Predicting Quadrupole deformation via anisotropic flow and transverse momentum spectra in isotopic $\text{prescript}128-13554\mathrm{Xe}$ collisions at LHC

Abstract

In the hydrodynamical description of heavy-ion collisions, the elliptic flow ${\mathrm{v}}_2$ and triangular flow ${\mathrm{v}}_3$ are sensitive to the quadrupole deformation ${\beta }_2$ of the colliding nuclei. We produce ${\mathrm{v}}_2$ and ${\mathrm{v}}_3$ ratios qualitatively and quantitatively in most-central Xe-Xe collisions at 5.44 TeV. By employing HYDJET++ model, we study the sensitivity of anisotropic flow coefficients and mean transverse momentum to the quadrupole deformation and system-size in isotopic Xe-Xe collisions. Flow observables strongly depend on the strength of nucleon-nucleon scattering occuring in even-A and odd-A nuclei. Flow for odd-A nuclei is suppressed in comparison to flow in even-A collisions. There exists a linear inter-dependence between ${\mathrm{p}}_{\mathrm{T}}$ integrated anisotropic flow and nuclear deformation. Mean transverse momentum signifies the fireball temperature in body-body and tip-tip collisions. There exists a negative linear correlation of $⟨{\mathrm{p}}_{\mathrm{T}}⟩$ with collision system-size and a positive correlation with nuclear deformation. Flow measurements in high-energy, heavy-ion collisions using isotopic collision systems, offer a new precision tool to study nuclear structure physics. Observation of nuclear structure properties like nuclear deformation in a heavy-ion collision such as this would be very interesting.

Comments: 10 pages, 10 figures