Kaon production at subthreshold energies: what do we learn about the nuclear medium?

Abstract

Abstract. The IQMD model is used to compare spectra and elliptic flow of kaons produced at subthreshold energies with data taken at the SIS accelerator at GSI. We find that temperatures of the spectra are dominated by the rescattering of the kaons. The study of elliptic flow observables indicates the influence of rescattering as well as of the optical potential of the kaons with increasing dominance of the optical potential at lower incident energies.

Probing the density dependence of the symmetry energy via multifragmentation at subsaturation densities

“…One of the most important challenges in heavy-ion physics is the determination of the isospin dependence of the nuclear equation of state (NEOS), which plays a very important role in low-energy phenomena such as nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics [1], fusion, and cluster radioactivity [2]; intermediate-energy phenomena such as multifragmentation, stopping, and flow ; and at last high-energy phenomena such as pion and kaon production [27,28]. The symmetry energy is found to be the prominent candidate to study the isospin dependence of the NEOS.…”

On the elliptic flow for nearly symmetric collisions and nuclear equation of state

“…In recent years, the anisotropic flow at intermediate energies has attracted increasing attention of the heavy-ion community because the anisotropic flow [6,7] is very sensitive to the early evolution of the system [7][8][9]. The anisotropic flow is defined as the azimuthal asymmetry in the particle distribution with respect to the reaction plane (the plane spanned by the beam direction and impact parameter vector).…”