• Corpus ID: 249674316

Precision tests of the nonlinear mode coupling of anisotropic flow via high-energy collisions of isobars

@inproceedings{Jia2022PrecisionTO,
  title={Precision tests of the nonlinear mode coupling of anisotropic flow via high-energy collisions of isobars},
  author={Jiangyong Jia and Giuliano Giacalone and Chunjian Zhang},
  year={2022}
}

• Jiangyong Jia, G. Giacalone, Chunjian Zhang
• Published 14 June 2022
• Physics

Valuable information on the dynamics of expanding fluids can be inferred from the response of such systems to perturbations in their initial geometry. We apply this technique in high-energy 96 Ru+ 96 Ru and 96 Zr+ 96 Zr collisions to scrutinize the expansion dynamics of the quark-gluon plasma, where the initial geometry perturbations are sourced by the differences in deformations and radial profiles between 96 Ru and 96 Zr, and the collective response is captured by the change in anisotropic flow V n between the two collision systems. Using a transport model, we analyze how the nonlinear coupling between lower-order flow harmonics V 2 and V 3 to the higher-order flow harmonics V 4 and V 5 , expected to scale as V 4NL = χ 4 V 22 and V 5NL = χ 5 V 2 V 3 , gets modified as one moves from 96 Ru+ 96 Ru to 96 Zr+ 96 Zr systems. We find that these scaling relations are valid to a high precision: variations of order 20% in V 4NL and V 5NL due to differences in quadrupole deformation, octupole deformation and nuclear skin modify χ 4 and χ 5 by about 1–2%. Percent-level deviations are however larger than the expected experimental uncertainties, and could be measured. Therefore, collisions of isobars with different nuclear structure are an unique tool to isolate subtle nonlinear effects in the expansion of the quark gluon plasma that would be otherwise impossible to access in a single collision system.