Peeling away neutron skin in ultracentral collisions of relativistic nuclei

Abstract

In heavy nuclei the ratio between local densities of neutrons and protons increases towards the nuclear periphery. The excess of neutrons is known as the neutron skin (NS) with a subtle difference ($<0.5$~fm) between the r.m.s radii of the distributions of neutrons and protons. We show that the presence of NS in $^{208}$Pb leads to extra spectator neutrons in ultracentral $^{208}$Pb--$^{208}$Pb collisions at the CERN SPS and LHC. The yields of spectator neutrons and protons were calculated within a new version of Abrasion-Ablation Monte Carlo for Colliders model (AAMCC-MST) taking into account NS and pre-equilibrium clustering of spectator matter. While the average numbers of spectator neutrons and protons in ultracentral collisions vary insignificantly, the cross sections of emission of certain numbers of spectator neutrons in events with 0,1,...5 spectator protons are changed by 50--250\%, depending on the thickness of NS. These cross sections are less sensitive to other parameters in calculations, and their measurements in the ALICE experiment at the LHC will make it possible to restrict the existing variety of neutron density parameterizations in $^{208}$Pb.