Extraction of ground-state nuclear deformations from ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions: Nuclear structure physics context

Abstract: The collective-flow-assisted nuclear shape-imaging method in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions has recently been used to characterize nuclear collective states. In this paper, we assess the foundations of the shape-imaging technique employed in these studies. We conclude that, on the whole, the discussion regarding low-energy nuclear physics is confusing and the suggested impact on nuclear structure research is overstated. Conversely, efforts to incorporate existing knowledge on nuclear shapes into analysis pipelines can be beneficial for benchmarking tools and calibrating models used to extract information from ultra-relativistic heavy ion experiments.