Impact of nuclear deformation on particle production in $Ne+Ne$ collisions at \texorpdfstring{\five}{sqrt(sNN)=5.36 TeV} from AMPT-SM

TL;DR

This study uses the AMPT-SM model to analyze how nuclear deformation affects particle production in neon-neon collisions at 5.36 TeV, finding minimal differences between spherical and deformed initial states.

Contribution

It provides a systematic comparison of initial-state deformation effects on bulk observables in light-ion collisions within the AMPT-SM framework.

Findings

Bulk observables show expected dependence on event activity.

Differences between spherical and deformed configurations are small (2-6%).

Initial deformation has limited impact on collective dynamics and particle yields.

Abstract

We present a systematic study of particle production in $Ne+Ne$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.36$ TeV using the A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model with string melting (SM) configuration. The analysis compares spherical and deformed configurations of ${}^{20}\mathrm{Ne}$ to investigate the influence of initial-state nuclear deformation on bulk observables. Charged-particle pseudorapidity ($\langle dN_{\mathrm{ch}}/d\eta \rangle$) densities, identified particle yields ($dN/dy$), transverse momentum ($p_T$) spectra, mean transverse momentum ($\langle p_{\mathrm{T}} \rangle$), and $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-differential particle ratios ($K/\pi$ and $p/\pi$) are studied as functions of multiplicity and centrality. The results show that all observables exhibit the expected dependence on event activity, including smooth multiplicity scaling, mass ordering in $\langle p_{\mathrm{T}} \rangle$, and characteristic features associated with radial flow and quark coalescence. Differences between the two configurations on bulk observables remain small across all observables, typically at the level of a 2\%--6\% percent, with slightly enhanced sensitivity observed in peripheral collisions. These findings suggest that, within the AMPT-SM framework, the collective dynamics and hadrochemical composition are primarily governed by the overall system density and interaction dynamics, while the influence of initial-state deformation is subleading. This study provides a baseline for understanding deformation effects in light-ion collision systems and highlights the limited sensitivity of bulk observables to initial nuclear geometry in transport-based approaches.