Relativistic Vlasov equation and heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

A relativistic Vlasov equation was derived from the mean field theory (MFT) of the Walecka model by using nonequilibrium Green function techniques. The Vlasov equation was then used to investigate the collisions of 16O + 16O at intermediate energies. From studying the transverse momentum distribution, we have found that the transverse momentum transfer involves a cancellation between large attractive and repulsive components. For intermediate- and high-energy heavy-ion collisions, the transverse momentum transfer is essentially determined by the interaction with the vector meson. We have calculated the angular distributions of the emitted particles during heavy-ion collisions and found a forward peak, which is not sensitive to the impact parameter and incident energy. Introducing the nonlinear self-interaction of the scalar meson, we have also studied the sensitivities of the magnitude of the transverse momentum and angular distribution of emitted particles to the nucleon effective mass and the nuclear compressibility at saturation density.