Evidence of Hexadecapole Deformation in Uranium-238 at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

Wouter Ryssens, Giuliano Giacalone, Björn Schenke, and Chun Shen
Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 212302 – Published 25 May 2023
PDFHTMLExport Citation

Abstract

State-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulations of the quark-gluon plasma are unable to reproduce the elliptic flow of particles observed at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in relativistic U238+U238 collisions when they rely on information obtained from low-energy experiments for the implementation of deformation in the colliding U238 ions. We show that this is due to an inappropriate treatment of well-deformed nuclei in the modeling of the initial conditions of the quark-gluon plasma. Past studies have identified the deformation of the nuclear surface with that of the nuclear volume, though these are different concepts. In particular, a volume quadrupole moment can be generated by both a surface hexadecapole and a surface quadrupole moment. This feature was so far neglected in the modeling of heavy-ion collisions, and is particularly relevant for nuclei like U238, which is both quadrupole deformed and hexadecapole deformed. With rigorous input from Skyrme density functional calculations, we show that correcting for such effects in the implementation of nuclear deformations in hydrodynamic simulations restores agreement with BNL RHIC data. This brings consistency to the results of nuclear experiments across energy scales, and demonstrates the impact of the hexadecapole deformation of U238 on high-energy collisions.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 27 February 2023
  • Revised 7 April 2023
  • Accepted 3 May 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.212302

© 2023 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Nuclear Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Wouter Ryssens1,*, Giuliano Giacalone2, Björn Schenke3, and Chun Shen4,5

  • 1Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus de la Plaine CP 226, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
  • 2Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 16, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
  • 3Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
  • 4Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA
  • 5RIKEN BNL Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

  • *Corresponding author. wouter.ryssens@ulb.be

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

Supplemental Material (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 130, Iss. 21 — 26 May 2023

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
CHORUS

Article part of CHORUS

Accepted manuscript will be available starting 24 May 2024.
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Letters

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×