Predicting quadrupole deformation via anisotropic flow and transverse momentum spectra in isotopic $$\mathbf {{}^{128-135}_{\qquad \,54}\textrm{Xe}}$$ collisions at LHC

Abstract

In the hydrodynamical description of heavy-ion collisions, the elliptic flow $${\textrm{v}}_{2}$$ v 2 and triangular flow $${\textrm{v}}_{3}$$ v 3 are sensitive to the quadrupole deformation $${\beta _{2}}$$ β 2 of the colliding nuclei. We produce $${\textrm{v}}_{2}$$ v 2 and $${\textrm{v}}_{3}$$ v 3 ratios qualitatively and quantitatively in most-central Xe–Xe collisions at 5.44 TeV. By employing HYDJET++ model, we study the sensitivity of anisotropic flow coefficients and mean transverse momentum to the quadrupole deformation and system-size in isotopic Xe–Xe collisions. Flow observables strongly depend on the strength of nucleon–nucleon scattering occurring in even-A and odd-A nuclei. Flow for odd-A nuclei is suppressed in comparison to flow in even-A collisions. There exists a linear inter-dependence between $${\textrm{p}}_{\textrm{T}}$$ p T integrated anisotropic flow and nuclear deformation. Mean transverse momentum signifies the fireball temperature in body–body and tip–tip collisions. There exists a negative linear correlation of $$\langle {\textrm{p}}_{\textrm{T}}\rangle $$ ⟨ p T ⟩ with collision system-size and a positive correlation with nuclear deformation. Flow measurements in high-energy, heavy-ion collisions using isotopic collision systems, offer a new precision tool to study nuclear structure physics. Observation of nuclear structure properties like nuclear deformation in a heavy-ion collision such as this would be very interesting.