Heavy-Ion Collisions as Probes of Nuclear Structure

In this work, we perform a model-to-data comparison for U+U and Au+Au collisions performed at RHIC at s ₍₍ = 193 GeV and 200 GeV, using a multistage framework. Model calculations for various configurations of ^238U and ^197Au are used to compare with measurements of (vₙ\2\², pT), the elliptic-flow-momentum correlator, for the first time. It is found that momentum-flow correlations measured in high-energy nuclear collisions, combined with the flow harmonics themselves, are excellent probes of nuclear deformation and of nuclear structure in general.