arXiv subjects

Bao-An Li

Publications and source records attributed to Bao-An Li.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Understanding transport simulations of heavy-ion collisions at 100 and 400 AMeV: Comparison of heavy ion transport codes under controlled conditions

Transport simulations are very valuable for extracting physics information from heavy-ion collision experiments. With the emergence of many different transport codes in recent years, it becomes important to estimate their robustness in extracting physics information from experiments. We report on the results of a transport code comparison project. 18 commonly used transport codes were included in this comparison: 9 Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck-type codes and 9 Quantum-Molecular-Dynamics-type codes. These codes have been required to simulate Au+Au collisions using the same physics input for mean fields and for in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections, as well as the same initialization set-up, the impact parameter, and other calculational parameters at 100 and 400 AMeV incident energy. Among the codes we compare one-body observables such as rapidity and transverse flow distributions. We also monitor non-observables such as the initialization of the internal states of colliding nuclei and their stability, the collision rates and the Pauli blocking. We find that not completely identical initializations constitute partly for different evolutions. Different strategies to determine the collision probabilities, and to enforce the Pauli blocking, also produce considerably different results. There is a substantial spread in the predictions for the observables, which is much smaller at the higher incident energy. We quantify the uncertainties in the collective flow resulting from the simulation alone as about $30\%$ at 100 AMeV and $13\%$ at 400 AMeV, respectively. We propose further steps within the code comparison project to test the different aspects of transport simulations in a box calculation of infinite nuclear matter. This should, in particular, improve the robustness of transport model predictions at lower incident energies where abundant amounts of data are available.

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arXiv2016

Nucleon Effective E-Mass in Neutron-Rich Matter from the Migdal-Luttinger Jump

The well-known Migdal-Luttinger theorem states that the jump of the single-nucleon momentum distribution at the Fermi surface is equal to the inverse of the nucleon effective E-mass. Recent experiments studying short-range correlations (SRC) in nuclei using electron-nucleus scatterings at the Jefferson National Laboratory (JLAB) together with model calculations constrained significantly the Migdal-Luttinger jump at saturation density of nuclear matter. We show that the corresponding nucleon effective E-mass is consequently constrained to $M_0^{\ast,\rm{E}}/M\approx2.22\pm0.35$ in symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) and the E-mass of neutrons is smaller than that of protons in neutron-rich matter. Moreover, the average depletion of the nucleon Fermi sea increases (decreases) approximately linearly with the isospin asymmetry $δ$ according to $κ_{\rm{p}/\rm{n}}\approx 0.21\pm0.06 \pm (0.19\pm0.08)δ$ for protons (neutrons). These results will help improve our knowledge about the space-time non-locality of the single-nucleon potential in neutron-rich nucleonic matter useful in both nuclear physics and astrophysics.

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arXiv2016

Symmetry energy of cold nucleonic matter within a relativistic mean field model encapsulating effects of high momentum nucleons induced by short-range correlations

Significant progress has been made recently in constraining the isospin-dependent parameters characterizing the SRC (short-range correlation)-modified single-nucleon momentum distribution in neutron-rich nucleonic matter using both experimental data and microscopic model calculations. Using the constrained single-nucleon momentum distribution in a nonlinear relativistic mean field (RMF) model, we study the equation of state (EOS) of asymmetric nucleonic matter (ANM), especially the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ)$. Firstly, as a test of the model, the average nucleon kinetic energy extracted recently from electron-nucleus scattering experiments using a neutron-proton dominance model is well reproduced by the RMF model incorporating effects of the SRC-induced high momentum nucleons, while it is significantly under predicted by the RMF model using a step function for the single-nucleon momentum distribution as in free Fermi gas (FFG) models. Secondly, the kinetic symmetry energy of quasi-nucleons is found to be $E^{\rm{kin}}_{\rm{sym}}(ρ_0)=-16.94\pm13.66\,\rm{MeV}$ which is dramatically different from the prediction of $E^{\rm{kin}}_{\rm{sym}}(ρ_0)\approx 12.5$ MeV by FFG models at nuclear matter saturation density $ρ_0=0.16\,\rm{fm}^{-3}$. Thirdly, comparing the RMF calculations with and without the high momentum nucleons using two sets of model parameters both reproducing identically all empirically constraints on the EOS of symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) and the symmetry energy of ANM at $ρ_0$, the SRC-modified single-nucleon momentum distribution is found to make the $E_{\rm{sym}}(ρ)$ more concave around $ρ_0$ by softening it significantly at both sub-saturation and supra-saturation densities, leading to an isospin-dependent incompressibility of ANM in better agreement with existing experimental data.

