Determination of the stiffness of the nuclear symmetry energy from isospin diffusion. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • With an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model, we find that the degree of isospin diffusion in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies is affected by both the stiffness of the nuclear symmetry energy and the momentum dependence of the nucleon potential. Using a momentum dependence derived from the Gogny effective interaction, recent experimental data from NSCL-MSU on isospin diffusion are shown to be consistent with a nuclear symmetry energy given by E(sym)(rho) approximately 31.6(rho/rho(0))(1.05) at subnormal densities. This leads to a significantly constrained value of about -550 MeV for the isospin-dependent part of the isobaric incompressibility of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter.

published proceedings

  • Phys Rev Lett

author list (cited authors)

  • Chen, L., Ko, C. M., & Li, B.

citation count

  • 425

complete list of authors

  • Chen, Lie-Wen||Ko, Che Ming||Li, Bao-An

publication date

  • January 2005