Nuclear structure through the lens of heavy ion collisions

Thursday 3 Sept 2026, 13:00 → 18:30 Europe/Zurich

Auditorium Joliot Curie (IJCLab)

Laure Marie Massacrier (Université Paris-Saclay (FR)), Olga Bessidskaia Bylund (Université Paris-Saclay (FR)), Vladimir Manea (Université Paris-Saclay (FR))

This local workshop aims at gathering the low energy nuclear experimental and theoretical communities, with the high energy QCD experimental LHC community, in order to explore the opportunities offered by new observables measured at the LHC in order to constrain the structure of the nucleus.

The LHC has recently completed its operations after almost 2 decades of successful running, providing proton-proton, heavy-ion and recently light-ion collisions at unprecedented energies. While preparing for the future high-luminosity era, CERN is investigating which ions to collide next. This workshop is therefore timely to contribute to the CERN new ion initiative for Run 4, especially in view of the EMMI workshop (https://indico.gsi.de/event/25022/). 

We will provide a brief selected overview of measurements related to nuclear shape in both high-energy and low-energy physics, discuss possible measurements at the LHC in Run 3 and brainstorm ideas for the high-luminosity era. We want to explore the complementarity with low-energy measurements and try to address open questions in theoretical nuclear physics. The workshop contains two experimental (high and low energy) and one theoretical overview talk, with ample time for discussion.

There is no workshop fees. A zoom link is provided for those who cannot attend in person. We would like to have an approximate number of participants by the end of July in order to prepare the coffee break and thus appreciate an early registration for in-person attendees. 

We look forward to welcome you in Orsay.

13:00 → 15:00 Theoretical concepts

13:00 Theory seminar

Speaker: Thomas Duguet (CEA)

14:30 Discussion

15:00 → 15:30 Coffee break

15:30 → 17:10 Nuclear shape in high-energy and low-energy experiments

15:30 Nuclear shape in high energy experiments

We discuss observables related to nuclear shape in high-energy physics, presenting results from both heavy- and light-ion collisions with ALICE, LHCb and STAR. We also show projections for future measurements and discuss possible opportunities for the LHC Run 4 with new species of ions. Talk duration 30 minutes, discussion 30 minutes.

Speakers: Laure Marie Massacrier (Université Paris-Saclay (FR)), Olga Bessidskaia Bylund (Université Paris-Saclay (FR))

16:20 Low energy experiment and nuclear shape

17:10 → 18:00 General discussion