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arXiv2015

Shedding Light on the EOS-Gravity Degeneracy and Constraining the Nuclear Symmetry Energy from the Gravitational Binding Energy of Neutron Stars

A thorough understanding of properties of neutron stars requires both a reliable knowledge of the equation of state (EOS) of super-dense nuclear matter and the strong-field gravity theories simultaneously. To provide information that may help break this EOS-gravity degeneracy, we investigate effects of nuclear symmetry energy on the gravitational binding energy of neutron stars within GR and the scalar-tensor subset of alternative gravity models. We focus on effects of the slope $L$ of nuclear symmetry energy at saturation density and the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy. We find that the variation of either the density slope $L$ or the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy leads to large changes in the binding energy of neutron stars. The difference in predictions using the GR and the scalar-tensor theory appears only for massive neutron stars, and even then is significantly smaller than the difference resulting from variations in the symmetry energy.

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arXiv2015

Small radii of neutron stars as an indication of novel in-medium effects

At present, neutron star radii from both observations and model predictions remain very uncertain. Whereas different models can predict a wide range of neutron star radii, it is not possible for most models to predict radii that are smaller than about 10 km, thus if such small radii are established in the future they will be very difficult to reconcile with model estimates. By invoking a new term in the equation of state that enhances the energy density, but leaves the pressure unchanged we simulate the current uncertainty in the neutron star radii. This new term can be possibly due to the exchange of the weakly interacting light U-boson with appropriate in-medium parameters, which does not compromise the success of the conventional nuclear models. The validity of this new scheme will be tested eventually by more precise measurements of neutron star radii.

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arXiv2015

Symmetry potential of $Δ(1232)$ resonance and its effects on the $π^-/π^+$ ratio in heavy-ion collisions near the pion production threshold

Effects of the completely unknown symmetry (isovector) potential of the \D on the total and differential \rpi in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies from 100 to 1000 MeV/A are explored within an isospin-dependent transport model IBUU. The effects are found to be negligible at beam energies above the pion production threshold due to the very short lifetimes of less than 2 fm/c for $Δ$ resonances with masses around $m_Δ=1232$ MeV, leaving the $π^-/π^+$ ratios of especially the energetic pions still a reliable probe of the high-density behavior of nuclear symmetry energy $E_{sym}(ρ)$. However, as the beam energy becomes deeply sub-threshold for pion production, effects of the $Δ$ symmetry potential becomes appreciable especially on the \rpi of low-energy pions from the decays of low-mass $Δ$ resonances which have lived long enough to be affected by their mean-field potentials, providing a useful tool to study the symmetry potential and spectroscopy of $Δ$ resonances in neutron-rich nuclear matter. Interestingly though, even at the deeply sub-threshold beam energies, the differential \rpi of energetic pions remains sensitive to the \esym at supra saturation densities with little influence from the uncertain symmetry potential of the $Δ$ resonance.

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arXiv2015

Dynamical effects of spin-dependent interactions in low- and intermediate-energy heavy-ion reactions

It is well known that non-central nuclear forces, such as the spin-orbital coupling and the tensor force, play important roles in understanding many interesting features of nuclear structures. However, their dynamical effects in nuclear reactions are poorly known since only the spin-averaged observables are normally studied both experimentally and theoretically. Realizing that spin-sensitive observables in nuclear reactions may carry useful information about the in-medium properties of non-central nuclear interactions, besides earlier studies using the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach to understand effects of spin-orbital coupling on the threshold energy and spin polarization in fusion reactions, some efforts have been made recently to explore dynamical effects of non-central nuclear forces in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions using transport models. The focuses of these studies have been on investigating signatures of the density and isospin dependence of the form factor in the spin-dependent single-nucleon potential. Interestingly, some useful probes were identified in the model studies while so far there is still no data to compare with. In this brief review, we summarize the main physics motivations as well as the recent progress in understanding the spin dynamics and identifying spin-sensitive observables in heavy-ion reactions at intermediate energies. We hope the interesting, important, and new physics potentials identified in the spin dynamics of heavy-ion collisions will stimulate more experimental work in this direction.

