2025/05/14 by Jenny Baker, Baker, J. D., C. A. Bertulani +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Atomic and Molecular Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.09348
openalex publication_date 2025/05/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a theoretical investigation of photonuclear tomography as a novel technique for probing the internal structure of nuclei. In this approach, ultraperipheral heavy-ion collisions (UPCs) serve as a source of intense fluxes of virtual photons, which induce coherent production of vector mesons. By analyzing the probabilities and cross sections of these photon-induced processes, we propose a methodology for reconstructing the spatial distribution of nucleons within the nucleus. Our framework provides a systematic way to access information on the nuclear geometry probed in UPCs, offering new opportunities for studies of nuclear structure using particle production as a probe. Numerical calculations for selected examples illustrate the feasibility and potential of this method.