Elliptic flow in heavy ion collisions near the balance energy

The proton elliptic flow in collisions of Ca on Ca at energies from 30 to 100 MeV/nucleon is studied in an isospin-dependent transport model. With increasing incident energy, the elliptic flow shows a transition from positive to negative flow. Its magnitude depends on both the nuclear equation of state (EOS) and the nucleon-nucleon scattering cross section. Different elliptic flows are obtained for a stiff EOS with free nucleon-nucleon cross sections and a soft EOS with reduced nucleon-nucleon cross sections, although both lead to vanishing in-plane transverse flow at the same balance energy. The study of both in-plane and elliptic flows at intermediate energies thus provides a means to extract simultaneously the information on the nuclear equation of state and the nucleon-nucleon scattering cross section in medium.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Resonance model study of kaon production in baryon baryon reactions for heavy ion collisions

The energy dependence of the total kaon production cross sections in baryon baryon ($N$ and $\Delta$) collisions are studied in the resonance model, which is a relativistic, tree-level treatment. This study is the first attempt to complete a systematic, consistent investigation of the elementary kaon production reactions for both the pion baryon and baryon baryon reactions. Our model suggests that the magnitudes of the isospin-averaged total cross sections for the $N N \to N Y K$ and $\Delta N \to N Y K$ ($Y = \Lambda$ or $\Sigma$) reactions are almost equal at energies up to about 200 MeV above threshold. However, the magnitudes for the $\Delta N$ reactions become about 6 times larger than those for the $N N$ reactions at energies about 1 GeV above threshold. Furthermore, the magnitudes of the isospin-averaged total cross sections for the $N N \to \Delta Y K$ reactions turn out to be comparable to those for the $N N \to N Y K$ reactions at $N N$ invariant collision energies about 3.1 GeV, and about 5 to 10 times larger at $N N$ invariant collision energies about 3.5 GeV. The microscopic cross sections are parametrized in all isospin channels necessary for the transport model studies of kaon production in heavy ion collisions. These cross sections are then applied in the relativistic transport model to study the sensitivity to the underlying elementary kaon production cross sections.Comment: Latex, 47 pages, 23 postscript figures. Typos in the published version, which informed as errata to the editor, are corrected for the use of simulation cod

Hot Nuclear Matter Equation of State with a Three-body Force

The finite temperature Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach is extended by introducing a microscopic three-body force. In the framework of the extended model, the equation of state of hot asymmetric nuclear matter and its isospin dependence have been investigated. The critical temperature of liquid-gas phase transition for symmetric nuclear matter has been calculated and compared with other predictions. It turns out that the three-body force gives a repulsive contribution to the equation of state which is stronger at higher density and as a consequence reduces the critical temperature of liquid-gas phase transition. The calculated energy per nucleon of hot asymmetric nuclear matter is shown to satisfy a simple quadratic dependence on asymmetric parameter $\beta$ as in the zero-temperature case. The symmetry energy and its density dependence have been obtained and discussed. Our results show that the three-body force affects strongly the high-density behavior of the symmetry energy and makes the symmetry energy more sensitive to the variation of temperature. The temperature dependence and the isospin dependence of other physical quantities, such as the proton and neutron single particle potentials and effective masses are also studied. Due to the additional repulsion produced by the three-body force contribution, the proton and neutron single particle potentials are correspondingly enhanced as similar to the zero-temperature case.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

Kaon differential flow in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Using a relativistic transport model, we study the azimuthal momentum asymmetry of kaons with fixed transverse momentum, i.e., the differential flow, in heavy-ion collisions at beam momentum of 6 GeV/c per nucleon, available from the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). We find that in the absence of kaon potential the kaon differential flow is positive and increases with transverse momentum as that of nucleons. The repulsive kaon potential as predicted by theoretical models, however, reduces the kaon differetnial flow, changing it to negative for kaons with low momenta. Cancellation between the negative differential flow at low mementa and the positive one at high momenta is then responsible for the experimentally observed nearly vanishing in-plane transverse flow of kaons in heavy ion experiments.Comment: Phys. Rev. C in pres

Difficulties in probing density dependent symmetry potential with the HBT interferometry

Based on the updated UrQMD transport model, the effect of the symmetry potential energy on the two-nucleon HBT correlation is investigated with the help of the coalescence program for constructing clusters, and the CRAB analyzing program of the two-particle HBT correlation. An obvious non-linear dependence of the neutron-proton (or neutron-neutron) HBT correlation function ($C_{np,nn}$) at small relative momenta on the stiffness factor $\gamma$ of the symmetry potential energy is found: when $\gamma \lesssim 0.8$, the $C_{np,nn}$ increases rapidly with increasing $\gamma$, while it starts to saturate if $\gamma \gtrsim 0.8$. It is also found that both the symmetry potential energy at low densities and the conditions of constructing clusters at the late stage of the whole process influence the two-nucleon HBT correlation with the same power.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Differential flow in heavy-ion collisions at balance energies

A strong differential transverse collective flow is predicted for the first time to occur in heavy-ion collisions at balance energies. We also give a novel explanation for the disappearance of the total transverse collective flow at the balance energies. It is further shown that the differential flow especially at high transverse momenta is a useful microscope capable of resolving the balance energy's dual sensitivity to both the nuclear equation of state and in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections in the reaction dynamics.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (1999) in pres

Field-induced suppression of the pi-band superconductivity and magnetic hysteresis in the microwave surface resistance of MgB_2 at temperatures near T_c

We report on the magnetic-field-induced variations of the microwave surface resistance, R_s, in a polycrystalline MgB_2 sample, at different values of temperature. We have detected a magnetic hysteresis in R_s, which exhibits an unexpected plateau on decreasing the DC magnetic field below a certain value. In particular, at temperatures near T_c the hysteresis manifests itself only through the presence of the plateau. Although we do not quantitatively justify the anomalous shape of the magnetic hysteresis, we show that the results obtained in the reversible region of the R_s(H) curve can be quite well accounted for by supposing that, in this range of magnetic field, the pi-gap is almost suppressed by the applied field and, consequently, all the pi-band charge carriers are quasiparticles. On this hypothesis, we have calculated R_s(H) supposing that fluxons assume a conventional (single core) structure and the flux dynamics can be described in the framework of conventional models. From the fitting of the experimental results, we determine the values of H_{c2}^pi(T) at temperatures near T_c. In our opinion, the most important result of our investigation is that, at least at temperatures near T_c, the value of the applied field that separates the reversible and irreversible regions of the R_s(H) curves is just H_{c2}^pi(T); a qualitative discussion of the possible reason of this finding is given.Comment: 20 pages, 8 embedded figures, 2 Appendices, accepted for publication in Supercond. Sci. Techno