Exploring nuclear structure with multiparticle azimuthal correlations at the LHC

Details of the nuclear structure of ${}^{129}$Xe, such as the quadrupole deformation and the nuclear diffuseness, are studied by extensive measurements of anisotropic-flow-related observables in Xe–Xe collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}=5.44$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The results are compared with those from Pb–Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}=5.02$ TeV for a baseline, given that the ${}^{208}$Pb nucleus exhibits a very weak deformation. Furthermore, comprehensive comparisons are performed with a state-of-the-art hybrid model using IP-Glasma+MUSIC+UrQMD. It is found that among various IP-Glasma+MUSIC+UrQMD calculations with different values of nuclear parameters, the one using a nuclear diffuseness parameter of $a_0=0.492$ and a nuclear quadrupole deformation parameter of ${\beta }_2=0.207$ provides a better description of the presented flow measurements. These studies represent the first systematic exploration of nuclear structure at TeV energies, utilizing a comprehensive set of anisotropic flow observables. The measurements serve as a critical experimental benchmark for rigorously testing the interplay between nuclear structure inputs and heavy-ion theoretical models.