Z. Chajecki

SπRIT: A time-projection chamber for symmetry-energy studies

A time-projection chamber (TPC) called the SAMURAI Pion-Reconstruction and Ion-Tracker (S pi RIT) has recently been constructed at Michigan State University as part of an international effort to constrain the symmetry-energy term in the nuclear Equation of State (EoS). The S pi RIT TPC will be used in conjunction with the SAMURAI spectrometer at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) at RIKEN to measure yield ratios for pions and other light isospin multiplets produced in central collisions of neutron-rich heavy ions, such as Sn-132+Sn-124. The S pi RIT TPC can function both as a TPC detector and as an active target. It has a vertical drift length of 50 cm, parallel to the magnetic field. Gas multiplication is achieved through the use of a multi-wire anode plane. Image charges, produced in the 12096 pads, are read out with the recently developed Generic Electronics for TPCs

Constraints on the density dependence of the symmetry energy from heavy-ion collisions

Abstract Constraints on the equation of state (EoS) for symmetric matter (equal neutron and proton numbers) have been extracted from energetic collisions of heavy ions over a range of energies. Collisions of neutron-deficient and neutron-rich heavy ions now provide initial constraints on the EoS of neutron-rich matter at subsaturation densities from isospin diffusions and neutron proton ratios. This article reviews the experimental constraints on the density dependence of symmetry energy at subsaturation density.

Results of the ASY-EOS experiment at GSI : the symmetry energy at suprasaturation density

Directed and elliptic flows of neutrons and light charged particles were measured for the reaction 197Au+197Au at 400 MeV/nucleon incident energy within the ASY-EOS experimental campaign at the GSI laboratory. The detection system consisted of the Large Area Neutron Detector LAND, combined with parts of the CHIMERA multidetector, of the ALADIN Time-of-flight Wall, and of the Washington-University Microball detector. The latter three arrays were used for the event characterization and reaction-plane reconstruction. In addition, an array of triple telescopes, KRATTA, was used for complementary measurements of the isotopic composition and flows of light charged particles. From the comparison of the elliptic flow ratio of neutrons with respect to charged particles with UrQMD predictions, a value gamma = 0.72 pm 0.19 is obtained for the power-law coefficient describing the density dependence of the potential part in the parametrization of the symmetry energy. It represents a new and more stringent constraint for the regime of supra-saturation density and confirms, with a considerably smaller uncertainty, the moderately soft to linear density dependence deduced from the earlier FOPI-LAND data. The densities probed are shown to reach beyond twice saturation.

Democratic Decay of 6Be Exposed by Correlations

The interaction of an E/A=70-MeV (7)Be beam with a Be target was used to populate levels in (6)Be following neutron knockout reactions. The three-body decay of the ground and first excited states into the α+p+p exit channel were detected in the High Resolution Array. Precise three-body correlations extracted from the experimental data allowed us to obtain insight into the mechanism of the three-body democratic decay. The correlation data are in good agreement with a three-cluster-model calculation and thus validate this theoretical approach over a broad energy range.

Democratic Decay ofBe6Exposed by Correlations

The interaction of an E/A=70-MeV (7)Be beam with a Be target was used to populate levels in (6)Be following neutron knockout reactions. The three-body decay of the ground and first excited states into the α+p+p exit channel were detected in the High Resolution Array. Precise three-body correlations extracted from the experimental data allowed us to obtain insight into the mechanism of the three-body democratic decay. The correlation data are in good agreement with a three-cluster-model calculation and thus validate this theoretical approach over a broad energy range.

Probing effective nucleon masses with heavy-ion collisions

It has been generally accepted that momentum-dependent potentials for neutrons and protons at energies well away from the Fermi surface cause both to behave as if their inertial masses are effectively 70% of the vacuum values. This similarity in effective masses may no longer hold in dense neutron-rich regions within neutron stars, core-collapse supernovas, and nuclear collisions. There differences in the momentum-dependent symmetry potentials may cause neutron and proton effective masses to differ significantly. We investigate this effect by measuring the energy spectra of neutrons, protons, and charged particles emitted in

Investigations of three-, four-, and five-particle decay channels of levels in light nuclei created using a C9 beam

^{112}mathrm{Sn}+^{112}mathrm{Sn}

Observation of Long-Range Three-Body Coulomb Effects in the Decay of Ne 16

and

Probing elastic and inelastic breakup contributions to intermediate-energy two-proton removal reactions

^{124}mathrm{Sn}+^{124}mathrm{Sn}

Angular dependence in proton-proton correlation functions in central 40Ca+40Ca and 48Ca+48Ca reactions

collisions at