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Bao-An Li

Publications and source records attributed to Bao-An Li.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
arXiv2018

Revisiting the isospin relaxation time in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions

Isospin relaxation times characterizing isospin transport processes between the projectile and the target with different $N/Z$ ratios and that between the neck and the spectator with different isospin asymmetries and densities in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions are studied within an isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model using the lattice Hamiltonian approach. The respective roles and time scales of the isospin diffusion and drift as the major mechanisms of isospin transport in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions are discussed. Effects of nuclear symmetry energy and neutron-proton effective mass splitting on the isospin relaxation times are examined.

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arXiv2018

Delineating Effects of Nuclear Symmetry Energy on the Radii and Tidal Polarizabilities of Neutron Stars

What can we learn about the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ)$ from precise measurements of the radius ($R_{\rm{1.4}}$) and/or tidal polarizability ($Λ_{1.4}$) of canonical neutron stars (NSs) with a mass of 1.4 M$_\odot$? With the $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ)$ parameterized using three parameters $L$, $K_{\rm{sym}}$, and $J_{\rm{sym}}$ which have the asymptotic meaning of being respectively the slope, curvature, and skewness of symmetry energy at saturation density, we found that, while both the $R_{\rm{1.4}}$ and $Λ_{1.4}$ depend strongly on the slope $L$, the $K_{\rm{sym}}$ and $J_{\rm{sym}}$ parameters characterizing the high-density behavior of $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ)$ also play appreciable roles. Thus, there is not a simple relation between the $Λ_{\rm{1.4}}$/$R_{\rm{1.4}}$ and $L$ alone. Precise measurements of just the $Λ_{\rm{1.4}}$ and $R_{\rm{1.4}}$ can not completely determine the $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ)$ but limit combinations of its parameters. In particular, stringent constraints approximately independent of the $J_{\rm{sym}}$ on the $L$-$K_{\rm{sym}}$ correlations can be obtained. However, infinite combinations of the larger (smaller) $L$ and smaller (larger) $K_{\rm{sym}}$ can lead to the same $Λ_{\rm{1.4}}$ and $R_{\rm{1.4}}$. Additional observables including those from terrestrial nuclear experiments are thus necessary to break this degeneracy in order to completely determine the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ)$.

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arXiv2018

Deep crustal heating by neutrinos from the surface of accreting neutron stars

We present a new mechanism for deep crustal heating in accreting neutron stars. Charged pions ($π^+$) are produced in nuclear collisions on the neutron star surface during active accretion and upon decay they provide a flux of neutrinos into the neutron star crust. For massive and/or compact neutron stars, neutrinos deposit $\approx 1\textrm{--} 2 \, \mathrm{MeV}$ of heat per accreted nucleon into the inner crust. The strength of neutrino heating is comparable to the previously known sources of deep crustal heating, such as from pycnonuclear fusion reactions, and is relevant for studies of cooling neutron stars. We model the thermal evolution of a transient neutron star in a low-mass X-ray binary, and in the particular case of the neutron star MXB~1659-29 we show that additional deep crustal heating requires a higher thermal conductivity for the neutron star inner crust. A better knowledge of pion production cross sections near threshold would improve the accuracy of our predictions.

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arXiv2018

Combined Constraints on the Equation of State of Dense Neutron-Rich Matter from Terrestrial Experiments and Observations of Neutron Stars

Within the parameter space of equation of state (EOS) of dense neutron-rich matter limited by existing constraints mainly from terrestrial nuclear experiments, we investigate how the neutron star maximum mass $M_{\rm{max}}>2.01\pm0.04$ M$_\odot$, radius $10.62<R_{\rm{1.4}}< 12.83$ km and tidal deformability $Λ_{1.4}\leq800$ of canonical neutron stars all together constrain the EOS of dense neutron-rich nucleonic matter. While the 3-D parameter space of $K_{\rm{sym}}$ (curvature of nuclear symmetry energy), $J_{\rm{sym}}$ and $J_0$ (skewness of the symmetry energy and EOS of symmetric nuclear matter, respectively) are narrowed down significantly by the observational constraints, more data are needed to pin down the individual values of $K_{\rm{sym}}$, $J_{\rm{sym}}$ and $J_0$ with quantified uncertainties. The $J_0$ largely controls the maximum mass of neutron stars. While the EOS with $J_0=0$ is sufficiently stiff to support neutron stars as massive as 2.37 M$_{\odot}$, to support the hyperthetical ones as massive as 2.74 M$_{\odot}$ (composite mass of GW170817) requires $J_0$ to be larger than its currently known maximum value of about 400 MeV and beyond the causality limit. The upper limit on the tidal deformability of $Λ_{1.4}=800$ from the recent observation of GW170817 is found to provide upper limits on some EOS parameters consistent with but far less restrictive than the existing constraints of other observables studied.

