Precision Tests of the Nonlinear Mode Coupling of Anisotropic Flow via High-Energy Collisions of Isobars

Valuable information on dynamics of expanding fluids can be inferred from the response of such systems to perturbations in their initial geometry.We apply this technique in high-energy^(96)Ru+^(96)Ru and^(96)Zr+^(96)Zr collisions to scrutinize the expansion dynamics of the quark-gluon plasma,where the initial geometry perturbations are sourced by the differences in deformations and radial profiles between^(96)Ru and^(96)Zr,and the collective response is captured by the change in anisotropic flow Vn between the two collision systems.Using a transport model,we analyze how the nonlinear coupling between lower-order flow harmonics V_(2)and V_(3)to the higher-order flow harmonics V_(4)and V_(5),expected to scale as V_(4)NL= χ_(4)V_(2)2and V_(5)NL= χ_(5)V_(2)V_(3),gets modified as one moves from^(96)Ru+^(96)Ru to^(96)Zr+^(96)Zr systems.We find that these scaling relations are valid to high precision:variations of order 20% in V_(4)NLand V_(5)NLdue to differences in quadrupole deformation,octupole deformation,and nuclear skin modify χ_(4)and χ_(5)by about 1–2%.Percent-level deviations are however larger than the expected experimental uncertainties and could be measured.Therefore,collisions of isobars with different nuclear structures are a unique tool to isolate subtle nonlinear effects in the expansion of the quark-gluon plasma that would be otherwise impossible to access in a single collision system.

Investigation of experimental observables in search of the chiral magnetic effect in heavy-ion collisions in the STAR experiment

The chiral magnetic effect(CME)is a novel transport phenomenon,arising from the interplay between quantum anomalies and strong magnetic fields in chiral systems.In high-energy nuclear collisions,the CME may survive the expansion of the quark-gluon plasma fireball and be detected in experiments.Over the past two decades,experimental searches for the CME have attracted extensive interest at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider(RHIC)and the Large Hadron Collider(LHC).The main goal of this study is to investigate three pertinent experimental approaches:the$\gamma$correlator,the R correlator,and the signed balance functions.We exploit simple Monte Carlo simulations and a realistic event generator(EBE-AVFD)to verify the equivalence of the core components among these methods and to ascertain their sensitivities to the CME signal and the background contributions for the isobar collisions at the RHIC.