Effects of the momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential on pion observables in Sn + Sn collisions at 270 MeV/nucleon

Abstract

Within a transport model, we study effects of the momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential on pion observables in central Sn + Sn collisions at 270 MeV/nucleon. To this end, a quantity $U_{sym}^{\infty}(\rho_{0})$, i.e., the value of nuclear symmetry potential at the saturation density $\rho_{0}$ and infinitely large nucleon momentum, is used to characterise the momentum dependence of nuclear symmetry potential. It is shown that with a certain $L$ (i.e., slope of nuclear symmetry energy at $\rho_{0}$) the characteristic parameter $U_{sym}^{\infty}(\rho_{0})$ of symmetry potential affects significantly the production of $\pi^{-}$ and $\pi^{+}$ as well as their pion ratios. Moreover, through comparing the charged pion yields, pion ratios as well the spectral pion ratios of theoretical simulations for the reactions $^{108}$Sn + $^{112}$Sn and $^{132}$Sn + $^{124}$Sn with the corresponding data in S$\pi$RIT experiments, we find that our results favor a constraint on $U_{sym}^{\infty}(\rho_{0})$, i.e., $-160^{+18}_{-9}$~MeV, and the $L$ is also suggested within a range, i.e., $62.7<L<93.1$~MeV. In addition, it is shown that the pion observable of $^{197}$Au + $^{197}$Au collisions at 400~MeV/nucleon also supports the extracted value for $U_{sym}^{\infty}(\rho_{0})$.