Nuclear Physics Confronts Relativistic Collisions Of Isobars

Abstract:

High-energy collisions involving the   isobars    Zr and    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    Zr+   Zr and    Ru+   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?

G. Giacalone, J. Jia, V. Somà, Y. Zhou, A. Afanasjev, M. Alvioli, B Bally, F. Capellino et al.,
„Nuclear Physics Confronts Relativistic Collisions Of Isobars“, 2. Juli 2025, arXiv:2507.01454 (2025).

https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01454

Related to Project A02