Novel technique to extract experimental symmetry free energy information of nuclear matter

A new method of accessing information on the symmetry free energy from yields of fragments produced in Fermi-energy heavy-ion collisions is proposed. Furthermore, by means of quantum fluctuation analysis techniques, correlations between extracted symmetry free-energy coefficients with temperature and density were studied. The obtained results are consistent with those of commonly used isoscaling techniques.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures Heavy-ion nuclear reactions at Fermi energies, Nuclear equation of State, Fragmentatio

Experimental determination of the quasi-projectile mass with measured neutrons

The investigation of the isospin dependence of multifragmentation reactions relies on precise reconstruction of the fragmenting source. The criteria used to assign free emitted neutrons, detected with the TAMU Neutron Ball, to the quasi-projectile source are investigated in the framework of two different simulation codes. Overall and source-specific detection efficiencies for multifragmentation events are found to be model independent. The equivalence of the two different methods used to assign experimentally detected charged particles and neutrons to the emitting source is shown. The method used experimentally to determine quasi-projectile emitted free neutron multiplicity is found to be reasonably accurate and sufficiently precise as to allow for the study of well-defined quasi-projectile sources.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. To be submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth.

Using Light Charged Particles to Probe the Asymmetry Dependence of the Nuclear Caloric Curve

Recently, we observed a clear dependence of the nuclear caloric curve on neutron-proton asymmetry $\frac{N-Z}{A}$ through examination of fully reconstructed equilibrated quasi-projectile sources produced in heavy ion collisions at E/A = 35 MeV. In the present work, we extend our analysis using multiple light charged particle probes of the temperature. Temperatures are extracted with five distinct probes using a kinetic thermometer approach. Additionally, temperatures are extracted using two probes within a chemical thermometer approach (Albergo method). All seven measurements show a significant linear dependence of the source temperature on the source asymmetry. For the kinetic thermometer, the strength of the asymmetry dependence varies with the probe particle species in a way which is consistent with an average emission-time ordering.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Particle-particle correlation functions as an experimental probe of the nuclear asymmetry energy

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Mesonic cloud contribution to the nucleon and delta masses

Pion-nucleon elastic scattering in the dominant $P_{33}$ channel is examined in the model in which the interaction is of the form $\pi + N\leftrightarrow N, \Delta(1232)$. New expressions are found for the elastic pion-nucleon scattering amplitude which differ from existing formula both in the kinematics and in the treatment of the renormalization of the nucleon mass and coupling constant. Fitting the model to the phase shifts in the $P_{33}$ channel does not uniquely fix the parameters of the model. The cutoff for the pion-nucleon form factor is found to lie in the range $\beta = 750\pm350$ MeV/c. The masses of the nucleon and the $\Delta$ which would arise if there were no coupling to mesons are found to be $m_{_N}^{(0)}= 1200\pm 200$ MeV and $m_\Delta^{(0)} = 1500\pm 200$ MeV. The difference in these bare masses, a quantity which would be accounted for by a residual gluon interaction, is found to be $\delta m^{(0)}=350\pm 100$ MeV.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, significant rewrit

The ASY-EOS experiment at GSI: investigating the symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities

The elliptic-flow ratio of neutrons with respect to protons in reactions of neutron rich heavy-ions systems at intermediate energies has been proposed as an observable sensitive to the strength of the symmetry term in the nuclear Equation Of State (EOS) at supra-saturation densities. The recent results obtained from the existing FOPI/LAND data for $^{197}$Au+$^{197}$Au collisions at 400 MeV/nucleon in comparison with the UrQMD model allowed a first estimate of the symmetry term of the EOS but suffer from a considerable statistical uncertainty. In order to obtain an improved data set for Au+Au collisions and to extend the study to other systems, a new experiment was carried out at the GSI laboratory by the ASY-EOS collaboration in May 2011.Comment: Talk given by P. Russotto at the 11th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012), San Antonio, Texas, USA, May 27-June 1, 2012. To appear in the NN2012 Proceedings in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS