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

Abstract

To understand the true origin of flowlike signatures and applicability of hydrodynamics in small collision systems, effects of soft QCD dynamics, the sensitivity of jetlike correlations, and nonequilibrium 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 [NSC(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.