arXiv subjects

A. S. Botvina

Publications and source records attributed to A. S. Botvina.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Production of double strange hypernuclei and exotic nuclei in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=3 GeV

We extend the theoretical approach which includes the dynamical and statistical stages for the description of the nucleosynthesis in central collisions of relativistic ions. Previously, this approach was successfully applied to describe experimental data on both normal nuclei and single strange hypernuclei production in the GSI and RHIC-BES energy range. We predict the multiplicities of double strange hypernuclei up to $^4_{ΛΛ}$H and further intermediate mass nuclei up to $^8$Be for Au+Au central collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=3 GeV, recently explored by the STAR experiments. These new nuclei can be identified by the measurement of the correlated particles coming after their decay. Such observations are a crucial test for the nucleosynthesis mechanism.

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arXiv2024

Nucleation of baryons in relativistic hadron-nucleus collisions

We suggest a new theoretical method to describe the baryon clusterization of nuclei in hadron-nucleus reactions. As an example we have explored the nuclei production in $π^-+C$ and $π^-+W$ collisions at p$_{lab}$=1.7 GeV by using the hybrid approach consisting of the Ultra Relativistic Quantum Dynamics Model (UrQMD) and the Statistical Multifragmentation Model (SMM). The UrQMD describes the production of new baryons, and the propagation toward the subnuclear densities with the fluctuations leading to the formation of excited baryonic clusters. The SMM describes the production of final nuclei and hypernuclei after interaction of baryons inside these clusters. We demonstrate the transverse momenta, rapidity, mass distributions and excitation energies of both primary clusters and final nuclei (including hypernuclei). The results of the UrQMD and UrQMD+SMM model calculations for different clusterization parameters are compared with the available HADES experimental data on baryon production, providing a very promising window for future research on nuclei and hypernuclei formation in these reactions.

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arXiv2023

Nucleosynthesis of light nuclei and hypernuclei in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=3 GeV

We analyze the experimental data on nuclei and hypernuclei yields recently obtained by the STAR collaboration. The hybrid dynamical and statistical approaches which have been developed previously are able to describe the experimental data reasonably. We discuss the intriguing difference between the yields of normal nuclei and hypernuclei which may be related to the properties of hypermatter at subnuclear densities. Most importantly new (hyper-)nuclei could be detected via particle correlations, and such measurements are relevant to pin down the production mechanism.

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arXiv2023

Neutrons from projectile fragmentation at 600 MeV/nucleon

The neutron emission in projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies was studied with the Large-Area-Neutron-Detector LAND coupled to the ALADIN forward spectrometer at the GSI Schwerionen-Synchrotron (SIS). Stable 124Sn and radioactive 107Sn and 124La beams with an incident energy of 600 MeV/nucleon were used to explore the N/Z dependence of the identified neutron source. A cluster-recognition algorithm is applied for identifying individual particles within the hit distributions registered with LAND. The obtained momentum distributions are extrapolated over the full phase space occupied by the neutrons from the projectile-spectator source. The mean multiplicities of spectator neutrons reach values of up to about 11 and depend strongly on the isotopic composition of the projectile. An effective source temperature of T \approx 2-5 MeV, monotonically increasing with decreasing impact parameter, is deduced from the transverse momentum distributions. For the interpretation of the data, calculations with the statistical multifragmentation model were performed. The variety of excited projectile spectators assumed to decay statistically is represented by an ensemble of excited sources with parameters determined previously from the fragment production observed in the same experiments. The obtained agreement is very satisfactory for more peripheral collisions where, according to the model, neutrons are mainly emitted during the secondary decays of excited fragments. The neutron multiplicity in more central collisions is underestimated, indicating that other sources besides the modeled statistical breakup contribute to the observed neutron yield. The choice made for the symmetry-term coefficient of the liquid-drop description of produced fragments has a weak effect on the predicted neutron multiplicities.

