A. Buta

Central collisions of Au on Au at 150, 250 and 400 A·MeV

Abstract Collisions of Au on Au at incident energies of 150, 250 and 400 A ·MeV were studied with the FOPI-facility at GSI Darmstadt. Nuclear charge ( Z ⩽ 15) and velocity of the products were detected with full azimuthal acceptance at laboratory angles 1° ⩽ θ lab ⩽ 30°. Isotope separated light charged particles were measured with movable multiple telescopes in an angular range of 6–90°. Central collisions representing about 1% of the reaction cross section were selected by requiring high total transverse energy, but vanishing side flow. The velocity space distributions and yields of the emitted fragments are reported. the data are analysed in terms of a thermal model including radial flow. A comparison with predictions of the quantum molecular model is presented.

A highly-segmented ΔE-time-of-flight wall as forward detector of the 4π-system for charged particles at the SIS/ESR accelerator

Abstract At the SIS/ESR accelerator facility at GSI in Darmstadt the 4π-detector system FOPI is under construction at present. It is designed for the investigation of central collisions of heavy ions in the energy range up to 2 A GeV. As phase I of this detector a forward wall has been built and used in various experiments. It comprizes a total number of 764 scintillators with an additional shell of 188 thin ΔE -detectors in front of it and covers the full azimuth of the polar angles from 1° to 30°. The velocity and the nuclear charge of the fragments are determined by a combined time-of-flight and ΔE measurement.

On the transverse momentum distribution of strange hadrons produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Particles with strange quark content produced in the system 1.93A·GeV58Ni on58Ni have been investigated at GSI Darmstadt with the FOPI detector system. The correlation of these produced particles was analyzed with respect to the reaction plane.Λ baryons exhibit a very pronounced sideward flow pattern which is qualitatively similar to the proton flow. However, the kaon (K+,Ks0) flow patterns are significantly different from that of the protons, and their form may be useful to restrict theoretical models on the form of the kaon potential in the nuclear medium.

Evidence for collective expansion in light-particle emission following Au+Au collisions at 100, 150 and 250 A·MeV

Abstract Light-particle emission from Au+Au collisions has been studied in the bombarding-energy range 100–250 A ·MeV, using ΔE − E R telescopes in coincidence with the FOPI detector in its phase I configuration. Center-of-mass energy spectra have been measured for Z = 1,2 isotopes emitted in central collisions at CM polar angles between 60° and 90°. Evidence for a collective expansion is reported, on the basis of the mean kinetic energies of hydrogen isotopes. Comparison is presented with statistical calculations (WIX code). For CM kinetic energy spectra, fair agreement is found between data and a recently developed transport model.

Sideward flow in Au + Au collisions at 400 A.MeV

Abstract We present new experimental data obtained with the FOPI detector at SIS, for the Au + Au heavy-ion collisions at 400 A MeV incident energy. The sideward flow, determined from a method without reaction-plane reconstruction, and the nuclear stopping are studied as a function of the centrality of the collisions. In order to study the nuclear in-medium effects, which act on the NN cross sections and potential and hence on experimental observables like the nuclear-matter flow and stopping, these results are compared with the predictions of two different QMD versions. The first one offers a fully microscopic calculation of the cross sections and potential in the G-matrix formalism and naturally includes the in-medium effects (this version is for the first time confronted with experiment). The second one uses a standard Skyrme potential plus a momentum-dependent term in order to mimic the in-medium effects.

Identification of baryon resonances in central heavy-ion collisions at energies between 1 and 2 AGeV

Abstract. The mass distributions of baryon resonances populated in near-central collisions of Au on Au and Ni on Ni are deduced by defolding the pt spectra of charged pions by a method which does not depend on a specific resonance shape. In addition the mass distributions of resonances are obtained from the invariant masses of (p, π±) pairs. With both methods the deduced mass distributions are shifted by an average value of −60 MeV/c2 relative to the mass distribution of the free Δ(1232) resonance, the distributions descent almost exponentially towards mass values of 2000 MeV/c2. The observed differences between (p, π−) and (p, π+) pairs indicate a contribution of isospin I = 1/2 resonances. The attempt to consistently describe the deduced mass distributions and the reconstructed kinetic energy spectra of the resonances leads to new insights about the freeze out conditions, i.e. to rather low temperatures and large expansion velocities.

