Orateur
Description
Relativistic nuclear collisions have emerged as a new laboratory for studying many-body correlations among nucleons in nuclear ground states. Focusing on ultra-central collisions, where nearly all nucleons participate, I will discuss how long-range nuclear correlations leave distinct imprints in final-state multi-particle correlation observables, and how scale separations inherent to the QCD description of these processes help establish this connection. I will review the experimental evidence of nuclear correlation effects across systems ranging from 20Ne collisions at the LHC to 238U collisions at RHIC, and their interpretation through traditional geometric descriptions of nuclear shapes and clustering. I will emphasize progress in disentangling nuclear-structure from collision-dynamics effects within the pipeline of global Bayesian analyses of LHC data. I will conclude by outlining the physics opportunities offered by collisions of new ion species in future LHC runs, addressing questions at the intersection of high- and low-energy nuclear physics.