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arXiv2015

Critical Density and Impact of $Δ(1232)$ Resonance Formation in Neutron Stars

The critical densities and impact of forming \D resonances in neutron stars are investigated within an extended nonlinear relativistic mean-field (RMF) model. The critical densities for the formation of four different charge states of \D are found to depend differently on the separate kinetic and potential parts of nuclear symmetry energy, the first example of a microphysical property of neutron stars to do so. Moreover, they are sensitive to the in-medium Delta mass $m_Δ$ and the completely unknown $Δ$-$ρ$ coupling strength $g_{ρΔ}$. In the universal baryon-meson coupling scheme where the respective $Δ$-meson and nucleon-meson coupling constants are assumed to be the same, the critical density for the first $Δ^-(1232)$ to appear is found to be \rc=$(2.08\pm0.02)ρ_0$ using RMF model parameters consistent with current constraints on all seven macroscopic parameters usually used to characterize the equation of state (EoS) of isospin-asymmetric nuclear matter (ANM) at saturation density $ρ_0$. Moreover, the composition and the mass-radius relation of neutron stars are found to depend significantly on the values of the $g_{ρΔ}$ and $m_Δ$.

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arXiv2015

The isospin quartic term in the kinetic energy of neutron-rich nucleonic matter

The energy of a free gas of neutrons and protons is well known to be approximately isospin parabolic with a negligibly small quartic term of only $0.45$ MeV at the saturation density of nuclear matter $ρ_0=0.16/\rm{fm}^3$. Using an isospin-dependent single-nucleon momentum distribution including a high (low) momentum tail (depletion) with its shape parameters constrained by recent high-energy electron scattering and medium-energy nuclear photodisintegration experiments as well as the state-of-the-art calculations of the deuteron wave function and the equation of state of pure neutron matter near the unitary limit within several modern microscopic many-body theories, we show for the first time that the kinetic energy of interacting nucleons in neutron-rich nucleonic matter has a significant quartic term of $7.18\pm2.52\,\rm{MeV}$. Such a large quartic term has significant ramifications in determining the equation of state of neutron-rich nucleonic matter using both terrestrial and astrophysical observables.

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arXiv2015

Efficacy of crustal superfluid neutrons in pulsar glitch models

In order to assess the ability of purely crust-driven glitch models to match the observed glitch activity in the Vela pulsar, we conduct a systematic analysis of the dependence of the fractional moment of inertia of the inner crustal neutrons on the stiffness of the nuclear symmetry energy at saturation density $L$. We take into account both crustal entrainment and the fact that only a fraction $Y_{\rm g}$ of the core neutrons may couple to the crust on the glitch-rise timescale. We use a set of consistently-generated crust and core compositions and equations-of-state which are fit to results of low-density pure neutron matter calculations. When entrainment is included at the level suggested by recent microscopic calculations and the core is fully coupled to the crust, the model is only able to account for the Vela glitch activity for a 1.4$M_{\odot}$ star if the equation of state is particularly stiff $L>100$ MeV. However, an uncertainty of about 10\% in the crust-core transition density and pressure allows for the Vela glitch activity to be marginally accounted for in the range $L\approx30-60$MeV consistent with a range of experimental results. Alternatively, only a small amount of core neutrons need be involved. If less than 50\% of the core neutrons are coupled to the crust during the glitch, we can also account for the Vela glitch activity using crustal neutrons alone for EOSs consistent with the inferred range of $L$. We also explore the possibility of Vela being a high-mass neutron star, and of crustal entrainment being reduced or enhanced relative to its currently predicted values.

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arXiv2015

Constraints on the symmetry energy from observational probes of the neutron star crust

