Abstract
The present status of studies aimed at constraining the nuclear equation of state with heavy-ion collision dynamics is presented. Multifragmentation phenomena, including their isotopic distributions, charge correlations and emission time-scales, may revel the existence of liquid-gas transitions in the phase diagram. Exploring the isotopic degree of freedom in nuclear dynamics is then required in order to constrain the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter which presently represents a major priority due to its relevance to both nuclear physics and astrophysics. Some observables that have successfully constrained the density dependence of the symmetry energy are presented, such as neutron-proton yield ratios and isospin diffusion and drift phenomena. The reported results and status of the art is discussed by also considering some of the present problems and some future perspectives for the heavy-ion collision community.
Highlights
Accessing the properties of nuclear matter, constituted by an infinite number of neutrons and protons interacting via Van der Waals-like forces, is one of the main research topics in nuclear physics
At higher temperature hadronic matter is expected to undergo a transition to a quarkgluon plasma [4] with is presently under study at CERN and RHIC facilities
It is a matter of debate whether signals of phase transitions have been observed, due to the difficulties in extrapolating bulk matter properties from measured observables in heavy-ion collisions
Summary
Accessing the properties of nuclear matter, constituted by an infinite number of neutrons and protons interacting via Van der Waals-like forces, is one of the main research topics in nuclear physics. At higher temperature hadronic matter is expected to undergo a transition to a quarkgluon plasma [4] with is presently under study at CERN and RHIC facilities It is a matter of debate whether signals of phase transitions have been observed, due to the difficulties in extrapolating bulk matter properties from measured observables in heavy-ion collisions. The extracted results need to be compared to astrophysical observation studies and this represents an priority for the scientific community
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