Spin-Isospin Modes in Heavy-Ion Collisions I: Nuclear Matter at Finite Temperatures

With a view towards implementation in microscopic transport simulations of heavy-ion collisions, the properties of spin-isospin modes are studied in nuclear matter consisting of nucleons and Delta isobars that interact by the exchange of pi and rho mesons. For a standard p-wave interaction and an effective g' short-range interaction, the dispersion relations for the spin- isospin modes, and the associated amplitudes, are calculated at various nuclear densities and temperatures, within the random-phase approximation. Quantities of physical interest are then extracted, including the total and partial Delta decay widths and the Delta cross sections in the nuclear medium. The self-consistent inclusion of the Delta width has a strong effect on the Delta cross sections at twice normal nuclear density, as compared with the result of ignoring the width. Generally, the obtained quantities exhibit a strong density dependence, but are fairly insensitive to the temperature, at least up to T=25 MeV. Finally, it is described how these in-medium effects may be consistently included into microscopic transport simulations of nuclear collisions, and the improvements over previous approaches are discussed.Comment: LaTeX 47 pages, 17 postscript figures in accompanying uuencoded fil

Transport Simulations with Pi and Delta In-Medium Properties

Transport simulations including in-medium properties derived in a microscopic pi + nucleon-hole + delta-hole model in infinite nuclear matter are presented. In-medium pion dispersion relations, partial delta decay widths, pion absorption cross sections and delta cross sections are incorporated into the transport description by means of a local-density approximation. Strong modifications of pi and delta production and absorption rates are found, but only small effects on pion observables.Comment: 11 pages, Latex with psfig and 4 figures included as .eps file

Modulation Theory and Systems

Contains reports on two research projects

Role of isospin dependent mean field in pion production in heavy ion reactions

The importance of a isospin dependent nuclear mean field (IDMF) in regard to the pion production mechanism is studied for the reaction $Au+Au$ at 1 GeV/nucleon using the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) model. In particular, the effect of the IDMF on pion spectra and the charged pion ratio are analyzed. It is found that the inclusion of a IDMF considerably suppresses the low$-p_t$ pions, thus, leading to a better agreement with the data on pion spectra. Moreover, the rapidity distribution of the charged pion ratio appears to be sensitive to the isospin dependence of the nuclear mean field.Comment: 16 pages, using RevTex, 6 PS-Figure

The complement: a solution to liquid drop finite size effects in phase transitions

The effects of the finite size of a liquid drop undergoing a phase transition are described in terms of the complement, the largest (but still mesoscopic) drop representing the liquid in equilibrium with the vapor. Vapor cluster concentrations, pressure and density from fixed mean density lattice gas (Ising) model calculations are explained in terms of the complement. Accounting for this finite size effect is key to determining the infinite nuclear matter phase diagram from experimental data.Comment: Four two column pages, four figures, two tables; accepted for publication in PR

Simple analytic solution of fireball hydrodynamics

A new family of simple analytic solutions of hydrodynamics is found for non-relativistic, rotationally symmetric fireballs assuming an ideal gas equation of state. The solution features linear flow profile and a non-trivial transverse temperature profile. The radial temperature gradient vanishes only in the collisionless gas limit. The Zimanyi-Bondorf-Garpman solution and the Buda-Lund parameterization of expanding hydrodynamical sources are recovered as special cases. The results are applied to predict new features of proton-proton correlations and spectra data at 1.93 AGeV Ni + Ni reactions.Comment: Latex, Revte

Correlation functions and emission time sequence of light charged particles from projectile-like fragment source in E/A = 44 and 77 MeV 40Ar + 27Al collisions

Two-particle correlation functions, involving protons, deuterons, tritons, and alpha-particles, have been measured at very forward angles (0.7 deg < theta_lab < 7 deg), in order to study projectile-like fragment (PLF) emission in E/A = 44 and 77 MeV 40Ar + 27Al collisions. Peaks, originating from resonance decays, are larger at E/A = 44 than at 77 MeV. This reflects the larger relative importance of independently emitted light particles, as compared to two-particle decay from unstable fragments, at the higher beam energy. The time sequence of the light charged particles, emitted from the PLF, has been deduced from particle-velocity-gated correlation functions (discarding the contribution from resonance decays). Alpha-particles are found to have an average emission time shorter than protons but longer than tritons and deuterons.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Nuclear Physics

Delta excitation in K^+-nucleus collisions

We present calculations for \Delta excitation in the (K^+,K^+) reaction in nuclei. The background from quasielastic K^+ scattering in the \Delta region is also evaluated and shown to be quite small in some kinematical regions, so as to allow for a clean identification of the \Delta excitation strength. Nuclear effects tied to the \Delta renormalization in the nucleus are considered and the reaction is shown to provide new elements to enrich our knowledge of the \Delta properties in a nuclear medium.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, LaTe

N N bar,Delta bar N, Delta N bar excitation for the pion propagator in nuclear matter

The particle-hole and Delta -hole excitations are well-known elementary excitation modes for the pion propagator in nuclear matter. But, the excitation also involves antiparticles, namely, nucleon-antinucleon, anti-Delta-nucleon and Delta-antinucleon excitations. These are important for high-energy momentum as well, and have not been studied before, to our knowledge. In this paper, we give both the formulas and the numerical calculations for the real and the imaginary parts of these excitations.Comment: Latex, 3 eps file

Anomalous radial expansion in central heavy-ion reactions

The expansion velocity profile in central heavy-ion reactions in the Fermi energy domain is examined. The radial expansion is non-hubblean and in the surface region it scales proportional to a higher exponent ($\alpha > 1$) of the radius. The anomalous expansion velocity profile is accompanied by a power law nucleon density profile in the surface region. Both these features of central heavy-ion reactions disappear at higher energies, and the system follows a uniform Hubble expansion ($\alpha \simeq 1$)