Imaging nuclear structure in high-energy heavy-ion collisions*

The hydrodynamic modeling of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) permits us today not only to perform quantitative extractions of the transport properties of the QGP, but also to strongly constrain its initial condition. A growing body of experimental evidence shows that the QGP initial condition is strongly impacted by the shape and radial structure of the colliding nuclei. We discuss the exciting prospect of using precision flow measurements as a tool to image the structure of atomic nuclei, and show how such measurements probe the quadrupole, octupole, and triaxial deformations of the colliding ions, as well as their neutron skin. Motivated by recent groundbreaking measurements from RHIC and LHC, we discuss in particular the case of collisions of isobaric nuclei, which provide the cleanest access route to the collective structure of the colliding ions. We discuss the implications of obtaining an information about the structure of nuclei from high-energy collisions that is fully complementary to that obtained in low-energy experiments, and argue that a scan of stable isobars at high-energy colliders may open a new exciting direction of research in nuclear physics.