Exploring the nuclear matter phase diagram with heavy ion reactions

Abstract

We review recent results concerning heavy ion reactions between charge asymmetric systems from low up to intermediate energies.Solving numerically self-consistent transport equations for neutrons and protons, we focus on isospin sensitivite observables, aiming at extracting information on the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. For reactions close to the Coulomb barrier, we explore the structure of pre-equilibrium dipole oscillations, rather sensitive to the low-density behavior of the isovector component of the nuclear effective interaction. In the Fermi energy regime, we investigate the interplay between dissipation mechanisms, fragmentation and isospin effects. At intermediate energies, where regions with higher density and momentum are reached, we discuss collective flows and their sensitive to neutron and proton effective masses.