Tomography of ultrarelativistic nuclei with polarized photon-gluon collisions

0583438 - ÚJF 2024 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Abdallah, M. S. - Aboona, B. E. - Adam, J. - Adamczyk, L. - Bielčík, J. - Bielčíková, Jana - Holub, L. - Chaloupka, P. - Kosarzewski, L. K. - Kramárik, L. - Líčeník, Robert - Prozorova, V. - Robotková, Monika - Šumbera, Michal - Truhlář, T. - Trzeciak, B. A. - Vaněk, Jan … Total 394 authors
Tomography of ultrarelativistic nuclei with polarized photon-gluon collisions.
Science Advances. Roč. 9, č. 1 (2023), č. článku eabq3903. ISSN 2375-2548. E-ISSN 2375-2548
Research Infrastructure: BNL-CZ II - 90109
Institutional support: RVO:61389005
Keywords : STAR collaboration * heavy ion collisions
OECD category: Nuclear physics
Impact factor: 13.6, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abq3903

A linearly polarized photon can be quantized from the Lorentz-boosted electromagnetic field of a nucleus trav-eling at ultrarelativistic speed. When two relativistic heavy nuclei pass one another at a distance of a few nuclear radii, the photon from one nucleus may interact through a virtual quark-antiquark pair with gluons from the other nucleus, forming a short-lived vector meson (e.g., p(0)). In this experiment, the polarization was used in diffractive photoproduction to observe a unique spin interference pattern in the angular distribution of p(0) -> pi(+)pi(-) decays. The observed interference is a result of an overlap of two wave functions at a distance an order of magnitude larger than the p(0) travel distance within its lifetime. The strong-interaction nuclear radii were extract-ed from these diffractive interactions and found to be 6.53 +/- 0.06 fm (Au-197) and 7.29 +/- 0.08 fm (U-238), larger than the nuclear charge radii. The observable is demonstrated to be sensitive to the nuclear geometry and quantum interference of nonidentical particles.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351406