Abstract
The properties of spectator matter created in 197Au–197Au and 208Pb–208Pb collisions with energies typical for the NICA accelerator complex were studied with the Abrasion–Ablation Monte Carlo for Colliders (AAMCC) model. We review predictions made with AAMCC for several characteristics of spectator matter and compare them with available data. The sum of squares of spectator charges per spectator nucleon is proposed as an additional indicator of collision centrality in BM@N and MPD experiments at NICA. The forward-backward asymmetry of free spectator nucleons is calculated and compared to the asymmetry of the total volume of spectator matter. The sensitivity of calculated yields of spectator neutrons in central 208Pb‒208Pb collisions to the presence of neutron skin in 208Pb is demonstrated.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
S. Bhattacharyya, “A brief review on nuclear fragmentation,” Int. J. Mod. Phys. E. 19, 319–358 (2010).
M. B. Golubeva, F. F. Guber, A. P. Ivashkin, A. Y. Isupov, A. B. Kurepin, A. G. Litvinenko, E. I. Litvinenko, I. I. Migulina, and V. F. Peresedov, “Nuclear-nuclear collision centrality determination by the spectators calorimeter for the MPD setup at the NICA facility,” Phys. At. Nucl. 76, 1–15 (2013).
V. Golovatyuk, V. Kekelidze, V. Kolesnikov, O. Rogachevsky, and A. Sorin, “Multi-purpose detector to study heavy-ion collisions at the NICA collider,” Nucl. Phys. A 982, 963–966 (2019).
J. Aichelin, “’Quantum’ molecular dynamics—a dynamical microscopic n-body approach to investigate fragment formation and the nuclear equation of state in heavy ion collisions,” Phys. Rep. 202 (5–6), 233–360 (1991).
J. Aichelin, E. Bratkovskaya, A. Le Fèvre, V. Kireyeu, V. Kolesnikov, Y. Leifels, V. Voronyuk, and G. Coci, “Parton-hadron-quantum-molecular dynamics: A novel microscopic n-body transport approach for heavy-ion collisions, dynamical cluster formation, and hypernuclei production,” Phys. Rev. C 101, 44905 (2020).
J. J. Gaimard and K. H. Schmidt, “A reexamination of the abrasion-ablation model for the description of the nuclear fragmentation reaction,” Nucl. Phys. A 531, 709–745 (1991).
C. Scheidenberger, I. A. Pshenichnov, K. Sümmerer, A. Ventura, J. P. Bondorf, A. S. Botvina, I. N. Mishustin, D. Boutin, S. Datz, H. Geissel, Grafström P., H. Knudsen, H. F. Krause, B. Lommel, S. P. Møller, G. Münzenberg, R. H. Schuch, E. Uggerhøj, U. Uggerhøj, C. R. Vane, Z. Z. Vilakazi, and H. Weick, “Charge-changing interactions of ultrarelativistic Pb nuclei,” Phys. Rev. C 70, 014902 (2004).
A. O. Svetlichnyi and I. A. Pshenichnov, “Formation of free and bound spectator nucleons in hadronic interactions between relativistic nuclei,” Bull. Russ. Acad. Sci.: Phys. 84, 911–916 (2020).
I. A. Pshenichnov, U. A. Dmitrieva, and A. O. Svetlichnyi, “Secondary nuclei from peripheral and ultraperipheral collisions of relativistic heavy ions,” Bull. Russ. Acad. Sci.: Phys. 84, 1007–1011 (2020).
D. Finogeev, M. Golubeva, F. Guber, A. Ivashkin, A. Izvestny, S. Morozov, and O. Petukhov, “The construction and parameters of forward hadron calorimeter (FHCAL) at MPD/NICA,” KnE Energy 3, 149 (2018).
C. Loizides, J. Kamin, and D. D’Enterria, “Improved Monte Carlo Glauber predictions at present and future nuclear colliders,” Phys. Rev. C 97, 054910 (2018).
J. Bondorf, A. Botvina, A. Iljinov, I. Mishustin, and K. Sneppen, “Statistical multifragmentation of nuclei,” Phys. Rep. 257, 133–221 (1995).
J. Allison et al. (Geant4 Collab.), “Recent developments in Geant4,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 835, 186–225 (2016).
T. Ericson, “The statistical model and nuclear level densities,” Adv. Phys. 9, 425–511 (1960).
A. Botvina et al. (ALADIN Collab.), “Multifragmentation of spectators in relativistic heavy-ion reactions,” Nucl. Phys. A 584, 737–756 (1995).
X. Campi, H. Krivine, and E. Plagnol, “Size and excitation energy distributions of projectile spectators in multifragmentation data,” Phys. Rev. C 50, R2680–R2683 (1994).
R. Ogul et al. (ALADIN Collab.), “Isospin-dependent multifragmentation of relativistic projectiles,” Phys. Rev. C 83, 024608 (2011).
