Probing the Nuclear Symmetry Energy with Heavy-Ion Reactions Induced by Neutron-Rich Nuclei

Abstract

Heavy-ion reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei provide a unique means to investigate the equation of state of isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter, especially the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. In particular, recent analyses of the isospin diffusion data in heavy-ion reactions have already put a stringent constraint on the nuclear symmetry energy around the nuclear matter saturation density. We review this exciting result and discuss its implications on nuclear effective interactions and the neutron skin thickness of heavy nuclei. In addition, we also review the theoretical progress on probing the high density behaviors of the nuclear symmetry energy in heavy-ion reactions induced by high energy radioactive beams.

29 pages, 35 figures. Invited review article for Frontiers of Physics in China

References in corpus (9)

• Neutron-Rich Nuclei in Heaven and Earth
• The Skyrme Interaction in finite nuclei and nuclear matter
• Neutron and Proton Transverse Emission Ratio Measurements and the Density Dependence of the Asymmetry Term of the Nuclear Equation of State
• Spinodal decomposition of low-density asymmetric nuclear matter
• Isospin Diffusion in Heavy-Ion Collisions and the Neutron Skin Thickness of Lead
• Neutron Skin Thickness of 90Zr Determined By Charge Exchange Reactions
• Double neutron-proton differential transverse flow as a probe for the high-density behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy
• Variational Theory of Hot Nucleon Matter
• Isospin dependence of relative yields of $K^{+}$ and $K^0$ mesons at 1.528 AGeV

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Higher-order effects on the incompressibility of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter
• Impact of the equation-of-state -- gravity degeneracy on constraining the nuclear symmetry energy from astrophysical observables
• Triton-${}^3$He relative and differential flows as probes of the nuclear symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities
• Constraining properties of rapidly rotating neutron stars using data from heavy-ion collisions
• Symmetry energy systematics and its high density behavior
• Effects of pion potential and nuclear symmetry energy on the ${\pi }^{-}/{\pi }^{+}$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies around the pion production threshold
• Neutron-proton bremsstrahlung from intermediate energy heavy-ion reactions as a probe of the nuclear symmetry energy?
• Density matrix expansion for the MDI interaction
• Neutron-skin thickness of finite nuclei in relativistic mean-field models with chiral limits
• A phenomenological equation of state for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter
• Isotopic ratio, isotonic ratio, isobaric ratio and Shannon information uncertainty
• Probing the momentum-dependence of the symmetry potential by the free n/p ratio of preequilibrium emission