Femtoscopic signatures of unique nuclear structures in relativistic collisions

Abstract

One of the most vital topics of today's high-energy nuclear physics is the investigation of the nuclear structure of the collided nuclei. Recent studies at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have shown that several observables, such as the collective flow and transverse-momentum correlations of the produced particles, can be sensitive to various nuclear structure and deformation parameters. Femtoscopy, another essential tool for investigating the space-time geometry of the matter created in nuclear collisions, has not yet been widely applied to such studies. Using a multiphase transport model (AMPT), in this Letter, it is demonstrated that the femtoscopic source parameters of pion pairs can also serve as a robust signal of unique nuclear structure. Through an analysis of $^{208}$Pb+$^{20}$Ne and $^{208}$Pb+$^{16}$O collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 68.5 GeV, two collision systems especially relevant to the SMOG2 program of the LHCb experiment, it is shown that a deformed initial shape can significantly affect femtoscopic source parameters. This study highlights the importance of expanding the nuclear structure investigations to femtoscopic observables and serves as a baseline for numerous possible future studies in this new direction.