Angular structure of many-body correlations in atomic nuclei: From nuclear deformations to diffractive vector meson production in $γA$ collisions

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Main Authors: Blaizot, Jean-Paul, Giacalone, Giuliano
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Blaizot, Jean-Paul
Giacalone, Giuliano
author_facet Blaizot, Jean-Paul
Giacalone, Giuliano
contents There is growing evidence that high-energy scattering processes involving nuclei can offer unique insights into the many-body correlations present in nuclear ground states, in particular those of deformed nuclei. These processes involve, for instance, the collective anisotropic flows in heavy-ion collisions, or the diffractive production of vector mesons in photo-nuclear ($γA$) interactions. In this paper, we use a classical approximation and simple analytical models in order to exhibit characteristic and universal features of ground-state correlation functions that result from the presence of a deformed intrinsic state. In the case of a small axial quadrupole deformation, we show that the random rotation of the intrinsic density of the nucleus leads to a specific quadrupole modulation of the lab-frame two-body density as a function of the relative azimuthal angle. As a phenomenological, albeit academic application, we analyze the diffractive production of vector mesons in high-energy $γ+^8$Be collisions. This demonstrates with the simplest deformed nucleus how the two-body correlations impact the $|t|$ dependence of the incoherent cross sections.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_15421
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Angular structure of many-body correlations in atomic nuclei: From nuclear deformations to diffractive vector meson production in $γA$ collisions
Blaizot, Jean-Paul
Giacalone, Giuliano
Nuclear Theory
High Energy Physics - Experiment
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Experiment
There is growing evidence that high-energy scattering processes involving nuclei can offer unique insights into the many-body correlations present in nuclear ground states, in particular those of deformed nuclei. These processes involve, for instance, the collective anisotropic flows in heavy-ion collisions, or the diffractive production of vector mesons in photo-nuclear ($γA$) interactions. In this paper, we use a classical approximation and simple analytical models in order to exhibit characteristic and universal features of ground-state correlation functions that result from the presence of a deformed intrinsic state. In the case of a small axial quadrupole deformation, we show that the random rotation of the intrinsic density of the nucleus leads to a specific quadrupole modulation of the lab-frame two-body density as a function of the relative azimuthal angle. As a phenomenological, albeit academic application, we analyze the diffractive production of vector mesons in high-energy $γ+^8$Be collisions. This demonstrates with the simplest deformed nucleus how the two-body correlations impact the $|t|$ dependence of the incoherent cross sections.
title Angular structure of many-body correlations in atomic nuclei: From nuclear deformations to diffractive vector meson production in $γA$ collisions
topic Nuclear Theory
High Energy Physics - Experiment
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15421