Nuclear deformation effects on charmonium suppression in and collisions
Phys. Rev. C 114, 014911 – Published 21 July, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/l9wb-4cr3
Abstract
We investigate the impacts of intrinsic nuclear deformation and orientation on the yield suppression and momentum anisotropy of charmonia in and collisions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC). The deformed nucleon density is parametrized via a modified Woods-Saxon distribution, which self-consistently determines the initial spatial distributions of both the heavy quarkonia and the bulk medium. A well-established Boltzmann-type transport equation is then utilized to describe the dynamical evolution of charmonia within this anisotropic medium. Using collisions as a baseline, we find that the momentum-integrated charmonium yield suppression in collisions is relatively insensitive to the initial nuclear geometry. In contrast, the elliptic flow () of charmonia is more sensitive to the nuclear deformation, which is inherently driven by specific collision configurations (e.g., tip-tip, body-body-, and body-body- orientations). These configuration studies elucidate how the spatial orientation of deformed nuclei relative to the impact parameter dictates the initial geometric eccentricity, which subsequently translates into the final-state momentum anisotropy of charmonia. Notably, this orientation-induced effect is enhanced for the excited state, as its larger dissociation rate amplifies the azimuthal asymmetry in the path-integrated survival probability.