Nuclear stopping and compression in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies

The nuclear stopping and the radial flow are investigated with an isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (IQMD) model for Ni + Ni and Pb + Pb from 0.4 to and 1.2 GeV/u. The expansion velocity as well as the degree of nuclear stopping are higher in the heavier system at all energies. The ratio between the flow energy and the total available energy in center of mass of the colliding systems exhibits a positive correlation to the degree of nuclear stopping. The maximum density (rho(max)) achieved in the compression is comparable to the hydrodynamics prediction only if the non-zero collision time effect is taken into account in the later. Due to the partial transparency, the growing of the maximum density achieved in the central region of the fireball with the increase of beam energy becomes gradually flat in the 1 GeV/u energy regime. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of entrance-channel asymmetry on the isospin dependence of nucleon emission in heavy ion collisions

Using the isospin- and momentum-dependent hadronic transport model 1BUU04, we have investigated the influence of the entrance-channel isospin asymmetry on the sensitivity of the pre-equilibrium neutron/proton ratio to symmetry energy in central heavy-ion collisions induced by high-energy radioactive beams. Our analysis and discussion are based on the dynamical simulations of the three isotopic reaction Systems Sn-132+Sn-124, Sn-124+Sn-112 and Sn-112+(112)Su which are of the same total proton number but, different isospin asymmetry. We find that, the kinetic-energy distributions of the pre-equilibrium neutron/proton ratio are quite sensitive to the density-dependence of symmetry energy at incident beam energy E/A = 400 MeV, and the sensitivity increases as the isospin asymmetry of the reaction system increases.

Isospin effects of the Skyrme potential and the momentum dependent interaction at intermediate energy heavy ion collisions

We improve the isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamical model by including isospin effects in the Skyrme potential and the momentum dependent interaction to obtain an isospin dependent Skyrme potential and an isospin dependent momentum interaction. We investigate the isospin effects of Skyrme potential and momentum dependent interaction on the isospin fractionation ratio and the dynamical mechanism in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions. It is found that the isospin dependent Skyrme potential and the isospin dependent momentum interaction produce some important isospin effects in the isospin fractionation ratio

Probing the medium effect and isospin dependence of the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section in heavy ion collisions

Probing in-medium nucleon-nucleon (NN) cross section sigma(1)(NN)(alpha) in heavy ion collisions has been investigated by means of the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (IQMD) with the isospin- and momentum- dependent interaction (IMDI(tau)). It is found that there are the very obvious medium effect and the sensitive isospin- dependence of nuclear stopping R on the in-medium NN cross section sigma(1)(NN)(alpha) in the nuclear reactions induced by halo-neutron projectile and the same-mass stable projectile. However, R induced by the neutron-halo projectile is obviously lower than that induced by the corresponding stable projectile. In particular, there is a very obvious dependence of R on the medium effect of sigma(1)(NN)(alpha) in the whole beam energy region for the above two kinds of projectiles. Therefore, the comparison between the results of R's in the reactions induced by the neutron-halo projectile and the corresponding same-mass stable projectile is a more favourable probe for extracting the information of sigma(1)(NN)(alpha) because of adding a new judgement.

Flipped symmetry potential in heavy-ion collisions

Within the IBUU transport model, flipping of the symmetry potential in heavy-ion collisions is studied. It is found that there exist flipping of the symmetry potential in the isospin fractionation, the single neutron to proton ratio, the double neutron to proton ratio and the neutron-proton differential flow from lower to higher incident energies. The flipping of the symmetry potential results from the change of the relative magnitude of the hard and soft symmetry energies at lower and higher densities. Future observations of the flipped symmetry potential in experiment will help the study of the density-dependent symmetry energy.

Nuclear reaction dynamics induced by halo-nuclei at intermediate energy heavy ion collisions

We studied systematically the reaction dynamics induced by neutron-halo nuclei and proton-halo nuclei within the isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics, such as the effects of loose bound halo-nuclei on the fragmentation reaction and momentum dissipation for different colliding systems with different beam energies and different impact parameters. In order to emphasize the roles of neutron-halo nucleus B-19 and proton-halo nucleus Al-23 on the reaction dynamics we also calculated the the reaction dynamics induced by the stable nuclei F-19 and Na-23 with equal mass under identical incident channel conditions. Based on the comparison of results of reaction dynamics induced by halo-nucleus colliding systems and stable nucleus collidinmg systems we found that the roles of loose bound halo-nucleus structure on the fragmentation multiplicity and nuclear stopping (momentum dissipation) are important for all of colliding systems with different beam energies and minor impact parameters, such as, the loose bound halo-nuclei structure increases the fragmentation multiplicity, but reduces the nuclear stopping.

Entrance channel effects on the role of isospin-dependent momentum interaction in isospin fractionation in heavy ion collisions

An isospin degree of freedom is inserted into the momentum dependent interaction in the quantum molecular dynamics model to obtain an isospin dependent momentum interaction given in a form practically usable in isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics model. We investigate the entrance channel effects for the role of isospin momentum dependent interaction on the isospin fractionation ratio and its dynamical mechanism in the intermediate energy heavy ion collisions. It is found that the isospin dependent momentum interaction induces a significant reduction of isospin fractionation ratio under all entrance channel conditions. However the strong dependence of isospin fractionation ratio on the symmetry potential is preserved after considering the isospin degree of freedom in the momentum dependent interaction.

