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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 102 » Issue 6
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 062502 (2009) [4 pages]

Circumstantial Evidence for a Soft Nuclear Symmetry Energy at Suprasaturation Densities

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Zhigang Xiao1, Bao-An Li2,*, Lie-Wen Chen3, Gao-Chan Yong4, and Ming Zhang1
1Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P.R. China
2Department of Physics, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, Texas 75429-3011, USA
3Institute of Theoretical Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, P.R. China
4Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, P.R. China

Received 1 August 2008; revised 1 December 2008; published 13 February 2009

Within an isospin- and momentum-dependent hadronic transport model, it is shown that the recent FOPI data on the π-/π+ ratio in central heavy-ion collisions at SIS/GSI energies [ Willy Reisdorf et al. Nucl. Phys. A 781 459 (2007)] provide circumstantial evidence suggesting a rather soft nuclear symmetry energy Esym(ρ) at ρ≥2ρ0 compared to the Akmal-Pandharipande-Ravenhall prediction. Some astrophysical implications and the need for further experimental confirmations are discussed.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.062502
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.062502
PACS:
21.65.Ef, 24.10.Lx, 25.60.−t, 25.80.Ls

*Corresponding author, Bao-An_Li@Tamu-Commerce.edu

 
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