Neutron Skin from Conserved Charge Measurements at Collider Experiments
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866912671551455232 |
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| author | Pihan, Grégoire Monnai, Akihiko Schenke, Björn Shen, Chun |
| author_facet | Pihan, Grégoire Monnai, Akihiko Schenke, Björn Shen, Chun |
| contents | We propose a novel method for measuring the neutron skin of heavy nuclei using collider experiments. Specifically, we demonstrate that the neutron skin thickness of the lead nucleus can be extracted in $p$+$^{208}$Pb collisions by analyzing a double ratio: The ratio of net electric charge to net baryon number measured near the lead-going rapidity, taken for high-multiplicity events and divided by the same ratio for low-multiplicity events. We compute the expected sensitivity of the double ratio to the neutron skin within a comprehensive (3+1)D relativistic hydrodynamic framework that incorporates multiple conserved charge currents and a charge-dependent lattice-QCD-based equation of state. We provide predictions for both $p$+$^{208}$Pb collisions at ${\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=72}$~GeV and $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$~TeV, corresponding to the center of mass energies realized in the SMOG2 fixed-target setup at LHCb and the LHC collider mode, respectively. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_21644 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Neutron Skin from Conserved Charge Measurements at Collider Experiments Pihan, Grégoire Monnai, Akihiko Schenke, Björn Shen, Chun Nuclear Theory We propose a novel method for measuring the neutron skin of heavy nuclei using collider experiments. Specifically, we demonstrate that the neutron skin thickness of the lead nucleus can be extracted in $p$+$^{208}$Pb collisions by analyzing a double ratio: The ratio of net electric charge to net baryon number measured near the lead-going rapidity, taken for high-multiplicity events and divided by the same ratio for low-multiplicity events. We compute the expected sensitivity of the double ratio to the neutron skin within a comprehensive (3+1)D relativistic hydrodynamic framework that incorporates multiple conserved charge currents and a charge-dependent lattice-QCD-based equation of state. We provide predictions for both $p$+$^{208}$Pb collisions at ${\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=72}$~GeV and $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$~TeV, corresponding to the center of mass energies realized in the SMOG2 fixed-target setup at LHCb and the LHC collider mode, respectively. |
| title | Neutron Skin from Conserved Charge Measurements at Collider Experiments |
| topic | Nuclear Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21644 |