Researchers from the Institute of Modern Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by Dr. Xin Li, have recently published a study in the journal Physical Review C that explores the behavior of protons in heavy-ion collisions. Their work focuses on understanding how various factors influence proton anisotropic flows, which are essential for extracting information about the equation of state (EOS) of nuclear matter.
In their study, the researchers utilized the lattice Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model to systematically analyze proton anisotropic flow observables measured by the HADES collaboration. They employed a nuclear effective interaction based on the N5LO Skyrme pseudopotential to investigate the impacts of several key factors. These included the momentum dependence of nucleon mean-field potentials, the stiffness of symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) EOS, the high-density behaviors of the symmetry energy, and the in-medium modification of nucleon-nucleon elastic cross sections.
The findings revealed that proton anisotropic flows are highly sensitive to the momentum dependence of nucleon mean-field potential and the incompressibility coefficient (K0) of SNM. Additionally, the transverse momentum dependence of proton v2 showed modest sensitivity to higher-order skewness (J0) and kurtosis (I0) coefficients of SNM, as well as the momentum dependence of the symmetry potential. The transverse momentum dependence of proton v1 was found to modestly depend on the in-medium modification of nucleon-nucleon elastic cross sections. However, the high-density symmetry energy had limited effects on proton anisotropic flows.
These results underscore the importance of considering the momentum dependence of nucleon mean-field potentials, including the symmetry potential, higher-order characteristic parameters of SNM EOS beyond K0, and the in-medium modification of nucleon-nucleon elastic cross sections in future Bayesian transport model analyses. This approach will be crucial for accurately extracting information on nuclear matter EOS and the associated underlying nuclear effective interactions from proton anisotropic flows in heavy-ion collisions at HADES energies.
The practical applications of this research for the energy sector are indirect but significant. Understanding the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions can provide insights into the development of advanced nuclear energy technologies. For instance, the findings could contribute to the design of more efficient and safer nuclear reactors or the exploration of novel nuclear fusion processes. Additionally, the methodologies and models used in this study can be adapted to other areas of energy research, such as plasma physics and high-energy density science, which are relevant to the development of fusion energy and advanced propulsion systems.
This article is based on research available at arXiv.