M. I. Adamovich et al. (EMU-01/12 Collab.), “Multifragmentation of gold nuclei in the interactions with photoemulsion nuclei at 10.7 GeV/nucleon,” Z. Phys. A 359, 277–290 (1997).
W. Trautmann, J. C. Adloff, M. Begemann-Blaich, P. Bouissou, J. Hubele, G. Imme, I. Iori, P. Kreutz, G. J. Kunde, S. Leray, V. Lindenstruth, Z. Liu, U. Lynen, R. J. Meijer, U. Milkau, A. Moroni, W. F. Müller, C. Ngo, C. A. Ogilvie, J. Pochodzalla, G. Raciti, G. Rudolf, H. Sann, A. Schüttauf, W. Seidel, L. Stuttge, and A. Tucholski, “The rise and fall of multifragment production in 197Au + C, Al, and Cu reactions at E/A = 600 MeV,” Nucl. Phys. A 538 (C), 473–481 (1992).
L. P. Csernai, G. Eyyubova, and V. K. Magas, “New method for measuring longitudinal fluctuations and directed flow in ultrarelativistic heavy ion reactions,” Phys. Rev. C 86, 024912 (2012).
R. Raniwala, S. Raniwala, and C. Loizides, “Effects of longitudinal asymmetry in heavy-ion collisions,” Phys. Rev. C 97, 024 912 (2018).
C. J. Horowitz, and J. Piekarewicz, “Neutron star structure and the neutron radius of 208Pb,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5647–5650 (2001).
A. Trzcińska, J. Jastrzébski, P. Lubiński, F. J. Hartmann, R. Schmidt, T. von Egidy, and B. Kłos, “Neutron density distributions deduced from antiprotonic atoms,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 082501 (2001).
C. M. Tarbert et al. (Crystal Ball at MAMI and A2 Collab.), “Neutron skin of Pb-208 from coherent pion photoproduction,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 242502 (2014).
C. W. Ma, Y. Fu, D. Q. Fang, Y. G. Ma, X. Z. Cai, W. D. Tian, K. Wang, and C. Zhong, “Isospin effect and isoscaling phenomenon in projectile fragmentation,” Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 17, 1669–1680 (2008).
D. Q. Fang, Y. G. Ma, X. Z. Cai, W. D. Tian, and H. W. Wang, “Neutron removal cross section as a measure of neutron skin,” Phys. Rev. C 81, 047603 (2010).
T. Aumann, C. A. Bertulani, F. Schindler, and S. Typel, “Peeling off neutron skins from neutron-rich nuclei: Constraints on the symmetry energy from neutron-removal cross sections,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 262501 (2017).
C. A. Bertulani and J. Valencia, “Neutron skins as laboratory constraints on properties of neutron stars and on what we can learn from heavy ion fragmentation reactions,” Phys. Rev. C 100, 015802 (2019).
A. B. Jones and B. A. Brown, “Two-parameter Fermi function fits to experimental charge and point-proton densities for Pb-208,” Phys. Rev. C 90, 067304 (2014).
G. A. Miller, “Coherent-nuclear pion photoproduction and neutron radii,” Phys. Rev. C 100, 44608 (2019).
H. Appelshäuser et al. (NA49 Collab.), “Spectator nucleons in Pb+Pb collisions at 158 A⋅GeV,” Eur. Phys. J. A 2, 383–390 (1998).
S. Acharya et al. (ALICE Collab.), Data-Driven Model for the Emission of Spectator Nucleons as a Function of Centrality in Pb-Pb Collisions at LHC Energies. ALICE-PUBLIC-2020-001 (2020), pp. 1–19. http:// cds.cern.ch/record/2712412.
D. A. Bauer, D. V. Karlovets, and V. G. Serbo, “Bound-free pair production in relativistic nuclear collisions from the NICA to the HE LHC colliders,” Eur. Phys. J. A 56, 4–8 (2020).
B. Kłos, A. Trzcińska, J. Jastrzébski, T. Czosnyka, M. Kisieliński, P. Lubiński, P. Napiorkowski, L. Pieńkowski, F. J. Hartmann, B. Ketzer, P. Ring, R. Schmidt, von T. Egidy, R. Smolańczuk, S. Wycech, K. Gulda, W. Kurcewicz, E. Widmann, and B. A. Brown, “Neutron density distributions from antiprotonic Pb-208 and Bi-209 atoms,” Phys. Rev. C 76, 014311 (2007).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One of the authors (I.P.) is grateful to Dariusz Miskowiec and Chiara Oppedisano for the discussions that stimulated the investigation of the effects of neutron skin.
Funding
The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of the scientific project no. 18-02-40035-mega.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pshenichnov, I.A., Kozyrev, N.A., Nepeivoda, R.S. et al. Properties of Spectator Matter in Nuclear Collisions at NICA. Phys. Part. Nuclei 52, 591–597 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063779621040493
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063779621040493