Transmutation of $^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne at the Large Hadron Collider

TL;DR

This paper predicts the production of various isotopes during ultrarelativistic $^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne collisions at the LHC, highlighting potential measurements of particle multiplicity and transverse momentum.

Contribution

It introduces a combined modeling approach using Trajectum and GEMINI to estimate isotope production cross-sections in LHC light ion collisions.

Findings

Estimated isotope production cross-sections for $^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne collisions.

Identification of potential beam contamination by smaller isotopes.

Proposal for measuring multiplicity and transverse momentum of $^{16}$O$^{4}$He collisions.

Abstract

In July 2025 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will collide $^{16}$O$^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne$^{20}$Ne isotopes in a quest to understand the physics of ultrarelativistic light ion collisions. One particular feature is that there are many smaller isotopes with the exact same charge over mass ratio that potentially can be produced and contaminate the beam composition. Using the Trajectum framework together with the GEMINI code we provide an estimate of the production cross-section and its consequences. A potential benefit could be the interesting measurement of the multiplicity and mean transverse momentum of $^{16}$O$^{4}$He collisions.