Universal imprinting of short-range correlations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

Protons and neutrons within atomic nuclei undergo intense and fleeting encounters driven by the strong force at short distances. These interactions generate close-proximity pairs, a phenomenon known as short-range correlations (SRCs). While the properties of SRCs have been extensively studied in cold nuclear matter, their behavior under extremely hot and dense conditions remains largely unexplored. Here, we incorporate correlated nucleon configurations into relativistic heavy-ion collisions, using the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a state of matter present microseconds after the Big Bang, as a sensitive diagnostic tool. We find that these correlations induce substantial modifications to event-by-event geometry, which are quantitatively identified through higher-order moments of the transverse profile. Most importantly, we find a surprising linear relation between QGP geometry fluctuations and the SRC scale factor spanning systems from deuteron to lead, which reflects the universal imprinting of SRCs in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Our findings reveal the emergence of short-range structural effects across vastly different energy scales from low-energy electron scattering to high-energy nuclear collisions.

Comments: 14+3 pages, 3+3 figures