Possible octupole deformation of 208Pb and the ultracentral v2 to v3 puzzle

Recent measurements have established the sensitivity of ultracentral heavy-ion collisions to the deformation parameters of nonspherical nuclei. In the case of Xe-129 collisions, a quadrupole deformation of the nuclear profile led to an enhancement of elliptic flow in the most central collisions. In Pb-208 collisions a discrepancy exists in similar centralities, where either elliptic flow is overpredicted or triangular flow is underpredicted by hydrodynamic models; this is known as the v(2)-to-v(3) puzzle in ultracentral collisions. Motivated by low-energy nuclear structure calculations, we consider the possibility that Pb-208 nuclei could have a pear-shape deformation (octupole), which has the effect of increasing triangular flow in central PbPb collisions. Using the recent data from ALICE and ATLAS, we reexamine the v(2)-to-v(3) puzzle in ultracentral collisions, including new constraints from recent measurements of the triangular cumulant ratio v(3){4}/v(3){2} and comparing two different hydrodynamic models. We find that while an octupole deformation would slightly improve the ratio between v(2) and v(3), it is at the expense of a significantly worse triangular flow cumulant ratio. In fact, the latter observable prefers no octupole deformation, with beta(3) less than or similar to 0.0375 for Pb-208, and is therefore consistent with the expectation for a doubly-magic nucleus even at top collider energies. The v(2)-to-v(3) puzzle remains a challenge for hydrodynamic models.