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arXiv2018

Comparison of heavy-ion transport simulations: Collision integral in a box

Simulations by transport codes are indispensable to extract valuable physics information from heavy ion collisions. In order to understand the origins of discrepancies between different widely used transport codes, we compare 15 such codes under controlled conditions of a system confined to a box with periodic boundary, initialized with Fermi-Dirac distributions at saturation density and temperatures of either 0 or 5 MeV. In such calculations, one is able to check separately the different ingredients of a transport code. In this second publication of the code evaluation project, we only consider the two-body collision term, i.e. we perform cascade calculations. When the Pauli blocking is artificially suppressed, the collision rates are found to be consistent for most codes (to within $1\%$ or better) with analytical results, or completely controlled results of a basic cascade code after eliminating the correlations within the same pair of colliding particles. In calculations with active Pauli blocking, the blocking probability was found to deviate from the expected reference values. The reason is found in substantial phase-space fluctuations and smearing tied to numerical algorithms and model assumptions in the representation of phase space. This results in the reduction of the blocking probability in most transport codes, so that the simulated system gradually evolves away from the Fermi-Dirac towards a Boltzmann distribution. As a result of this investigation, we are able to make judgements about the most effective strategies in transport simulations for determining the collision probabilities and the Pauli blocking. Investigation in a similar vein of other ingredients in transport calculations, like the mean field propagation or the production of nucleon resonances and mesons, will be discussed in the future publications.

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arXiv2018

Effects of retarded electrical fields on observables sensitive to the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies

Within the isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model IBUU11, we examine the relativistic retardation effects of electrical fields on the $π^{-}/π^{+}$ ratio and neutron-proton differential transverse flow in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies. Compared to the static Coulomb fields, the retarded electric fields of fast-moving charges are known to be anisotropic and the associated relativistic corrections can be significant. They are found to increase the number of energetic protons in the participant region at the maximum compression by as much as 25\% but that of energetic neutrons by less than 10\% in $^{197}$Au+$^{197}$Au reactions at a beam energy of 400 MeV/nucleon. Consequently, more $π^{+}$ and relatively less $π^{-}$ mesons are produced, leading to an appreciable reduction of the $π^{-}/π^{+}$ ratio compared to calculations with the static Coulomb fields. Also, the neutron-proton differential transverse flow, as another sensitive probe of high-density symmetry energy, is also decreased appreciably due to the stronger retarded electrical fields in directions perpendicular to the velocities of fast-moving charges compared to calculations using the isotropic static electrical fields. Moreover, the retardation effects on these observables are found to be approximately independent of the reaction impact parameter.

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arXiv2018

How tightly is nuclear symmetry energy constrained by unitary Fermi gas?

We examine critically how tightly the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy \esym is constrained by the universal equation of state (EOS) of the unitary Fermi gas $E_{\rm{UG}}(ρ)$ considering currently known uncertainties of higher order parameters describing the density dependence of the Equation of State of isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter. We found that $E_{\rm{UG}}(ρ)$ does provide a useful lower boundary for the \esym. However, it does not tightly constrain the correlation between the magnitude $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ_0)$ and slope $L$ unless the curvature $K_{\rm{sym}}$ of the symmetry energy at saturation density $ρ_0$ is more precisely known. The large uncertainty in the skewness parameters affects the $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ_0)$ versus $L$ correlation by the same almost as significantly as the uncertainty in $K_{\rm{sym}}$.

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arXiv2018

Nucleon Effective Masses in Neutron-Rich Matter

Various kinds of isovector nucleon effective masses are used in the literature to characterize the momentum/energy dependence of the nucleon symmetry potential or self-energy due to the space/time non-locality of the underlying isovector strong interaction in neutron-rich nucleonic matter. The multifaceted studies on nucleon isovector effective masses are multi-disciplinary in nature. Besides structures, masses and low-lying excited states of nuclei as well as nuclear reactions, studies of the isospin dependence of short-range correlations in nuclei from scatterings of high-energy electrons and protons on heavy nuclei also help understand nucleon effective masses especially the so-called E-mass in neutron-rich matter. A thorough understanding of all kinds of nucleon effective masses has multiple impacts on many interesting issues in both nuclear physics and astrophysics. We review some of the significant progresses made in recent years by the nuclear physics community in resolving some of the hotly debated and longstanding issues regarding nucleon effective masses especially in dense neutron-rich matter.

