Classical microscopic calculation of fast heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We consider heavy-ion collisions with beam energies of a few hundred MeV/nucleon, because such collisions seem favorable for producing compressed nuclear matter. As an alternative to hydrodynamic ways of calculating such collisions, we are investigating a microscopic, rapid (and therefore economical) simulation method. There are two simplifications basic to this method: (i) using classical particle kinematics, and (ii) taking nucleonnucleon interactions into account via cross sections rather than explicit forces. Some other simplifications, concerning nuclear binding etc., are presently crude but will be improved. Even at normal density, nuclear matter is not so dilute; therefore our calculations show some sensitivity to details of the mechanism assume for nucleon-nucleon scattering. For head-on collision of two mass-235 nuclei, our present calculations yield maximum densities between 2 and 3 times that of normal nuclear matter.