Neutron-skin effect in direct-photon and charged-hadron production in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC
Abstract
A well-established observation in nuclear physics is that in neutron-rich spherical nuclei the distribution of neutrons extends farther than the distribution of protons. In this work, we scrutinize the influence of this so called neutron-skin effect on the centrality dependence of high-pT direct-photon and charged-hadron production. We find that due to the estimated spatial dependence of the nuclear parton distribution functions, it will be demanding to unambiguously expose the neutron-skin effect with direct photons. However, when taking a ratio between the cross sections for negatively and positively charged high-pT hadrons, even centrality-dependent nuclear-PDF effects cancel, making this observable a better handle on the neutron skin. Up to 10% effects can be expected for the most peripheral collisions in the measurable region.
Main Authors
Format
Articles
Research article
Published
2017
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Springer
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201703091617Use this for linking
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1434-6044
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-4709-9
Language
English
Published in
European Physical Journal C
Citation
- Helenius, I., Paukkunen, H., & Eskola, K. (2017). Neutron-skin effect in direct-photon and charged-hadron production in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC. European Physical Journal C, 77(3), Article 148. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-4709-9
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Funder(s)
Research Council of Finland
Funding program(s)
Akatemiahanke, SA
Academy Project, AoF
Additional information about funding
I. H. has been supported by the MCnetITN FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network, Contract PITN-GA-2012-315877 and has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 668679). This research was supported by the European Research Council Grant HotLHC ERC-2011-StG-279579 and by Xunta de Galicia (Conselleria de Educacion)–H. P. is part of the Strategic Unit AGRUP2015/11, and by the Academy of Finland, Project 297058 of K.J.E.
Copyright© The Author(s) 2017. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Funded by SCOAP3.