Studies of the Vlasov-Boltzmann equation

Abstract

The Vlasov-Boltzmann equation is the classical limit of the Vlasov-Nordheim or the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation commonly used to theoretically study heavy-ion collisions. In this talk we review results of several Vlasov-Boltzmann and exact molecular dynamics simulations of classical heavy-ion collisions carried out with two different nucleon-nucleon interaction models. Both models give tthe empirical binding energy and density of nuclear matter, but one has a stiff equation of state with compressibility K = 535 MeV while the other has K = 250 MeV. The simulations were carried out to study (i) the observables sensitive to the interaction models, (ii) the accuracy of the Vlasov-Boltzmann equation, and (iii) the possibility of extracting the equation of the state from heavy-ion collision data.