Dynamics of dilute nuclear matter with light clusters and in-medium effects

TL;DR

This paper studies how light clusters and in-medium effects influence the behavior of dilute nuclear matter, revealing significant impacts on instabilities and fragment formation relevant to heavy-ion collisions and astrophysics.

Contribution

It introduces a linear response approach incorporating in-medium Mott effects and a density-dependent momentum cut-off to analyze cluster dynamics in nuclear matter.

Findings

Spinodal instabilities are strongly affected by light clusters.

In-medium effects significantly alter growth rates of instabilities.

Results have implications for fragment formation in collisions and astrophysics.

Abstract

We investigate the dynamics of dilute systems composed of nucleons and light clusters within a linear response approach, taking into account the in-medium Mott effects on cluster appearance, through a density-dependent momentum cut-off. We find that spinodal instabilities and associated growth rates are severely affected by the presence of light clusters and, in particular, by the treatment of in-medium effects, foreshadowing intriguing consequences for fragment formation in heavy-ion collisions and in the broader astrophysical context.