Descriptions of heavy-ion collisions at Fermi energies require to take into account in-medium dissipation and phase-space fluctuations. The interplay of these correlations with the one-body collective behaviour determines the properties (kinematics and fragment production) and the variety of mechanisms (from fusion to neck formation and multifragmentation) of the exit channel. Starting from fundamental concepts tested on nuclear matter, we build up a microscopic description which addresses finite systems and applies to experimental observables.
Within the framework of the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics (LQMD) transport model, the isospin effect in peripheral heavy-ion collisions has been investigated thoroughly. A coalescence approach is used for recognizing the primary fragments formed in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The secondary decay process of the fragments is described by the statistical code, GEMINI. Production mechanism and isospin effect of the projectile-like and target-like fragments are analyzed with the combined approach. It is found that the isospin migration from the high-isospin density to the low-density matter takes place in the neutron-rich nuclear reactions, i.e., $^{48}$Ca+$^{208}$Pb, $^{86}$Kr+$^{48}$Ca/$^{208}$Pb/$^{124}$Sn, $^{136}$Xe+$^{208}$Pb, $^{124}$Sn+$^{124}$Sn and $^{136}$Xe+$^{136}$Xe. A hard symmetry energy is available for creating the neutron-rich fragments, in particular in the medium-mass region. The isospin effect of the neutron to proton (n/p) ratio of the complex fragments is reduced once including the secondary decay process. However, a soft symmetry energy enhances the n/p ratio of the light particles, in particular at the kinetic energies above 15 MeV/nucleon.
We develop a (3+1)-dimensional hybrid evolution model for heavy-ion collisions with dynamical sources for the energy-momentum tensor and baryon current. During an initial pre-equilibrium stage based on UrQMD, the four-momenta and baryon numbers carried by secondary particles created within UrQMD are fed continuously, after a short thermalization time, into a (3+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamic evolution module including baryon transport. The sensitivity of the initial conditions to model parameters and the effect of baryon diffusion on the hydrodynamic evolution are studied.
Peripheral and semi-peripheral collisions have been studied in the system 93Nb+93Nb at 38 AMeV. The evaporative and midvelocity components of the light charged particle and intermediate mass fragment emissions have been carefully disentangled. In this way it was possible to obtain the average amount not only of charge and mass, but also of energy, pertaining to the midvelocity emission, as a function of an impact parameter estimator. This emission has a very important role in the overall balance of the reaction, as it accounts for a large fraction of the emitted mass and for more than half of the dissipated energy. As such, it may give precious clues on the microscopic mechanism of energy transport from the interaction zone toward the target and projectile remnants.
Isospin e ffects on multifragmentation properties were studied thanks to nuclear collisions between di fferent isotopes of xenon beams and tin targets. It is shown that, in central collisions leading to multifragmentation, the mean number of fragments and their mean kinetic energy increase with the neutron-richness of the total system. Comparisons with a stochastic transport model allow to attribute the multiplicity increase to the multifragmentation stage, before secondary decay. The total charge bound in fragments is proposed as an alternate variable to quantify preequilibrium emission and to investigate symmetry energy e ffects.
Recent STAR data for the directed flow of protons, antiprotons and charged pions obtained within the beam energy scan program are analyzed within the Parton-Hadron-String-Dynamics (PHSD/HSD) transport models. Bo