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arXiv2018

The interplay of short-range correlations and nuclear symmetry energy in hard photon productions from heavy-ion reactions at Fermi energies

Within an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model for nuclear reactions at intermediate energies, we investigate the interplay of the nucleon-nucleon short-range correlations (SRC) and nuclear symmetry energy $E_{sym}(ρ)$ on hard photon spectra in collisions of several Ca isotopes on $^{112}$Sn and $^{124}$Sn targets at a beam energy of 45 MeV/nucleon. It is found that over the whole spectra of hard photons studied, effects of the SRC overwhelm those due to the $E_{sym}(ρ)$. The energetic photons come mostly from the high-momentum tails (HMT) of single-nucleon momentum distributions in the target and projectile. Within the neutron-proton dominance model of SRC based on the consideration that the tensor force acts mostly in the isosinglet and spin-triplet nucleon-nucleon interaction channel, there are equal numbers of neutrons and protons, thus a zero isospin-asymmetry in the HMTs. Therefore, experimental measurements of the energetic photons from heavy-ion collisions at Fermi energies have the great potential to help us better understand the nature of SRC without any appreciable influence by the uncertain $E_{sym}(ρ)$. These measurements will be complementary to but also have some advantages over the ongoing and planned experiments using hadronic messengers from reactions induced by high-energy electrons or protons. Since the underlying physics of SRC and $E_{sym}(ρ)$ are closely correlated, a better understanding of the SRC will in turn help constrain the nuclear symmetry energy more precisely in a broad density range.

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arXiv2017

Simulating spin dynamics with spin-dependent cross sections in heavy-ion collisions

We have incorporated the spin-dependent nucleon-nucleon cross sections into a Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model for the first time, using the spin-singlet and spin-triplet nucleon-nucleon elastic scattering cross sections extracted from the phase-shift analyses of nucleon-nucleon scatterings in free space. We found that the spin splitting of the collective flows is not affected by the spin-dependent cross sections, justifying it as a good probe of the in-medium nuclear spin-orbit interaction. With the in-medium nuclear spin-orbit mean-field potential that leads to local spin polarization, we found that the spin-averaged observables, such as elliptic flows of free nucleons and light clusters, becomes smaller with the spin-dependent differential nucleon-nucleon scattering cross sections.

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arXiv2017

Constraining simultaneously nuclear symmetry energy and neutron-proton effective mass splitting with nucleus giant resonances from a dynamical approach

With a newly improved isospin- and momentum-dependent interaction and an isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model, we have investigated the effects of the slope parameter $L$ of the nuclear symmetry energy and the isospin splitting of the nucleon effective mass $m_{n-p}^*=(m_n^*-m_p^*)/m$ on the centroid energy of the isovector giant dipole resonance and the electric dipole polarizability in $^{208}$Pb. With the isoscalar nucleon effective mass $m_s^*=0.7m$ constrained by the empirical optical potential, we obtain a constraint of $L=64.29\pm11.84 (\rm MeV)$ and $m_{n-p}^*= (-0.019 \pm 0.090)δ$, with $δ$ being the isospin asymmetry of nuclear medium. With the isoscalar nucleon effective mass $m_s^*=0.84m$ extracted from the excitation energy of the isoscalar giant quadruple resonance in $^{208}$Pb, we obtain a constraint of $L=53.85\pm10.29 (\rm MeV)$ and $m_{n-p}^*= (0.216 \pm 0.114)δ$.

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arXiv2016

Proton-skins in momentum space and neutron-skins in coordinate space in heavy nuclei

Neutron-skins in coordinate space and proton-skins in momentum space are predicted to coexist in heavy nuclei and their correlation is governed by Liouville's theorem and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. An analysis of their correlation within a further extended Thomas-Fermi (ETF$^+$) approximation incorporating effects of nucleon short-range correlations reveals generally that protons move faster than neutrons in neutron-skins of heavy nuclei.

