Effect of neutron skin thickness on projectile fragmentation

Abstract

The fragment production in collisions of ${}^{48,50}$Ca+${}^{12}$C at 50 MeV/nucleon are simulated via the Isospin-Dependent Quantum Molecular Dynamics (IQMD) model followed by the {GEMINI code}. {By changing the diffuseness parameter of neutron density distribution to obtain different neutron skin size, the effects of neutron skin thickness ($\hat{I}{´}_{np}$) on projectile-like fragments (PLF) are investigated. The sensitivity of isoscaling behavior to neutron skin size is studied, from which it is found that the isoscaling parameter $\hat{I}\pm$ has a linear dependence on $\hat{I}{´}_{np}$. A linear dependence between $\hat{I}{´}_{np}$ and the mean $N/Z$ [N(Z) is neutron(proton) number] of PLF is obtained as well.} The results show that thicker neutron skin will lead to smaller {isoscaling parameter} $\hat{I}\pm$ and N/Z. Therefore, it may be probable to extract information of neutron skin thickness from {isoscaling parameter} $\hat{I}\pm$ and N/Z.

7 pages, 6 figures