Hard probes in isobar collisions as a probe of the neutron skin
Wilke van der Schee (Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, Genève 23, Switzerland, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands)
; Yen-Jie Lee (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA); Govert Nijs (Center for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA); Yi Chen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA)
We present an estimate of the yield of hard probes expected for collisions of the isobars Ru and Zr at collision energies reachable at RHIC and the LHC. These yields are proportional to the number of binary nucleon-nucleon interactions, which is characteristically different due to the presence of the large neutron skin in Zr. This provides an independent opportunity to measure the difference between the neutron skin of Ru and Zr, which can provide an important constraint on the Equation of State of cold neutron-rich matter.