A number of observed phenomena associated with individual neutron star systems or neutron star populations find explanations in models in which the neutron star crust plays an important role. We review recent work examining the sensitivity to the slope of the symmetry energy $L$ of such models, and constraints extracted on $L$ from confronting them with observations. We focus on six sets of observations and proposed explanations: (i) The cooling rate of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A, confronting cooling models which include enhanced cooling in the nuclear pasta regions of the inner crust, (ii) the upper limit of the observed periods of young X-ray pulsars, confronting models of magnetic field decay in the crust caused by the high resistivity of the nuclear pasta layer, (iii) glitches from the Vela pulsar, confronting the paradigm that they arise due to a sudden re-coupling of the crustal neutron superfluid to the crustal lattice after a period during which they were decoupled due to vortex pinning, (iv) The frequencies of quasi-periodic oscillations in the X-ray tail of light curves from giant flares from soft gamma-ray repeaters, confronting models of torsional crust oscillations, (v) the upper limit on the frequency to which millisecond pulsars can be spun-up due to accretion from a binary companion, confronting models of the r-mode instability arising above a threshold frequency determined in part by the viscous dissipation timescale at the crust-core boundary, and (vi) the observations of precursor electromagnetic flares a few seconds before short gamma-ray bursts, confronting a model of crust shattering caused by resonant excitation of a crustal oscillation mode by the tidal gravitational field of a companion neutron star just before merger.

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arXiv2015

Neutron-proton effective mass splitting in neutron-rich matter and its impacts on nuclear reactions

The neutron-proton effective mass splitting in neutron-rich nucleonic matter reflects the space-time nonlocality of the isovector nuclear interaction. It affects the neutron/proton ratio during the earlier evolution of the Universe, cooling of protoneutron stars, structure of rare isotopes and dynamics of heavy-ion collisions. While there is still no consensus on whether the neutron-proton effective mass splitting is negative, zero or positive and how it depends on the density as well as the isospin-asymmetry of the medium, significant progress has been made in recent yeas in addressing these issues. We first recall the connections among the neutron-proton effective mass splitting, the momentum dependence of the isovector potential and the density dependence of the symmetry energy. We then make a few observations about the progress in calculating the neutron-proton effective mass splitting using various nuclear many-body theories and its effects on the isospin-dependence of in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections. Perhaps, our most reliable knowledge so far about the neutron-proton effective mass splitting at saturation density of nuclear matter comes from optical model analyses of huge sets of nucleon-nucleus scattering data accumulated over the last five decades. The momentum dependence of the symmetry potential from these analyses provide a useful boundary condition at saturation density for calibrating nuclear many-body calculations. Several observables in heavy-ion collisions have been identified as sensitive probes of the neutron-proton effective mass splitting in dense neutron-rich matter based on transport model simulations. We review these observables and comment on the latest experimental findings.

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arXiv2015

Revisit of the neutron/proton ratio puzzle in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions

Incorporating a newly improved isospin- and momentum-dependent interaction in the isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model IBUU11, we have investigated relative effects of the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy $E_{sym}(ρ)$ and the neutron-proton effective mass splitting $m^*_n-m^*_p$ on the neutron/proton ratio of free nucleons and those in light clusters. It is found that the $m^*_n-m^*_p$ has a relatively stronger effect than the $E_{sym}(ρ)$ and the assumption of $m^*_n\leq m^*_p$ leads to a higher neutron/proton ratio. Moreover, this finding is independent of the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections used. However, results of our calculations using the $E_{sym}(ρ)$ and $m^*_n-m^*_p$ both within their current uncertainty ranges are all too low compared to the recent NSCL/MSU double neutron/proton ratio data from central $^{124}$Sn+$^{124}$Sn and $^{112}$Sn+$^{112}$Sn collisions at 50 and 120 MeV/u, thus calling for new mechanisms to explain the puzzlingly high neutron/proton ratio observed in the experiments.

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arXiv2015

Neutron-proton effective mass splitting in neutron-rich matter at normal density from analyzing nucleon-nucleus scattering data within an isospin dependent optical model

The neutron-proton effective $k$-mass splitting in asymmetric nucleonic matter of isospin asymmetry $δ$ and normal density is found to be $m^{*}_{n-p}\equiv(m^{*}_{n}-m^{*}_{p})/m=(0.41 \pm0.15)δ$ from analyzing globally 1088 sets of reaction and angular differential cross sections of proton elastic scattering on 130 targets with beam energies from 0.783 MeV to 200 MeV, and 1161 sets of data of neutron elastic scattering on 104 targets with beam energies from 0.05 MeV to 200 MeV within an isospin dependent non-relativistic optical potential model. It sets a useful reference for testing model predictions on the momentum dependence of the nucleon isovector potential necessary for understanding novel structures and reactions of rare isotopes.

