Unraveling the neutron skin thickness through jet charge in deep inelastic scattering

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new method to measure neutron skin thickness using jet charge distributions in deep inelastic electron-ion scattering, offering an alternative to traditional elastic scattering techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a novel probe based on jet charge in deep inelastic scattering, demonstrating its sensitivity to neutron skin thickness in various electron-ion collision scenarios.

Findings

Jet charge distribution is sensitive to neutron skin thickness.

Peripheral collisions show suppressed positive and enhanced negative jet charge distributions.

Method can be extended to proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC.

Abstract

The neutron skin thickness in neutron-rich nuclei has traditionally been measured using elastic fixed target electron-nucleus scattering since the 1970s. In this paper, we propose a novel probe of the neutron skin thickness through deep inelastic scattering in electron-ion collisions, leveraging the intrinsic correlation between final-state jet charge distribution and initial-state partonic distributions in nucleons. Specifically, we demonstrate the sensitivity of jet charge distribution to the neutron skin thickness in $e$+Pb collisions with varying centralities, and in isobar collisions of $e$+Ru and $e$+Zr. We predict a strong suppression of positive jet charge distribution and an enhancement for negative jet charge distribution in peripheral electron-ion collisions, revealing the neutron skin effect. This proposal can also be extended to photon and Z-boson tagged jet charge distribution in proton-nucleus collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, providing an alternative access to neutron skin thickness.