The initial-state geometry in relativistic heavy-ion collisions provides a novel probe to nuclear cluster structure. For $^{ 20}$Ne, a novel approach is proposed to distinguish between the cluster configurations (5$\alpha$ versus $\alpha + ^{ 16}$O) in order to gain insight into nuclear structure transitions governed by many-body quantum correlations. Through analytical calculations with the microscopic Brink model and event-by-event simulations using the hydrodynamic framework, we establish the normalized symmetric cumulant NSC (3, 2) and the Pearson coefficient $\rho_2 (v_{ 2}^{ 2},\ \delta [p_{ \mathrm{ T}}])$ as quantitative discriminators to reveal enhanced cluster degrees of freedom in the ground state of $^{ 20}$Ne. The ultracentral Ne+Ne collisions at the LHC can experimentally identify these two competing configurations via these flow correlation observables, opening a new paradigm for probing clustering in light nuclei.
Categories: nucl-th hep-ph nucl-ex