Circumstantial Evidence for a Soft Nuclear Symmetry Energy at Suprasaturation Densities

2008/08/31 by Zhigang Xiao, Bao-An Li, Lie-Wen Chen +2 · 12 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Circumstantial evidence #Hadron #Heavy ion #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Ion #Isospin #Nuclear physics #Nuclear physics research studies #Particle physics #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum mechanics #Symmetry (geometry) #astro-ph.SR #hep-ph #nucl-ex #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.102.062502

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 062502 (2009) · Version to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

arxiv created 2009/01/19 · openalex publication_date 2009/02/13 · arxiv updated 2015/04/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Within an isospin- and momentum-dependent hadronic transport model, it is shown that the recent FOPI data on the pi;-/pi;+ ratio in central heavy-ion collisions at SIS/GSI energies [Willy Reisdorf, Nucl. Phys. A 781, 459 (2007)10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2006.10.085] provide circumstantial evidence suggesting a rather soft nuclear symmetry energy E_sym(rho) at rho> or =2rho₀ compared to the Akmal-Pandharipande-Ravenhall prediction. Some astrophysical implications and the need for further experimental confirmations are discussed.

Citations

• Determination of the Stiffness of the Nuclear Symmetry Energy from Isospin Diffusion
• Near-threshold pion production with radioactive beams
• Isospin asymmetry in nuclei and neutron stars
• The Physics of Neutron Stars
• Systematics of pion emission in heavy ion collisions in the 1A GeV regime

Cited by

• Isovector channel of quark–meson-coupling model and its effect on symmetry energy
• Neutron–proton elliptic flow difference as a probe for the high density dependence of the symmetry energy
• Symmetry energy from elliptic flow in 197Au +197Au
• Origins and impacts of high-density symmetry energy
• Effective interaction: From nuclear reactions to neutron stars
• Isospin asymmetric nuclear matter and properties of axisymmetric neutron stars
• Improved single particle potential for transport model simulations of nuclear reactions induced by rare isotope beams
• The density- and isospin-dependent Δ-formation cross section and its decay width
• Further explorations of Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov mass formulas. XII. Stiffness and stability of neutron-star matter
• Impact parameter smearing effects on isospin sensitive observables in heavy ion collisions
• Constraining the high-density behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy with the tidal polarizability of neutron stars
• Systematic study of theπ−/π+ratio in heavy-ion collisions with the same neutron/proton ratio but different masses