Impact of the radial profile of atomic nuclei on observables in high-energy collisions

Abstract

In heavy-ion phenomenology, the nucleon density distribution in colliding nuclei is commonly described by a two-parameter Woods-Saxon (WS) distribution. However, this approach overlooks the detailed radial structure in the density distribution that arises from the quantal filling patterns of neutrons and protons. These fine structures, as estimated by the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock density functional, cause slight deviations in heavy-ion observables from the WS baseline, which cannot be captured by simply readjusting the WS parameters. These deviations depend on centrality and observable but often exhibit similar shapes for different nuclei. To fully exploit the exceptional sensitivity of isobar collisions to nuclear structure, such fine structures should be considered.