{
  "id": "2405.20210",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2024-05-30T16:14:38.000Z",
  "updated": "2024-05-30T16:14:38.000Z",
  "title": "The unexpected uses of a bowling pin: anisotropic flow in fixed-target $^{208}$Pb+$^{20}$Ne collisions as a probe of quark-gluon plasma",
  "authors": [
    "Giuliano Giacalone",
    "Wenbin Zhao",
    "Benjamin Bally",
    "Shihang Shen",
    "Thomas Duguet",
    "Jean-Paul Ebran",
    "Serdar Elhatisari",
    "Mikael Frosini",
    "Timo A. Lähde",
    "Dean Lee",
    "Bing-Nan Lu",
    "Yuan-Zhuo Ma",
    "Ulf-G. Meißner",
    "Govert Nijs",
    "Jacquelyn Noronha-Hostler",
    "Christopher Plumberg",
    "Tomás R. Rodríguez",
    "Robert Roth",
    "Wilke van der Schee",
    "Björn Schenke",
    "Chun Shen",
    "Vittorio Somà"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "nucl-th",
    "hep-ph",
    "nucl-ex"
  ],
  "abstract": "The System for Measuring Overlap with Gas (SMOG2) at the LHCb detector enables the study of fixed-target ion-ion collisions at relativistic energies ($\\sqrt{s_{\\rm NN}}\\sim100$ GeV in the centre-of-mass). With input from \\textit{ab initio} calculations of the structure of $^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne, we compute 3+1D hydrodynamic predictions for the anisotropic flow of Pb+Ne and Pb+O collisions, to be tested with upcoming LHCb data. This will allow the detailed study of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation as well as experimental tests of the predicted nuclear shapes. Elliptic flow ($v_2$) in Pb+Ne collisions is greatly enhanced compared to the Pb+O baseline due to the shape of $^{20}$Ne, which is deformed in a bowling-pin geometry. Owing to the large $^{208}$Pb radius, this effect is seen in a broad centrality range, a unique feature of this collision configuration. Larger elliptic flow further enhances the quadrangular flow ($v_4$) of Pb+Ne collisions via non-linear coupling, and impacts the sign of the kurtosis of the elliptic flow vector distribution ($c_2\\{4\\}$). Exploiting the shape of $^{20}$Ne proves thus an ideal method to investigate the formation of QGP in fixed-target experiments at LHCb, and demonstrates the power of SMOG2 as a tool to image nuclear ground states.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2024-05-30T16:14:38.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "anisotropic flow",
      "quark-gluon plasma",
      "ne collisions",
      "bowling pin",
      "image nuclear ground states"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable"
    }
  }
}