Nuclear deformation effects in photoproduction of ρ mesons in ultraperipheral isobaric collisions

We have investigated the ρ⁰ meson photoproduction in ultraperipheral isobaric collisions between ₄₄⁹⁶Ru+₄₄⁹⁶Ru and ₄₀⁹⁶Zr+₄₀⁹⁶Zr at √sNN=200 GeV, employing the dipole model with the equivalent photon approximation. By implementing the Woods-Saxon distribution to represent the nuclear mass density, which is derived from density functional theory with an inclusion of nuclear deformation effects, we have calculated the transverse momentum qT spectra in isobaric collisions. We observe the characteristic dip behavior in these spectra, indicative of diffraction phenomena in high-energy physics. We notice that the deformation effects cause a nearly linear increase with qT² for qT²0.015 GeV², aligning with experimental observations. We offer a simple explanation for the observed behavior in these spectra by introducing the effective width of the nuclei in the thickness function. We also extend our discussion on the ρ⁰ meson photoproduction with the targets ⁶³Cu,¹⁹⁷Au, and ²³⁸U.