Influence of neutron-skin thickness on ${\pi }^{-}/{\pi }^{+}$ ratio in Pb+Pb collisions

Abstract

Within an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model IBUU11 using as an input nucleon density profiles from Hartree-Fock calculations based on a modified Skyrme-like (MSL) model, we study the influence of the uncertainty of the neutron skin thickness on the ${\pi }^{-}/{\pi }^{+}$ ratio in both central and peripheral Pb+Pb collisions at beam energies of 400 MeV/nucleon and 1000 MeV/nucleon. Within the current experimental uncertainty range of neutron skin in ${}^{208}$Pb, while the neutron skin effect on the \rpi ratio is negligible in central reactions at both energies, it increases gradually with increasing impact parameter and becomes comparable with or even larger than the symmetry energy effect in peripheral collisions especially at 400 MeV/nucleon. Moreover, we found that while the \rpi ratio is larger with a softer \esym in central collisions, above certain impact parameters depending on the size of the neutron skin, a stiffer \esym can lead to a larger \rpi ratio as most of the pions are produced at densities below the saturation density in these peripheral reactions. Thus, a clear impact parameter selection is important to extract reliable information about the \esym at suprasaturation densities (size of neutron skin) from the ${\pi }^{-}/{\pi }^{+}$ ratio in central (peripheral) heavy-ion collisions.

arXiv comment8 pages including 9 figures

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• Probing the neutron skin with ultrarelativistic isobaric collisions
• Transport approaches for the Description of Intermediate-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Constraining the density dependence of the symmetry energy using the multiplicity and average $p_T$ ratios of charged pions
• Symmetry potential of $\Delta (1232)$ resonance and its effects on the ${\pi }^{-}/{\pi }^{+}$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions near the pion production threshold
• Effects of energy conservation on equilibrium properties of hot asymmetric nuclear matter
• Influence of the treatment of initialization and mean-field potential on the neutron to proton yield ratios
• Influence of nuclear structure in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Effect of neutron skin thickness on projectile fragmentation
• Effects of retarded electrical fields on observables sensitive to the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies
• Beam energy dependence of the relativistic retardation effects of electrical fields on the ${\pi }^{-}/{\pi }^{+}$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions
• Photon antibunching in a cavity-QED system with two Rydberg-Rydberg interaction atoms
• Elimination of influence of neutron-skin size difference of initial colliding nuclei in Pb+Pb collisions
• Effects of an induced electric field on π^{-}/π^{+} ratio in heavy-ion collisions
• Investigating the possibility of extracting neutron-skin thickness in nuclei by their collisions at intermediate energies
• Unlocking the initial neutron density distribution from the two-pion HBT correlation function in heavy-ion collisions
• Transport Model Comparison Studies of Intermediate-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions