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

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arxiv 2302.13617 v2 pith:OXEOL6YR submitted 2023-02-27 nucl-th hep-exhep-phnucl-ex

classification nucl-thhep-exhep-phnucl-ex
keywords nuclearcollisionsdeformationhexadecapolehydrodynamicrelativisticsurfacecollider
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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abstract

There is strong evidence of the failure of hydrodynamic simulations of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) to reproduce data on the elliptic flow of particles in relativistic collisions of $^{238}$U nuclei at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We demonstrate that this failure is caused by an inappropriate implementation of well-deformed ions, such as $^{238}$U, in the hydrodynamic framework. 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 $^{238}$U, which is both quadrupole- 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 $^{238}$U on high-energy collisions.

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Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Investigating $^{238}$U Deformation via Dilepton Production in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

    nucl-th 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    In a transport-model study of U+U collisions at 193 GeV, dilepton yields normalized by charged multiplicity are shown to scale linearly with the square of the nuclear quadrupole deformation beta_2, with stronger sensi...

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    nucl-th 2025-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    In 16O+16O collisions, the normalized flow ratio Norm(v2{2}/v2{4}) is mostly insensitive to tetrahedral deformation while Norm(v2{2}/v3{2}) is sensitive to both deformation and alpha-cluster correlations, but only aft...

  3. Study the Longitudinal Entropy Deposition using d+Au Collision

    nucl-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    A 3D entropy deposition model with β≈0.35 and n_BC-dependent rapidity loss, plus ab initio deuteron sampling, reproduces d+Au dNch/dη, spectra, and vn and transfers to p+Au, 3He+Au, and Au+Au.

  4. Nonlinear collective flow reveals the breakdown of quadrupole--hexadecapole scaling in heavy ion collisions

    nucl-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    The nonlinear flow coefficient ξ6,222 in simulated U+U collisions separates the four (β2, β4) nuclear topology classes, making the sign of the hexadecapole deformation β4 experimentally accessible.

  5. Scaling approach to rigid and soft nuclear deformation through flow fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions

    nucl-th 2025-09 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Triangular flow four-particle cumulants scale linearly with the fourth moment of octupole deformation, allowing the mean and variance of 238U octupole deformation to be extracted separately.

  6. Nuclear Physics Confronts Relativistic Collisions Of Isobars

    nucl-ex 2025-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    RHIC isobar data are explained by different shapes of 96Ru and 96Zr, with 96Zr showing a large octupole deformation, so nuclear structure uncertainty, not the magnetic field, dominates the observed ratios.

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