Isospin dependence of collective flow

Abstract

Nuclear collective flow in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies has been studied in an isospin-dependent transport model. It is found that both the sign and strength of collective flow are significantly affected by the isospin asymmetry of the colliding system. The predicted dependence of the balance energy, defined by the incident energy at which the collective flow disappears, on the isospin asymmetry is compared with recent experiments at NSCL/MSU.