Probe nuclear structure using the anisotropic flow at the Large Hadron Collider

Recent studies have shown that the shape and radial profile of the colliding nuclei have strong influences on the initial condition of the heavy ion collisions and the subsequent development of the anisotropic flow. Using A Multi-Phase Transport model (AMPT) model, we investigated the impact of nuclear quadrupole deformation β₂ and nuclear diffuseness a of ¹²⁹ Xe on various of flow observables in Xe–Xe collisions at sNN= 5.44 TeV. We found that β₂ has a strong influence on central collisions while a mostly influences the mid-central collisions. The relative change of flow observables induced by a change in β₂ and a are also found to be insensitive to the values of parameters controlling the strength of the interaction among final state particles. Our study demonstrates the potential for constraining the initial condition of heavy ion collisions using future system scans at the LHC.