Signatures of alpha clustering in light nuclei from relativistic nuclear collisions

Abstract

We argue that relativistic nuclear collisions may provide experimental evidence of alpha clustering in light nuclei. A light alpha-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 12C-208Pb collisions and point out that very significant quantitative and qualitative differences between the alpha-clustered and uniform 12C 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 phenomena with "snapshots" made with relativistic heavy-ion collisions.