In the hydrodynamic model description of heavy-ion collisions, the elliptic flow $v_2$ and triangular flow $v_3$ are sensitive to the quadrupole deformation ${\beta }_2$ and octupole deformation ${\beta }_3$ of the colliding nuclei. The relations between $v_n$ and ${\beta }_n$ have recently been clarified and were found to follow a simple parametric form. The STAR Collaboration has just published precision $v_n$ data from isobaric ${}^{96}\mathrm{Ru}+{}^{96}\mathrm{Ru}$ and ${}^{96}\mathrm{Zr}+{}^{96}\mathrm{Zr}$ collisions, where they observe large differences in central collisions $v_{2,\mathrm{Ru}}>v_{2,\mathrm{Zr}}$ and $v_{3,\mathrm{Ru}}<v_{3,\mathrm{Zr}}$. Using a transport model simulation, we show that these orderings are a natural consequence of ${\beta }_{2,\mathrm{Ru}}\gg {\beta }_{2,\mathrm{Zr}}$ and ${\beta }_{3,\mathrm{Ru}}\ll {\beta }_{3,\mathrm{Zr}}$. We reproduce the centrality dependence of the $v_2$ ratio qualitatively and $v_3$ ratio quantitatively and extract values of ${\beta }_2$ and ${\beta }_3$ that are consistent with those measured at low-energy nuclear structure experiments. STAR data provide the first direct evidence of strong octupole correlations in the ground state of ${}^{96}\mathrm{Zr}$ in heavy-ion collisions. Our analysis demonstrates that flow measurements in high-energy, heavy-ion collisions, especially using isobaric systems, are a new precision tool to study nuclear structure physics.

• Received 30 September 2021
• Accepted 9 December 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.022301