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arXiv · 2507.01454

Nuclear Physics Confronts Relativistic Collisions Of Isobars

Abstract

High-energy collisions involving the $A=96$ isobars $^{96}$Zr and $^{96}$Ru have been performed in 2018 at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) as a means to search for the chiral magnetic effect in QCD. This would manifest itself as specific deviations from unity in the ratio of observables taken between $^{96}$Zr+$^{96}$Zr and $^{96}$Ru+$^{96}$Ru collisions. Measurements of such ratios (released at the end of 2021) indeed reveal deviations from unity, but these are primarily caused by the two collided isobars having different radial profiles and intrinsic deformations. To make progress in understanding RHIC data, nuclear physicists across the energy spectrum gathered in Heidelberg in 2022 as part of an EMMI Rapid Reaction Task Force (RRTF) to address the following question. Does the combined effort of low-energy nuclear structure physics and high-energy heavy-ion physics enable us to understand the observations made in isobar collisions at RHIC?

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Giuliano Giacalone, Jiangyong Jia, Vittorio Somà, You Zhou, Anatoli Afanasjev, Massimiliano Alvioli, Benjamin Bally, Federica Capellino, Jean-Paul Ebran, Hannah Elfner, Fernando G. Gardim, André V. Giannini, Frédérique Grassi, Eduardo Grossi, Jan Hammelmann, Andreas Kirchner, Dean Lee, Matthew Luzum, Hadi Mehrabpour, Emil G. Nielsen, Govert Nijs, Tamara Nikšić, Jacquelyn Noronha-Hostler, Jean-Yves Ollitrault, Takaharu Otsuka, Kevin P. Pala, Udeshika C. Perera, Luis M. Robledo, Tomás R. Rodríguez, Wouter Ryssens, Nils Saß, Wilke van der Schee, Björn Schenke, Willian M. Serenone, Pragya Singh, Chun Shen, Noritaka Shimizu, Huichao Song, Seyed Farid Taghavi, Derek Teaney, Yusuke Tsunoda, Kathrin Wimmer, Kota Yanase, Chunjian Zhang, Shujun Zhao, Wenbin Zhao. 2025-07-02. Nuclear Physics Confronts Relativistic Collisions Of Isobars. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01454

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