Covariance analysis of an isospin-dependent probe**Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (10905041) and the Hujiang Foundation of China (B14004)

Abstract

Based on a modified quantum molecular dynamics model, we calculate the neutron-proton ratio and the nuclear stopping of reaction systems with different symmetry potentials and collision cross sections. We perform correlations of several probes using the covariance data processing method. It is shown that the correlation between the nuclear stopping and the isospin-dependent nucleon-nucleon cross sections is strong, but the nuclear stopping and symmetry potentials have a weak correlation. The correlation between neutron-proton ratio and symmetry potentials in the case of low energy is stronger. The correlation between neutron-proton ratio and isospin-dependent collision cross sections is enhanced with the increase of energy, but remains weak. In addition, the correlations of the emission numbers of the deuteron with the symmetry potentials and collision cross sections at different beam energies are not obvious compared to two prior physical quantities. In this paper, we define a parameter to quantitatively describe the sensitivity of isospin-dependent probes. By analyzing this parameter, one can extract more information about the isospin effects of the physical quantity.