Shedding light on the pion production in heavy-ion collisions and application into the neutron star matter properties

TL;DR

This study uses a quantum molecular dynamics model to analyze pion production in heavy-ion collisions, constraining the high-density symmetry energy and applying findings to neutron star properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of pion production and symmetry energy constraints, clarifying previous controversies and linking nuclear collision data to neutron star characteristics.

Findings

Constrained the high-density symmetry energy with a slope parameter of 42±25 MeV.

Clarified the controversy in the π−/π+ ratio for symmetry energy constraints.

Predicted neutron stars with maximum mass of 2 solar masses and radius of 11-13 km.

Abstract

Within the framework of the quantum molecular dynamics transport model, the pion production and constraint of the high-density symmetry energy in heavy-ion collisions near threshold energy have been thoroughly investigated. The energy conservation in the decay of resonances and reabsorption of pions as well as in the inelastic nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-resonance collisions are taken into account. The isospin diffusion in the low-density region (0.2$\rho_{0}$ - 0.8$\rho_{0}$) and high-density region (1.2$\rho_{0}$ - 1.8$\rho_{0}$) is investigated by analyzing the spectra of neutron/proton and $\pi^{-}/\pi^{+}$ ratios in the isotopic reactions of $^{132}$Sn + $^{124}$Sn and $^{108}$Sn + $^{112}$Sn at the incident energy of 270 MeV/nucleon, in which the symmetry energy manifests the opposite effect in the different density domain. The controversial conclusion of the $\pi^{-}/\pi^{+}$ ratio for constraining the high-density symmetry energy by different transport models with the FOPI data has been clarified. A soft symmetry energy with the slope parameter of $L(\rho_{0}) = 42\pm 25$ MeV by using the standard error analysis within the range of $1\sigma$ is obtained by analyzing the experimental data from the S$\pi$RIT collaboration. The neutron stars with the maximal mass of 2 $M_{\odot}$ and radius of 11-13 km are obtained with the constrained symmetry energy.