Anisotropic flow fluctuation as a possible signature of clustered nuclear geometry in O-O collisions at the Large Hadron Collider

TL;DR

This study investigates how anisotropic flow fluctuations in oxygen-oxygen collisions at the LHC can signal the presence of alpha-clustered nuclear structures, revealing differences from uniform nuclear models through detailed flow coefficient analysis.

Contribution

It introduces the first analysis of anisotropic flow fluctuations in O--O collisions to identify signatures of alpha clustering versus uniform nuclear distributions.

Findings

Enhanced flow coefficients ($v_2$, $v_3$) in low-multiplicity events for clustered nuclei.

Increased $v_3/v_2$ ratio in the 0--10 ext% multiplicity class for clustered nuclei.

Distinct fluctuation behaviors of $v_2$ with multiplicity for clustered versus Woods-Saxon distributions.

Abstract

Nuclei having $4n$ number of nucleons are theorized to possess clusters of $\alpha$ particles ($^4$He nucleus). The Oxygen nucleus ($^{16}$O) is a doubly magic nucleus, where the presence of an $\alpha$-clustered nuclear structure grants additional nuclear stability. In this study, we exploit the anisotropic flow coefficients to discern the effects of an $\alpha$-clustered nuclear geometry with respect to a Woods-Saxon nuclear distribution in O--O collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=7$ TeV using a hybrid of IP-Glasma + MUSIC + iSS + UrQMD models. In addition, we use the multi-particle cumulants method to measure anisotropic flow coefficients, such as elliptic flow ($v_{2}$) and triangular flow ($v_{3}$), as a function of multiplicity class. Anisotropic flow fluctuations, which are expected to be larger in small collision systems, are also studied for the first time in O--O collisions. It is found that an $\alpha$-clustered nuclear distribution gives rise to an enhanced value of $v_{2}$ and $v_3$ for the low-multiplicity events. Consequently, a rise in $v_3/v_2$ is also observed for the 0--10\% multiplicity class. Further, for $\alpha$-clustered O--O collisions, fluctuations of $v_{2}$ are larger for the highest multiplicity events, which decrease as the final-state multiplicity decreases. In contrast, for a Woods-Saxon $^{16}$O nucleus, $v_{2}$ fluctuations show an opposite behavior with decreasing multiplicity. When confronted with experimental data, this study may reveal the importance of the nuclear density profile on the discussed observables and provide physics validation for the hybrid model discussed in this work.