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arXiv2023

Isospin compositions of correlated sources in the Fermi energy domain

Isotopic yield distributions of nuclei produced in peripheral collisions of $^{80}$Kr+$^{40,48}$Ca at 35 MeV/nucleon are studied. Experimental results obtained by the FAZIA Collaboration at the LNS facility in Catania are compared with calculations performed with the statistical multifragmentation model (SMM). The fragments with atomic number $Z=19-24$ observed at forward angles are successfully described with the ensemble method previously established for reactions at higher energy. Using the SMM results, the isotopic compositions of the projectile residues are reconstructed. The results indicate a significant isospin exchange between the projectile and target nuclei, not far from isospin equilibrium, during the initial phase of the reaction. The two groups of light fragments with $Z=1-4$, experimentally distinguished by their velocities relative to coincident heavy projectile fragments, are found to originate from different sources. The isotopic composition of the slower group is consistent with emission from a low-density neck, enriched in neutrons, and satisfactorily reproduced with SMM calculations for a corresponding neck source of small mass.

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arXiv2022

A New Model of Intranuclear Neutron-Antineutron Transformations in ${}^{16}_{8}$O

There has been much work in recent years pertaining to viability studies for the intranuclear observation of neutron-antineutron transformations. These studies begin firstly with the design and implementation of an event generator for the simulation of this rare process, where one hopes to retain as much of the underlying nuclear physics as possible in the initial state, and then studying how these effects may perturb the final state observable particles for detector efficiency studies following simulated reconstruction. There have been several searches for intranuclear neutron-antineutron transformations, primarily utilizing the ${}^{16}_{8}$O nucleus, and completed within large underground water Cherenkov detectors such as Super-Kamiokande. The latest iteration of a generator is presented here for use in such an experiment. This generator includes several new features, including a new radial (position) annihilation probability distribution and related intranuclear suppression factor for ${}^{16}_{8}$O, as well as a highly general, modern nuclear multifragmentation model with photonic de-excitations. The latter of these may allow for improved identification of the signal using large underground detectors such as Super-Kamiokande and the future Hyper-Kamiokande, potentially increasing the overall signal efficiencies of these rare searches. However, it should be noted that certain fast photonic de-excitations may be washed out by $π^0$ decays to photons. These new features implemented in these $\bar{n}$\isotope[15][8]{O} simulations increase the overall physical realism of the model, and are easily portable to other future searches such as to extranuclear $\bar{n}{}^{12}_{6}$C for the ESS NNBAR experiment, as well as intranuclear $\bar{n}{}^{39}_{18}$Ar used in DUNE.

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arXiv2022

Evolution of the statistical disintegration of finite nuclei toward high energy

We develop a statistical approach for the description of complex nuclei formation from dynamically produced baryons in high energy heavy-ion reactions. We consider a finite highly-excited expanding nuclear system formed after central nucleus-nucleus collisions. This system is sub-divided into primary equilibrated nucleon clusters. The final nuclei are produced after the decay of these excited clusters. By the successful comparison with the FOPI experimental data we prove the possibility of such a local equilibrium in nuclear matter with the temperature corresponding to the phase coexistence region. The regularities obtained in this new nuclei production mechanism are shown.

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arXiv2020

Coupling dynamical and statistical mechanisms for baryonic cluster production in nucleus collisions of intermediate and high energies

Central nucleus-nucleus collisions produce many new baryons and the nuclear clusters can be formed from these species. The phenomenological coalescence models were sufficiently good for description of light nuclei yields in a very broad range of collision energies. We demonstrate that in reality the coalescence process can be considered as 1) the formation of primary diluted excited baryon clusters and 2) their following statistical decay leading to the final cold fragment production. We argue that the formation of such excited systems from the interacting baryons is a natural consequence of the nuclear interaction at subnuclear densities resulting in the nuclear liquid-gas type phase transition in finite systems. In this way one can provide a consistent interpretation of the experimental fragment yields (FOPI data) including the important collision energy dependence in relativistic ion reactions. We investigate the regularities of this new kind of fragment production, for example, their yield, isospin, and kinetic energy characteristics. A generalization of such a clusterization mechanism for hypernuclear matter is suggested. The isotope yields and particle correlations should be adequate for studying these phenomena.

