Effects of clustered nuclear geometry on the anisotropic flow in O--O collisions at the LHC within a multiphase transport model framework

To understand the true origin of flow-like signatures and applicability of hydrodynamics in small collision systems, effects of soft QCD dynamics, the sensitivity of jet-like correlations, and non-equilibrium effects, efforts are being made to perform \textit{p}--O and O--O collisions at the LHC and RHIC energies. It is equally interesting to look into the possible signatures of an $\alpha$--clustered nuclear geometry in $^{16}$O--$^{16}$O collisions by studying the initial-state effects on the final-state observables. In this work, within a multiphase transport model, we implement an $\alpha$--cluster tetrahedral density profile in the Oxygen nucleus along with the default Woods-Saxon density profile. We study the eccentricity ($\epsilon_2$), triangularity ($\epsilon_3$), normalized symmetric cumulants (NCS(2,3)), elliptic flow ($v_2$), and triangular flow ($v_3$) in $^{16}$O--$^{16}$O collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 7~$TeV. The constituent quark number scaling of the elliptic flow is also reported. For the most central collisions, enhanced effects in $\langle \epsilon_3 \rangle/ \langle \epsilon_2 \rangle$ and $\langle v_3 \rangle/ \langle v_2 \rangle$ with a negative value of NSC(2,3), and an away-side broadening in the two-particle azimuthal correlation function ($C(\Delta \phi)$) of the identified particles are observed in the presence of an $\alpha$--clustered geometry.