Signatures of α clustering in light nuclei from relativistic nuclear collisions.
We argue that relativistic nuclear collisions may provide experimental evidence of α clustering in light nuclei. A light α-clustered nucleus has a large intrinsic deformation. When collided against a heavy nucleus at very high energies, this deformation transforms into the deformation of the fireball in the transverse plane. The subsequent collective evolution of the fireball leads to harmonic flow reflecting the deformation of the initial shape, which can be measured with standard methods of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We illustrate the feasibility of the idea by modeling the (12)C-(208)Pb collisions and point out that very significant quantitative and qualitative differences between the α-clustered and uniform (12)C nucleus occur in such quantities as the triangular flow, its event-by-event fluctuations, or the correlations of the elliptic and triangular flows. The proposal offers a possibility of studying low-energy nuclear structure phenomena with "snapshots" made with relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, 25-406 Kielce, Poland and H. Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN, 31-342 Cracow, Poland.
Wojciech
W
Broniowski
Departamento de Física Atómica, Molecular y Nuclear and Instituto Carlos I de Física Teórica y Computacional, Universidad de Granada, E-18071 Granada, Spain.
Enrique
E
Ruiz Arriola