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arXiv2020

The percolation phase transition and statistical multifragmentation in finite systems

The cumulant ratios up to fourth order of the $Z$ distributions of the largest fragment in spectator fragmentation following $^{107,124}$Sn+Sn and $^{124}$La+Sn collisions at 600 MeV/nucleon have been investigated. They are found to exhibit the signatures of a second-order phase transition established with cubic bond percolation and previously observed in the ALADIN experimental data for fragmentation of $^{197}$Au projectiles at similar energies. The deduced pseudocritical points are found to be only weakly dependent on the $A/Z$ ratio of the fragmenting spectator source. The same holds for the corresponding chemical freeze-out temperatures of close to 6 MeV. The experimental cumulant distributions are quantitatively reproduced with the Statistical Multifragmentation Model and parameters used to describe the experimental fragment multiplicities, isotope distributions and their correlations with impact-parameter related observables in these reactions. The characteristic coincidence of the zero transition of the skewness with the minimum of the kurtosis excess appears to be a generic property of statistical models and is found to coincide with the maximum of the heat capacity in the canonical thermodynamic fragmentation model.

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arXiv2020

On survey of nuclei and hypernuclei in multifragmentation

Multifragmentation reactions are dominating processes for the decomposition of highly excited nuclei leading to the fragment production in heavy-ion collisions. At high energy reactions strange particles are abundantly produced. We present a novel development of the Statistical multifragmentation model (SMM) as its generalization for the hyper-matter which is formed after the hyperon capture. In this way, it is possible to describe its disintegration into normal and hyper-nuclei. Some properties of hyper-nuclei and their binding energies can be determined from the comparison of the isotope yields. The main focus of this method is to investigate strange and multi-strange hypernuclei since their properties are not easy to measure in traditional hyper-nuclei experiments.

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arXiv2017

Production of light hypernuclei with light-ion beams and targets

Ion-ion collisions at relativistic energies have been shown recently to be a promising technique for the production of hypernuclei. In this article, we further investigate the production of light $Λ$ hypernuclei by use of a hybrid dynamical model, cascade-coalescence followed by Fermi breakup. The predictions are then compared with the available experimental data. The dependence of the production cross section upon the beam energy, beam mass number as well as different projectile-target combinations is investigated. In particular, we evaluate the yields and signal-over-background ratio in the invariant-mass spectrum for carbon projectiles impinging on hydrogen and carbon targets and various coincidence conditions in the experiment using the theoretical calculation as an input. It is found that comparing with carbon target, hydrogen target also leads to sizable hypernuclear yields, even for exotic species, and the hydrogen target could improve significantly signal-over-background ratio in some hypernuclear invariant mass studies.

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arXiv2017

Evaluation of the hyperon binding energy via statistical production of hypernuclei

In nuclear reactions of high energy one can simultaneously produce a lot of hypernuclei after the capture of hyperons by nuclear residues. We consider statistical disintegration of such hypernuclear systems and the connection of fragment production with the binding energies of hyperons. It is demonstrated that the hyperon binding energies can be effectively evaluated from the yields of different isotopes of hypernuclei. The double ratio method is suggested for this purpose. The advantage of this procedure is its universality and the possibility to involve many different isotopes. This method can also be applied for multi-strange nuclei, which binding energies were very difficult to measure in previous hypernuclear experiments.

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arXiv2017

Formation of exotic baryon clusters in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Recent experiments at RHIC and LHC have demonstrated that there are excellent opportunities to produce light baryonic clusters of exotic matter (strange and anti-matter) in ultra-relativistic ion collisions. Within the hybrid-transport model UrQMD we show that the coalescence mechanism can naturally explain the production of these clusters in the ALICE experiment at LHC. As a consequence of this mechanism we predict the rapidity domains where the yields of such clusters are much larger than the observed one at midrapidity. This new phenomenon can lead to unique methods for producing exotic nuclei.

