Probing nuclear geometry through multi-particle azimuthal correlations and rapidity-even dipolar flow in ¹⁶O+¹⁶O collisions

We study symmetric and asymmetric cumulants as well as rapidity-even dipolar flow in ¹⁶ 16 O+ ¹⁶ 16 O collisions at √sNN = 200 s NN = 200 GeV to explore α α -clustering phenomena in light nuclei within the viscous relativistic hydrodynamics framework. Signatures of α α -clustering manifest in the anisotropic flow coefficients and their correlations – particularly in observables involving elliptic-triangular flow correlations. We show that final-state symmetric and asymmetric cumulants – especially NSC(2,3) NSC ( 2 , 3 ) and NAC2,1(2,3) NAC 2 , 1 ( 2 , 3 ) – are sensitive to the initial nuclear geometry. Additionally, we observe a significant difference in rapidity-even dipolar flow, v₁ᵉᵛᵉⁿ v 1 even , between α α -clustered and Woods–Saxon configurations in high-multiplicity events. These findings underscore the pivotal role of nuclear structure in heavy-ion collision dynamics and provide observables for distinguishing nuclear geometries, particularly in ultra-central collisions.