Residue temperatures and the nuclear equation of state

Abstract

Excitation energies are calculated for heavy residues produced in central 40Ar+ 124Sn collisions for a range of incident energies and impact parameters using the BUU transport equation. These excitation energies are evaluated at freezeout times determined from the time dependence of the thermal excitation energy and the nucleon emission rate. Both the thermal excitation energies and temperatures, obtained assuming Fermi-gas level densities, are sensitive to the nuclear equation of state and the impact parameter. These quantities are somewhat less sensitive to the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section.