Probing nuclear structure via photoproduction processes in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
Abstract
In high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, highly charged heavy ions moving close to the speed of light generate extremely strong electromagnetic fields, inducing photoproduction processes involving photon-photon and photon-nuclear interactions. These photoproduction processes yield various states, including dilepton pairs and vector mesons. In recent years, several experimental results from ultraperipheral and peripheral heavy-ion collisions have provided excellent conditions and unique opportunities for studying nuclear structures and nucleon distributions through mutual promotion and cross-checking between precise experimental measurements and sophisticated theoretical calculations. This paper briefly introduces recent research achievements on nuclear charge distributions, gluon distributions, neutron skins, etc. based on the data collected from ultraperipheral and peripheral heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider.
