Exploring the Nuclear Shape Phase Transition in Ultra-Relativistic ${}^{129}$Xe+${}^{129}$Xe Collisions at the LHC

Abstract

The shape phase transition for certain isotope or isotone chains, associated with the quantum phase transition of finite nuclei, is an intriguing phenomenon in nuclear physics. A notable case is the Xe isotope chain, where the structure transits from a $\gamma$-soft rotor to a spherical vibrator, with the second-order shape phase transition occurring in the vicinity of ${}^{128-130}$Xe. In this letter, we focus on investigating the $\gamma$-soft deformation of ${}^{129}$Xe associated with the second-order shape phase transition by constructing novel correlators for ultra-relativistic ${}^{129}$Xe+${}^{129}$Xe collisions. In particular, our iEBE-VISHNU model calculations show that the $v_2^2-[p_T]$ correlation ${\rho }_2$ and the mean transverse momentum fluctuation ${\Gamma }_{p_T}$, which were previously interpreted as the evidence for the rigid triaxial deformation of ${}^{129}$Xe, can also be well explained by the $\gamma$-soft deformation of ${}^{129}$Xe. We also propose two novel correlators ${\rho }_{4,2}$ and ${\rho }_{2,4}$, which carry non-trivial higher-order correlations and show unique capabilities to distinguish between the $\gamma$-soft and the rigid triaxial deformation of ${}^{129}$Xe in ${}^{129}$Xe+${}^{129}$Xe collisions at the LHC. The present study also provides a novel way to explore the second-order shape phase transition of finite nuclei with ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions.

References in corpus (50)

• Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions
• Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX collaboration
• Quark Gluon Plasma an Color Glass Condensate at RHIC? The perspective from the BRAHMS experiment
• The PHOBOS Perspective on Discoveries at RHIC
• Microscopic Models for Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
• Relativistic Hadron-Hadron Collisions in the Ultra-Relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics Model (UrQMD)
• Collective flow and viscosity in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• New Forms of QCD Matter Discovered at RHIC
• Hydrodynamic Modeling of Heavy-Ion Collisions
• QCD Equation of State and Hadron Resonance Gas
• Causal viscous hydrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions for relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Alternative ansatz to wounded nucleon and binary collision scaling in high-energy nuclear collisions
• First Results from Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC
• Suppression of elliptic flow in a minimally viscous quark-gluon plasma
• Event-by-event fluctuations in perturbative QCD + saturation + hydro model: pinning down QCD matter shear viscosity in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Heavy Ion Collisions: Achievements and Challenges
• Anisotropic flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• Improved version of the PHOBOS Glauber Monte Carlo
• Dissipative hydrodynamics for viscous relativistic fluids
• Viscous QCD matter in a hybrid hydrodynamic+Boltzmann approach
• The ALICE experiment: a journey through QCD
• Systematic parameter study of hadron spectra and elliptic flow from viscous hydrodynamic simulations of Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Anisotropic flow in Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{{\mathbf{s}}_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.44$ TeV
• Estimating initial state and quark-gluon plasma medium properties using a hybrid model with nucleon substructure calibrated to $p$-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV
• Energy dependence and fluctuations of anisotropic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{{\text{s}}_{\text{NN}}}=5.02$ and $2.76$ TeV
• Transverse momentum spectra and nuclear modification factors of charged particles in Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.44 TeV
• Centrality and pseudorapidity dependence of the charged-particle multiplicity density in Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.44 TeV
• Evidence of quadrupole and octupole deformations in ${}^{96}$Zr+${}^{96}$Zr and ${}^{96}$Ru+${}^{96}$Ru collisions at ultra-relativistic energies
• Microscopic Description of Spherical to Gamma-Soft Shape Transitions in Ba and Xe Nuclei
• Transverse momentum fluctuations and their correlation with elliptic flow in nuclear collision
• E(5), X(5), and Prolate to Oblate Shape Phase Transitions in Relativistic Hartree Bogoliubov Theory
• Transverse momentum-flow correlations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Gamma-rigid solution of the Bohr Hamiltonian for gamma = 30 degrees compared to the E(5) critical point symmetry
• Analytical solution for the Davydov-Chaban Hamiltonian with sextic potential for $\gamma =30^{\circ }$
• Probing triaxial deformation of atomic nuclei in high-energy heavy ion collisions
• Evidence of the triaxial structure of ${}^{129}$Xe at the Large Hadron Collider
• Evidence of Hexadecapole Deformation in Uranium-238 at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
• E(5) and X(5) shape phase transitions within a Skyrme Hartree-Fock + BCS approach
• Correlation between mean transverse momentum and anisotropic flow in heavy-ion collisions
• Correlations between flow and transverse momentum in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC with the ATLAS detector: a probe of the heavy-ion initial state and nuclear deformation
• Shape-phase transitions in odd-mass $\gamma$-soft nuclei with mass $A\approx 130$
• Probing nuclear structure with mean transverse momentum in relativistic isobar collisions
• Skewness of mean transverse momentum fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions
• Constraining the nucleon size with relativistic nuclear collisions
• Inferring nuclear structure from heavy isobar collisions using Trajectum
• Multiplicity dependence of charged-particle production in pp, p-Pb, Xe-Xe and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC
• Probing the nuclear deformation with three-particle asymmetric cumulant in RHIC isobar runs
• Impact of nuclear shape fluctuations in high-energy heavy ion collisions
• Skewness and kurtosis of mean transverse momentum fluctuations at the LHC energies
• Probe nuclear structure using the anisotropic flow at the Large Hadron Collider

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Imaging the initial condition of heavy-ion collisions and nuclear structure across the nuclide chart
• Imaging Freeze-out Sources and Extracting Strong Interaction Parameters in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Signature of the $\alpha$-clustering structure of Light Nuclei in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions
• Identifying $\alpha$-cluster configurations in ${}^{20}$Ne via ultracentral Ne+Ne Collisions
• The elliptic flow difference between baryons and anti-baryons in heavy collision with SMASH Model
• Observing the dynamics of octupolar structural transitions in trapped-ion clusters
• 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
• Characterizing the initial state and dynamical evolution in XeXe and PbPb collisions using multiparticle cumulants
• A novel filtering method for generating desired density profiles of colliding nuclei