Probing the symmetry potential with neutron-proton bremsstrahlung in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

In the framework of the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics transport model (QMD), the effects of symmetry potential on the collision number and the neutron-proton bremsstrahlung photon in the reactions of 40Ca+40Ca, 124Sn+124Sn, 40Ca+64Zn, 40Ca+124Sn at different incident beam energies are studied. It is found that the collision number shows moderate sensitivity to the stiffness of the symmetry potential and the number of hard photons calculated with stiff symmetry potential is obviously smaller than that with soft symmetry potential. Thus, the neutron-proton bremsstrahlung photons produced in heavy-ion collisions may be a useful probe for the high-density behavior of the nuclear symmetry potential.