Nuclear Science and Techniques

Abstract: Within a transport model using nucleon momentum profiles as the input from a parameterized isospin- dependent single-nucleon momentum distribution, with a high momentum tail induced by short-range corre- lations, we employ 197Au + 197Au collisions at 400 MeV/nucleon to examine the effects of the short-range cor- relations on the pion and flow observables in probing the nuclear symmetry energy. We investigate how reliable this isospin-dependent single-nucleon momentum distribution is and determine the corresponding parameter settings. Apart from the significant effects of the short-range correlations on the pion and flow observables that are observed, we also find that the theoretical simulations of the 197Au + 197Au collisions with this momen- tum distribution using two sets of parameters, extracted from the experimental analysis and the self-consistent Green’s function prediction, can reproduce the neutron elliptic flows of the FOPI-LAND experiment and the π−/π+ ratios of the FOPI experiment, respectively, under the symmetry energy setting in a particular range. Therefore, we conclude that this parameterized isospin-dependent single-nucleon momentum distribution is re- liable for isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter. Correspondingly, two sets of parameters extracted from both the experimental analysis and the self-consistent Green’s function prediction cannot be excluded according to the available experimental information at present.

Key words: Single-nucleon momentum distribution, Isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter, Short-range correlations, Heavy-ion collisions, Symmetry energy