Abundance of Δ resonances in 58Ni + 58Ni collisions between 1 and 2 AGeV

Charged pion spectra measured in 58Ni-58Ni collisions at 1.06, 1.45 and 1.93 AGeV are interpreted in terms of a thermal model including the decay of Delta resonances. The transverse momentum spectra of pions are well reproduced by adding the pions originating from the Delta-resonance decay to the component of thermal pions, deduced from the high transverse momentum part of the pion spectra. About 10 and 18% of the nucleons are excited to Delta states at freeze-out for beam energies of 1 and 2 AGeV, respectively.Abstract Charged pion spectra measured in 58 Ni 58 Ni collisions at 1.06, 1.45 and 1.93 AGeV are interpreted in terms of a thermal model including the decay of Δ resonances. The transverse momentum spectra of pions are well reproduced by adding the pions originating from the Δ -resonance decay to the component of thermal pions, deduced from the high transverse momentum part of the pion spectra. About 10 and 18% of the nucleons are excited to Δ states at freeze-out for beam energies of 1 and 2 AGeV, respectively.

Out-of-plane emission of nuclear matter in Au+Au collisions between 100 and 800 AMeV

Abstract We present new experimental results concerning the azimuthal distributions of proton-likes, light and intermediate mass fragments at midrapidity for Au(100–800 A MeV) +Au collisions measured with the FOPI phase-I detector at GSI in Darmstadt. The azimuthal distributions are investigated as a function of the collision centrality, the incident energy, the fragment charge and transverse momentum. The azimuthal anisotropy is maximum for impact parameters around 7 fm. Intermediate mass fragments present a stronger out-of-plane emission signal than light fragments and a saturation is reached for Z ⩾ 4. The azimuthal anisotropy increases with the fragment transverse momentum and decreases as the incident energy increases. The azimuthal anisotropy of Z = 2 particles investigated as a function of the scaled fragment transverse momentum follows an universal curve for bombarding energies between 250–800 A MeV. A signature for a transition from in-plane to out-of-plane emission is evidenced at the lowest beam energies.

Onset of nuclear matter expansion in Au+Au collisions

Abstract Using the FOPI detector at GSI Darmstadt, excitation functions of collective flow components were measured for the Au+Au system, in the reaction plane and out of this plane, at seven incident energies ranging from 100 A MeV to 800 A MeV. The threshold energies, corresponding to the onset of sideward-flow (balance energy) and squeeze-out effect (transition energy), are extracted from extrapolations of these excitation functions toward lower beam energies for charged products with Z ⩾ 2. The transition energy is found to be larger than the balance energy. The impact parameter dependence of both balance and transition energies, when extrapolated to central collisions, suggests comparable although slightly higher values than the threshold energy for the radial flow. The relevant parameter seems to be the energy deposited into the system in order to overcome the attractive nuclear forces.

Azimuthal anisotropies as stringent test for nuclear transport models

Abstract Azimuthal distributions of charged particles and intermediate mass fragments emitted in Au+Au collisions at 600 A MeV have been measured using the FOPI facility at GSI-Darmstadt. Data show a strong increase of the in-plane azimuthal anisotropy ratio with the charge of the detected fragment. Intermediate mass fragments are found to exhibit a strong momentum-space alignment with respect of the reaction plane. The experimental results are presented as a function of the polar centre-of-mass angle and over a broad range of impact parameters. They are compared to the predictions of the Isospin Quantum Molecular Dynamics model using three different parametrisations of the equation of state. We show that such highly accurate data provide stringent test for microscopic transport models and can potentially constrain separately the stiffness of the nuclear equation of state and the momentum dependence of the nuclear interaction.