Evidence of the triaxial structure of $\boldsymbol{^{129}}$Xe at the Large Hadron Collider

Abstract

The interpretation of the emergent collective behaviour of atomic nuclei in terms of deformed intrinsic shapes [1] is at the heart of our understanding of the rich phenomenology of their structure, ranging from nuclear energy to astrophysical applications across a vast spectrum of energy scales. A new window onto the deformation of nuclei has been recently opened with the realization that nuclear collision experiments performed at high-energy colliders, such as the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), enable experimenters to identify the relative orientation of the colliding ions in a way that magnifies the manifestations of their intrinsic deformation [2]. Here we apply this technique to LHC data on collisions of $^{129}$Xe nuclei [3-5] to exhibit the first evidence of non-axiality in the ground state of ions collided at high energy. We predict that the low-energy structure of $^{129}$Xe is triaxial (a spheroid with three unequal axes), and show that such deformation can be determined from high-energy data. This result demonstrates the unique capabilities of precision collider machines such as the LHC as new means to perform imaging of the collective structure of atomic nuclei.