• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevC.106.L031901
• Corpus ID: 249394786

Ratios of collective flow observables in high-energy isobar collisions are insensitive to final-state interactions

@article{Zhang2022RatiosOC,
  title={Ratios of collective flow observables in high-energy isobar collisions are insensitive to final-state interactions},
  author={Chunjian Zhang and Somadutta Bhatta and Jiangyong Jia},
  journal={Physical Review C},
  year={2022}
}

• Chunjian Zhang, S. Bhatta, Jiangyong Jia
• Published 4 June 2022
• Physics
• Physical Review C

The ratios of bulk observables, such as harmonic flow v 2 and v 3 , between high-energy 96 Ru+ 96 Ru and 96 Zr+ 96 Zr collisions were recently argued to be a clean probe of the nuclear structure differences between 96 Ru and 96 Zr. Using a transport model simulation of isobar collisions, we quantify this claim from the dependence of the ratios v 2 , Ru / v 2 , Zr and v 3 , Ru / v 3 , Zr on various final state effects, such as the shear viscosity, hadronization and hadronic cascade. Although the v 2 and v 3 change by more than 50% when varying the final state effects, the ratios are unchanged. In addition, these ratios are independent of the transverse momentum p T and hadron species, despite of up to a factor of two change in v n . The ratio of mean transverse momentum ⟨ p T ⟩ is found to be controlled by the nuclear skin and nuclear radius, but is only slightly impacted by the final state effects. Therefore, these isobar ratios serve as a clean probe of the initial condition of the quark-gluon plasma, which in turn is controlled by the collective structure of the colliding nuclei.