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arXiv2016

Origins and Impacts of High-Density Symmetry Energy

What is nuclear symmetry energy? Why is it important? What do we know about it? Why is it so uncertain especially at high densities? Can the total symmetry energy or its kinetic part be negative? What are the effects of three-body and/or tensor force on symmetry energy? How can we probe the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy with terrestrial nuclear experiments? What observables of heavy-ion reactions are sensitive to the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy? How does the symmetry energy affect properties of neutron stars, gravitational waves and our understanding about the nature of strong-field gravity? In this lecture, we try to answer these questions as best as we can based on some of our recent work and/or understanding of research done by others. This note summarizes the main points of the lecture.

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arXiv2016

Isospin dependence of nucleon effective masses in neutron-rich matter

In this talk, we first briefly review the isospin dependence of the total nucleon effective mass $M^{\ast}_{J}$ inferred from analyzing nucleon-nucleus scattering data within an isospin dependent non-relativistic optical potential model, and the isospin dependence of the nucleon E-mass $M^{\ast,\rm{E}}_{J}$ obtained from applying the Migdal-Luttinger theorem to a phenomenological single-nucleon momentum distribution in nuclei constrained by recent electron-nucleus scattering experiments. Combining information about the isospin dependence of both the nucleon total effective mass and E-mass, we then infer the isospin dependence of nucleon k-mass using the well-known relation $M^{\ast}_{J}=M^{\ast,\rm{E}}_{J}\cdot M^{\ast,\rm{k}}_{J}$. Implications of the results on the nucleon mean free path (MFP) in neutron-rich matter are discussed.

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arXiv2016

Nuclear constraints on gravitational waves from deformed pulsars

The recent direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs) from binary black hole mergers (2016, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, no. 6, 061102; no. 24, 241103) opens up an entirely new non-electromagnetic window into the Universe making it possible to probe physics that has been hidden or dark to electromagnetic observations. In addition to cataclysmic events involving black holes, GWs can be triggered by physical processes and systems involving neutron stars. Properties of neutron stars are largely determined by the equation of state (EOS) of neutron-rich matter, which is the major ingredient in calculating the stellar structure and properties of related phenomena, such as gravitational wave emission from elliptically deformed pulsars and neutron star binaries. Although the EOS of neutron-rich matter is still rather uncertain mainly due to the poorly known density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy at high densities, significant progress has been made recently in constraining the symmetry energy using data from terrestrial nuclear laboratories. These constraints could provide useful information on the limits of GWs expected from neutron stars. Here after briefly reviewing our previous work on constraining gravitational radiation from elliptically deformed pulsars with terrestrial nuclear laboratory data in light of the recent gravitational wave detection, we estimate the maximum gravitational wave strain amplitude, using an optimistic value for the breaking strain of the neutron star crust, for 15 pulsars at distances 0.16 kpc to 0.91 kpc from Earth, and find it to be in the range of $\sim[0.2-31.1]\times 10^{-24}$, depending on the details of the EOS used to compute the neutron star properties. Implications are discussed.

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arXiv2016

Spin transport in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions as a probe of in-medium spin-orbit interactions

The spin up-down splitting of collective flows in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions as a result of the nuclear spin-orbit interaction is investigated within a spin- and isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehing-Uhlenbeck transport model SIBUU12. Using a Skyrme-type spin-orbit coupling quadratic in momentum, we found that the spin splittings of the directed flow and elliptic flow are largest in peripheral Au+Au collisions at beam energies of about 100-200 MeV/nucleon, and the effect is considerable even in smaller systems especially for nucleons with high transverse momenta. The collective flows of light clusters of different spin states are also investigated using an improved dynamical coalescence model with spin. Our study can be important in understanding the properties of in-medium nuclear spin-orbit interactions once the spin-dependent observables proposed in this work can be measured.

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arXiv2016

Equations of motion of test particles for solving the spin-dependent Boltzmann-Vlasov equation

A consistent derivation of the equations of motion (EOMs) of test particles for solving the spin-dependent Boltzmann-Vlasov equation is presented. The resulting EOMs in phase space are similar to the canonical equations in Hamiltonian dynamics, and the EOM of spin is the same as that in the Heisenburg picture of quantum mechanics. Considering further the quantum nature of spin and choosing the direction of total angular momentum in heavy-ion reactions as a reference of measuring nucleon spin, the EOMs of spin-up and spin-down nucleons are given separately. The key elements affecting the spin dynamics in heavy-ion collisions are identified. The resulting EOMs provide a solid foundation for using the test-particle approach in studying spin dynamics in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies. Future comparisons of model simulations with experimental data will help constrain the poorly known in-medium nucleon spin-orbit coupling relevant for understanding properties of rare isotopes and their astrophysical impacts.

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