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arXiv2015

Effects of short-range correlation reduced kinetic symmetry energy in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies

Besides earlier predictions based on both phenomenological models and modern microscopic many-body theories, circumstantial evidence was recently found for a reduced kinetic symmetry energy of isospin-asymmetric nucleonic matter compared to the free Fermi gas model prediction due to the short-range correlation of high-momentum neutron-proton pairs. While keeping the total symmetry energy near the saturation density of nuclear matter consistent with existing experimental constraints, we examine the correspondingly enhanced role of the isospin degree of freedom in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies due to the reduced (enhanced) kinetic (potential) symmetry energy. Important observable consequences are investigated.

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arXiv2015

Symmetry Energy of Nucleonic Matter With Tensor Correlations

The nuclear symmetry energy (E_sym(\roh)) is a vital ingredient of our understanding of many processes, from heavy-ion collisions to neutron stars structure. While the total nuclear symmetry energy at nuclear saturation density (ρ_0) is relatively well determined, its value at supranuclear densities is not. The latter can be better constrained by separately examining its kinetic and potential terms and their density dependencies. The kinetic term of the symmetry energy, E_sym^kin(ρ_0), equals the difference in the per-nucleon kinetic energy between pure neutron matter (PNM) and symmetric nuclear matter (SNM), often calculated using a simple Fermi gas model. However, experiments show that tensor force induced short-range correlations (SRC) between proton-neutron pairs shift nucleons to high-momentum in SNM, but have almost no effect in PNM. We present an approximate analytical expression for E_sym^kin(ρ) of correlated nucleonic matter. In our model, E_sym^kin(ρ_0) = -10 MeV, which differs significantly from +12.5 MeV for the widely-used free Fermi gas model. This result is consistent with our analysis of recent data on the free proton-to-neutron ratios measured in intermediate energy nucleus-nucleus collisions as well as with microscopic many-body calculations, and previous phenomenological extractions. We then use our calculated E_sym^kin(ρ) in combination with the known total symmetry energy and its density dependence at saturation density to constrain the value and density dependence of the potential part and to extrapolate the total symmetry energy to supranuclear densities.

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arXiv2015

Influence of neutron-skin thickness on $π^{-}/π^{+}$ ratio in Pb+Pb collisions

Within an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model IBUU11 using as an input nucleon density profiles from Hartree-Fock calculations based on a modified Skyrme-like (MSL) model, we study the influence of the uncertainty of the neutron skin thickness on the $π^{-}/π^{+}$ ratio in both central and peripheral Pb+Pb collisions at beam energies of 400 MeV/nucleon and 1000 MeV/nucleon. Within the current experimental uncertainty range of neutron skin in $^{208}$Pb, while the neutron skin effect on the \rpi ratio is negligible in central reactions at both energies, it increases gradually with increasing impact parameter and becomes comparable with or even larger than the symmetry energy effect in peripheral collisions especially at 400 MeV/nucleon. Moreover, we found that while the \rpi ratio is larger with a softer \esym in central collisions, above certain impact parameters depending on the size of the neutron skin, a stiffer \esym can lead to a larger \rpi ratio as most of the pions are produced at densities below the saturation density in these peripheral reactions. Thus, a clear impact parameter selection is important to extract reliable information about the \esym at suprasaturation densities (size of neutron skin) from the $π^-/π^+$ ratio in central (peripheral) heavy-ion collisions.

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arXiv2015

Thermal properties of asymmetric nuclear matter with an improved isospin- and momentum-dependent interaction

Thermal properties of asymmetric nuclear matter, including the temperature dependence of the symmetry energy, single-particle properties, and differential isospin fractionation, are investigated with different neutron-proton effective mass splittings using an improved isospin- and momentum-dependent interaction. In this improved interaction, the momentum-dependence of the isoscalar single-particle potential at saturation density is well fitted to that extracted from optical model analyses of proton-nucleus scattering data up to nucleon kinetic energy of 1 GeV, and the isovector properties, i.e., the slope of the nuclear symmetry energy, the momentum-dependence of the symmetry potential, and the symmetry energy at saturation density can be flexibly adjusted via three parameters $x$, $y$, and $z$, respectively. Our results indicate that the nucleon phase-space distribution in equilibrium, the temperature dependence of the symmetry energy, and the differential isospin fractionation can be significantly affected by the isospin splitting of nucleon effective mass.

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