DETERMINING THE DENSITY DEPENDENCE OF THE NUCLEAR SYMMETRY ENERGY USING HEAVY-ION REACTIONS

We review recent progress in the determination of the subsaturation density behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy from heavy-ion collisions as well as the theoretical progress in probing the high density behavior of the symmetry energy in heavy-ion reactions induced by high energy radioactive beams. We further discuss the implications of these results for the nuclear effective interactions and the neutron skin thickness of heavy nuclei.

Neutron and proton diffusion in fusion reactions for the synthesis of superheavy nuclei

The restriction of the one dimensional (1D) master equation (ME) with the mass number of the projectile-like fragment as a variable is studied, and a two-dimensional (2D) master equation with the neutron and proton numbers as independent variables is set up, and solved numerically. Our study showed that the 2D ME can describe the fusion process well in all projectile-target combinations. Therefore the possible channels to synthesize super-heavy nuclei can be studied correctly in wider possibilities. The available condition for employing 1D ME is pointed out.

Cross-correlation of excitation functions for different fragments and different scattering angles in Al-27(F-19, x)y reactions

Excitation functions have been measured for different projectile-like fragments produced in Al-27(F-19,x)y reactions at incident energies from 110.25 to 118.75 MeV in 250 keV steps. Strong cross section fluctuations of the excitation functions are observed. The cross- correlation coefficients of the excitation functions for different atomic number Z and for different scattering angle theta(cm) have been deduced. These coefficients are much larger than the statistical theoretical calculated ones. This indicates that there are strong correlations between different exit channels in the dissipative heavy ion Collision of Al-27(F-19,x)y.