The initial-state geometry in relativistic heavy-ion collisions provides a novel probe to nuclear cluster structure. For ${}^{20}\mathrm{Ne}$, a novel approach is proposed to distinguish between the cluster configurations ($5\alpha$ versus $\alpha +{}^{16}\mathrm{O}$) in order to gain insight into nuclear structure transitions governed by many-body quantum correlations. Through analytical calculations with the microscopic Brink model and event-by-event simulations using the hydrodynamic framework, we establish the normalized symmetric cumulant NSC(3, 2) and the Pearson coefficient ${\rho }_2(v_2^2,\delta [p_{\mathrm{T}}])$ as quantitative discriminators to reveal enhanced cluster degrees of freedom in the ground state of ${}^{20}\mathrm{Ne}$. The ultracentral $\mathrm{Ne}+\mathrm{Ne}$ collisions at the LHC can experimentally identify these two competing configurations via these flow correlation observables, opening a new paradigm for probing clustering in light nuclei.

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• Cluster models
• Collective flow
• Particle correlations & fluctuations