Impact of nuclear structure on longitudinal flow decorrelations in high-energy isobar collisions

• Published in: Physics letters. B Vol. 845; no. C; p. 138177
• Main Authors: Nie, Maowu, Zhang, Chunjian, Chen, Zhenyu, Yi, Li, Jia, Jiangyong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 10.10.2023; Elsevier
• ISSN: 0370-2693; 1873-2445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2023.138177

Fluctuations of harmonic flow along pseudorapidity, known as flow decorrelations, are an important probe of the initial state geometry of the quark-gluon plasma. The flow decorrelations are shown to be sensitive to the collective structure of the colliding nuclei, as revealed clearly by comparing 96Ru+96Ru collisions and 96Zr+96Zr collisions, which have different nuclear structures. The flow decorrelations in central collisions are mostly sensitive to nuclear deformations, while those in the mid-central collisions are primarily sensitive to differences in skin thickness between 96Ru and 96Zr. Longitudinal flow decorrelations in heavy-ion collisions are a new tool to probe the structure of colliding nuclei.