Constraining nucleon effective masses with flow and stopping observables from the SπRIT experiment

Abstract

Properties of the nuclear equation of state (EoS) can be probed by measuring the dynamical properties of nucleus-nucleus collisions. In this study, we present the directed flow (v1), elliptic flow (v2) and stopping (VarXZ) measured in fixed target Sn + Sn collisions at ▪ with the SπRIT Time Projection Chamber. We perform Bayesian analyses in which EoS parameters are varied simultaneously within the Improved Quantum Molecular Dynamics-Skyrme (ImQMD-Sky) transport code to obtain a multivariate correlated constraint. The varied parameters include symmetry energy, S0, and slope of the symmetry energy, L, at saturation density, isoscalar effective mass, ms⁎/mN, isovector effective mass, mv⁎/mN and the in-medium cross-section enhancement factor η. We find that the flow and VarXZ observables are sensitive to the splitting of proton and neutron effective masses and the in-medium cross-section. Comparisons of ImQMD-Sky predictions to the SπRIT data suggest a narrow range of preferred values for ms⁎/mN, mv⁎/mN and η.