the $\alpha$ cluster on the soft hadron observables vary largely among different studies. In this paper, we explain the differences by the compactness of the $\alpha$ cluster in oxygen, using iEBE-VISHNU hydrodynamic simulations with different initial state $\alpha$ cluster configurations. We also find several observables, such as the intensive skewness of the $[p_{\mathrm{T}}]$ correlator ${\Gamma }_{p_{\mathrm{T}}}$, the harmonic flows $v_2\{2\}$, $v_2\{4\}$, $v_3\{2\}$, and the $v_n^2-\delta [p_{\mathrm{T}}]$ correlations $\rho (v_2^2,[p_{\mathrm{T}}])$, $\rho (v_3^2,[p_{\mathrm{T}}])$ in ${}^{16}$O+${}^{16}$O collisions are sensitive to the compactness of the $\alpha$ cluster in the colliding nuclei, which can be used to constrain the configurations of ${}^{16}$O in the future. Our study serves as an important step toward the quantitative exploration of the $\alpha$ cluster configuration in the light nuclei with relativistic heavy ion collisions.

9 pages, 9 figures, published version + appendix (initial state calculations)

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Imaging the initial condition of heavy-ion collisions and nuclear structure across the nuclide chart
• Glauber predictions for oxygen and neon collisions at energies available at the LHC
• Identifying $\alpha$-cluster configurations in ${}^{20}$Ne via ultracentral Ne+Ne Collisions
• Probing Nuclear Geometry through Multi-Particle Azimuthal Correlations and Rapidity-Even Dipolar Flow in ${}^{16}$O+${}^{16}$O Collisions
• Data-driven method to estimate contamination from light ion beam transmutation at colliders
• Exploring nuclear structure with multiparticle azimuthal correlations at the LHC
• Influence of Cluster Configurations and Nucleon--Nucleon Scattering Cross-Section on Stopping Power in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• A comparison study of collisions at relativistic energies involving light nuclei