Pith. sign in

REVIEW 12 cited by

Determination of the neutron skin of ²⁰⁸Pb from ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2305.00015 v2 pith:UYUHSW4E submitted 2023-04-28 nucl-th astro-ph.HEhep-exhep-phnucl-ex

Determination of the neutron skin of ²⁰⁸Pb from ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions

classification nucl-th astro-ph.HEhep-exhep-phnucl-ex
keywords neutronskincollisionsnuclearnucleiatomicdeterminationdistributions
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
Share X Bluesky LinkedIn Reddit HN
read the original abstract

Emergent bulk properties of matter governed by the strong nuclear force give rise to physical phenomena across vastly different scales, ranging from the shape of atomic nuclei to the masses and radii of neutron stars. They can be accessed on Earth by measuring the spatial extent of the outer skin made of neutrons that characterises the surface of heavy nuclei. The isotope $^{208}$Pb, owing to its simple structure and neutron excess, has been in this context the target of many dedicated efforts. Here, we determine the neutron skin from measurements of particle distributions and their collective flow in $^{208}$Pb+$^{208}$Pb collisions at ultrarelativistic energy performed at the Large Hadron Collider, which are sensitive to the overall size of the colliding $^{208}$Pb ions. By means of state-of-the-art global analysis tools within the hydrodynamic model of heavy-ion collisions, we infer a neutron skin $\Delta r_{np}=0.217\pm0.058$ fm, consistent with nuclear theory predictions, and competitive in accuracy with a recent determination from parity-violating asymmetries in polarised electron scattering. We establish thus a new experimental method to systematically measure neutron distributions in the ground state of atomic nuclei.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 12 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.36$ TeV $^{16}$O$+^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne$+^{20}$Ne collisions with the ATLAS detector

    nucl-ex 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    First measurements of v_n (n=2-4) in 5.36 TeV O+O and Ne+Ne collisions show enhanced v2 in central neon collisions consistent with prolate nuclear deformation.

  2. Yoctosecond imaging of the ground state of $^{129}$Xe at the Large Hadron Collider

    nucl-th 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Bayesian global fit to Xe-Xe and Pb-Pb LHC data infers nearly maximal triaxiality for the 129Xe ground state and extracts two- and three-particle correlations.

  3. Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.36$ TeV $^{16}$O$+^{16}$O and $^{20}$Ne$+^{20}$Ne collisions with the ATLAS detector

    nucl-ex 2025-09 accept novelty 6.0

    ATLAS presents first v_n (n=2-4) measurements in O+O and Ne+Ne collisions, showing a flow hierarchy and a central Ne+Ne v2 enhancement consistent with prolate neon deformation.

  4. Study the Longitudinal Entropy Deposition using d+Au Collision

    nucl-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0

    A 3D entropy deposition model with β≈0.35 and n_BC-dependent rapidity loss, plus ab initio deuteron sampling, reproduces d+Au dNch/dη, spectra, and vn and transfers to p+Au, 3He+Au, and Au+Au.

  5. Nonlinear collective flow reveals the breakdown of quadrupole--hexadecapole scaling in heavy ion collisions

    nucl-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0

    The nonlinear flow coefficient ξ6,222 in simulated U+U collisions separates the four (β2, β4) nuclear topology classes, making the sign of the hexadecapole deformation β4 experimentally accessible.

  6. Measurements of charged-particle pseudorapidity and transverse momentum distributions in O+O and Ne+Ne collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_\text{NN}}} = 5.36$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

    nucl-ex 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    ATLAS measures charged-particle pseudorapidity density and mean transverse momentum in O+O and Ne+Ne collisions at 5.36 TeV as a function of centrality and eta.

  7. Bayesian inference constraints on jet quenching across centrality, beam energy, and observable classes in LHC heavy-ion collisions

    hep-ph 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Bayesian posteriors from JETSCAPE jet-quenching model are largely compatible across centrality but exhibit shifts across beam energy and observable class, with varying ability to predict complementary datasets.

  8. Resolution-matched nuclear geometry and the nucleon-size ambiguity in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

    nucl-th 2026-02 conditional novelty 5.0

    The strong nucleon-width dependence of the Pb+Pb hadronic cross section is a geometric-inflation artifact; with the folded density fixed, σ_AA is width-insensitive and can constrain the 208Pb neutron skin to Δr_np ∈ [...

  9. Disentangling baryon stopping and neutron skin effects in heavy-ion collisions

    hep-ph 2026-02 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Statistical model analysis of isobar collisions extracts a baryon-stopping parameter and introduces an r^OX observable whose central-to-peripheral ratio probes neutron-skin thickness.

  10. The size of the quark-gluon plasma in ultracentral collisions: impact of initial density fluctuations on the average transverse momentum

    nucl-th 2025-11 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Volume variation with multiplicity in ultracentral collisions is small when total entropy scales with nuclear mass number, as shown by relating it to initial density fluctuation profiles.

  11. Scaling approach to rigid and soft nuclear deformation through flow fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions

    nucl-th 2025-09 conditional novelty 5.0

    Triangular flow four-particle cumulants scale linearly with the fourth moment of octupole deformation, allowing the mean and variance of 238U octupole deformation to be extracted separately.

  12. 3D Initial-State Dynamics across scales: A Comparative Study of saturation and string-based descriptions

    hep-ph 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 4.0

    Comparison of SMASH and McDipper initial condition models shows agreement in longitudinal deposition at lower energies but substantial differences in energy and baryon deposition at higher center-of-mass energies.