Probing the neutron skin with ultrarelativistic isobaric collisions

TL;DR

This paper proposes using ultrarelativistic isobaric collisions to accurately measure neutron skin thickness, which is crucial for understanding nuclear symmetry energy and the structure of finite nuclei.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method leveraging particle production data from heavy ion collisions to determine neutron density distributions and neutron skin thickness.

Findings

Charged hadron multiplicity distributions are sensitive to neutron skin thickness.

The method can provide stringent constraints on nuclear symmetry energy.

Potential for improved understanding of nuclear structure and equation of state.

Abstract

Particle production in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions depends on the details of the nucleon density distributions in the colliding nuclei. We demonstrate that the charged hadron multiplicity distributions in isobaric collisions at ultrarelativistic energies provide a novel approach to determine the poorly known neutron density distributions and thus the neutron skin thickness in finite nuclei, which can in turn put stringent constraints on the nuclear symmetry energy.