Systematics of central heavy ion collisions in the 1A GeV regime

Using the large acceptance apparatus FOPI, we study central collisions in the reactions (energies in A GeV are given in parentheses): Ca-40 + Ca-40 (0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.5, 1.93), Ni-58 + Ni-58 (0.15, 0.25, 0.4), Ru-96+Ru-96 (0.4, 1.0. 1.5), (96)zr+(96)zr 1.0, 1.5), Xe-129+CsI (0.15, 0.25, 0.4), Au-197 + Au-197 (0.09, 0.12, 0.15, 0.25, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.5). The observables include cluster multiplicities, longitudinal and transverse rapidity distributions and stopping, and radial flow. The data are compared to earlier data where possible and to transport model simulations. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Recent Progress in Constraining the Equation of State of Dense Neutron-Rich Nuclear Matter with Heavy-Ion Reactions

The nuclear symmetry energy E-sym(rho) is the most uncertain part of the Equation of State (EOS) of dense neutron-rich nuclear matter. In this talk, we discuss the underlying physics responsible for the uncertain E-sym(rho) especially at supra-saturation densities, the circumstantial evidence for a super-soft E-sym(rho) from analyzing pi(-)/pi(+) ratio in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and its impacts on astrophysics and cosmology.

Probing high-density behavior of symmetry energy from pion emission in heavy-ion collisions

Within the framework of the improved isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics (ImIQMD) model, the emission of pion in heavy-ion collisions in the region 1 A GeV as a probe of nuclear symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities is investigated systematically, in which the pion is considered to be mainly produced by the decay of resonances Delta(1232) and N*(1440). The total pion multiplicities and the pi(-)/pi(+) yields are calculated for selected Skyrme parameters SkP, SLy6. Ska and SIB, and also for the cases of different stiffness of symmetry energy with the parameter SLy6. Preliminary results compared with the measured data by the FOPI Collaboration favor a hard symmetry energy of the potential term proportional to (rho/rho(0))(gamma s) with gamma(s) = 2. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of elastic and inelastic NN scattering cross sections on pi(-)/pi(+) ratios in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies

Based on the isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model and the scaling model according to nucleon effective mass, effects of elastic and inelastic NN scattering cross sections on pi(-)/pi(+) in the neutron-rich reaction of Ca-48 + Ca-48 at a beam energy of 400 MeV/nucleon are studied. It is found that cross-section effects of both NN elastic and inelastic scatterings affect Delta(1232), pi(-) and pi(+) production, as well as the value of pi(-)/pi(+).

Dynamics of strangeness production in heavy-ion collisions near threshold energies

Within the framework of the improved isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (ImIQMD) model, the dynamics of strangeness (K-0,K-+, Lambda, and Sigma(-,0,+)) production in heavy-ion collisions near threshold energies is investigated systematically, with the strange particles considered to be produced mainly by inelastic collisions of baryon-baryon and pion-baryon. Collisions in the region of suprasaturation densities of the dense baryonic matter formed in heavy-ion collisions dominate the yields of strangeness production. Total multiplicities as functions of incident energies and collision centralities are calculated with the Skyrme parameter SLy6. The excitation function of strangeness production is analyzed and also compared with the KaoS data for K+ production in the reactions C-12 + C-12 and Au-197 + Au-197.

Dynamics of pion production in heavy-ion collisions around 1A GeV energies

Within the framework of the improved isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics model, the dynamics of pion emission in heavy-ion collisions in the region of 1A GeV energies as a probe of nuclear symmetry energy at suprasaturation densities is investigated systematically. The total pion multiplicities and the pi(-)/pi(+) yields are calculated for selected Skyrme parameters SkP, SLy6, Ska, and SIII and also for the cases of different stiffness of symmetry energy with the parameter SLy6. The influence of Coulomb potential, symmetry energy, and in-medium pion potential on the pion production is investigated and compared to each other by analyzing the distributions of transverse momentum and longitudinal rapidity and also the excitation functions of the total pion and the pi(-)/pi(+) ratio. The directed flow, elliptic flow, and polar-angle distributions are calculated for the cases of different collision centralities and also the various stiffnesses of the symmetry energies. A comparison of the calculations with the available experimental data is performed.

Isocaling and the symmetry energy in the multifragmentation regime of heavy-ion collisions

The ratio of the symmetry energy coefficient to temperature, a(sym)/T, in Fermi energy heavy-ion collisions, was experimentally extracted as a function of the fragment atomic number using isoscaling parameters and the variance of the isotope distributions. The extracted values were compared to the results of calculations made with an antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) model employing a statistical decay code to account for deexcitation of excited primary fragments. The experimental values are in good agreement with the values calculated from the final ground-state products but are significantly different from those characterizing the yields of the primary AMD fragments.

Observation of pi(+)pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) photoproduction in ultraperipheral heavy-ion collisions at root s(NN)=200 GeV at the STAR detector

We present a measurement of pi(+)pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) photonuclear production in ultraperipheral Au-Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV from the STAR experiment. The pi(+)pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) final states are observed at low transverse momentum and are accompanied by mutual nuclear excitation of the beam particles. The strong enhancement of the production cross section at low transverse momentum is consistent with coherent photoproduction. The pi(+)pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) invariant mass spectrum of the coherent events exhibits a broad peak around 1540 +/- 40 MeV/c(2) with a width of 570 +/- 60 MeV/c(2), in agreement with the photoproduction data for the rho(0)(1700). We do not observe a corresponding peak in the pi(+)pi(-) final state and measure an upper limit for the ratio of the branching fractions of the rho(0)(1700) to pi(+)pi(-) and pi(+)pi(-)pi(+)pi(-) of 2.5% at 90% confidence level. The ratio of rho(0)(1700) and rho(0)(770) coherent production cross sections is measured to be 13.4 +/- 0.8(stat.) +/- 4.4(syst.)%.