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 β _2 and nuclear diffuseness a_0 of ^129 Xe on various of flow observables in Xe–Xe collisions at √(s_NN)= 5.44 TeV. We found that β _2 has a strong influence on central collisions while a_0 mostly influences the mid-central collisions. The relative change of flow observables induced by a change in β _2 and a_0 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.