Speaker
Description
Photons produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions provide a clean probe of the hot and dense medium, as they are emitted throughout its space-time evolution and are largely unaffected by final-state interactions. While early studies focused mainly on the initial temperature, photon observables now offer insights into the initial geometry, collective dynamics, and space-time evolution. In particular, photon anisotropic flow is sensitive to the initial state and can probe the influence of nuclear structure, such as the neutron skin of Pb on the initial geometry and subsequent evolution of Pb+Pb collisions. In our study, we investigate the impact of the neutron skin on photon observables and explore the collective behaviour of the medium through transverse-momentum-dependent radial flow. These observables provide complementary information on the initial conditions, collective dynamics, and space-time evolution of strongly interacting matter.