Speaker
Prof.
Zbigniew Chajecki
(Western Michigan University/Physics)
Description
One of the main uncertainties in the Equation of State of neutron-rich nuclear matter concerns the density and momentum dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. Some constraints on the density dependence of the symmetry energy at sub-saturation densities have been recently obtained. However questions remain, especially concerning the momentum dependence of the symmetry mean-field potential that can make the neutron and proton effective masses different. We probe the momentum dependence of this isovector mean-field potential by comparing the energy spectra of neutrons and protons emitted in 112Sn+112Sn and 124Sn+124Sn collisions at incident energies of E/A=50 and 120 MeV. We achieve an experimental precision that can discriminate between transport model predictions for the n/p double ratio for different momentum dependencies of the symmetry mean-field potential.
Primary author
Prof.
Zbigniew Chajecki
(Western Michigan University/Physics)
