Probing nuclear structure at the Electron-Ion Collider and in ultra-peripheral nuclear collisions

¹ Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40014 Finland
² Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, 00014 Finland
³ Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
⁴ Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
⁵ Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA
⁷ RIKEN BNL Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA

^* e-mail: WenbinZhao@lbl.gov

Published online: 26 June 2024

Abstract

Within the Color Glass Condensate framework, we demonstrate that exclusive vector meson production at high energy is sensitive to the geometric deformation of the target nucleus and subnucleon scale fluctuations. Deformation of the nucleus enhances the incoherent cross section in the small |t| region. Subnucleon scale fluctuations increase the incoherent cross section in the large |t| region. In ultra-peripheral collisions (UPCs), larger deformation leads to a wider distribution of the minimal impact parameter B_min required to produce a UPC. This, together with larger incoherent cross sections for larger deformation, results in smaller extracted radii. Our results demonstrate great potential for future studies of nuclear structure in UPCs and electron-ion collisions.