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arXiv2016

Formation of hypernuclei in evaporation and fission processes

There are excellent opportunities to produce excited heavy hyper residues in relativistic hadron and peripheral heavy-ion collisions. We investigate the disintegration of such residues into hyper nuclei via evaporation of baryons and light clusters and their fission. Previously these processes were well known for normal nuclei as the decay channels at low excitation energies. We have generalized these models for the case of hyper-matter. In this way we make extension of nuclear reaction studies at low temperature into the strange sector. We demonstrate how the new decay channels can be integrated in the whole disintegration process. Their importance for mass and isotope distributions of produced hyper-fragments is emphasized. New and exotic isotopes obtained within these processes may provide a unique opportunity for investigating hyperon interaction in nuclear matter.

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arXiv2016

Formation of hypernuclei in heavy-ion collisions around the threshold energies

In relativistic ion collisions there are excellent opportunities to produce and investigate hyper-nuclei. We have systematically studied the formation of hypernuclear spectator residues in peripheral heavy-ion collisions with the transport DCM and UrQMD models. The hyperon capture was calculated within the potential and coalescence approaches. We demonstrate that even at the beam energies around and lower than the threshold for producing Lambda hyperons in binary nucleon-nucleon interactions a considerable amount of hypernuclei, including multi-strange ones, can be produced. This is important for preparation of new experiments on hypernuclei in the wide energy range. The uncertainties of the predictions are investigated within the models, and the comparison with the strangeness production measured in experiments is also performed.

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arXiv2015

Theoretical study of projectile fragmentation in the reactions $^{112}$Sn + $^{112}$Sn and $^{124}$Sn + $^{124}$Sn at 1 GeV/nucleon

We analyze the production cross sections and isotopic distributions of projectile-like residues in the reactions $^{112}$Sn + $^{112}$Sn and $^{124}$Sn + $^{124}$Sn at an incident beam energy of 1 GeV/nucleon measured with the FRS fragment separator at the GSI laboratory. Calculations within the statistical multifragmentation model (SMM) for an ensemble of excited sources were performed with ensemble parameters determined previously for similar reactions at 600 MeV/nucleon. The obtained good agreement with the experiment establishes the universal properties of the excited spectator systems produced during the dynamical stage of the reaction. It is furthermore confirmed that a significant reduction of the symmetry-energy term at the freeze-out stage of reduced density and high temperature is necessary to reproduce the experimental isotope distributions. A trend of decreasing symmetry energy for large neutron-rich fragments of low excitation energy is interpreted as a nuclear-structure effect.

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arXiv2014

Formation of hypermatter and hypernuclei within transport models in relativistic ion collisions

Within a combined approach we investigate the main features of the production of hyper-fragments in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The formation of hyperons is modelled within the UrQMD and HSD transport codes. To describe the hyperon capture by nucleons and nuclear residues a coalescence of baryons (CB) model was developed. We demonstrate that the origin of hypernuclei of various masses can be explained by typical baryon interactions, and that it is similar to processes leading to the production of conventional nuclei. At high beam energies we predict a saturation of the yields of all hyper-fragments, therefore, this kind of reactions can be studied with high yields even at the accelerators of moderate relativistic energies.

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arXiv2014

Influence of angular momentum and Coulomb interaction of colliding nuclei on their multifragmentation

Theoretical calculations are performed to investigate the angular momentum and Coulomb effects on fragmentation and multifragmentation in peripheral heavy-ion collisions at Fermi energies. Inhomogeneous distributions of hot fragments in the freeze-out volume are taken into account by microcanonical Markov chain calculations within the Statistical Multifragmentation Model (SMM). Including an angular momentum and a long-range Coulomb interaction between projectile and target residues leads to new features in the statistical fragmentation picture. In this case, one can obtain specific correlations of sizes of emitted fragments with their velocities and an emission in the reaction plane. In addition, one may see a significant influence of these effects on the isotope production both in the midrapidity and in the kinematic regions of the projectile/target. The relation of this approach to the simulations of such collisions with dynamical models is also discussed.

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