Unified description of nuclear stopping in central heavy-ion collisions from 10<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>A</mml:mi></mml:math> MeV to 1.2<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>A</mml:mi></mml:math>GeV

Abstract

A detailed analysis of the wide excitation function of nuclear stopping has been conducted within a transport model, isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics model, and an overall good agreement with the INDRA and FOPI Collaborations' experimental data has been achieved. It is found that the mean value of isotropy in central heavy-ion collision (HIC) reaches a minimum near-Fermi energy and approaches a maximum at around 300--400$A$ MeV. This suggests that, in statistical average, the equilibration is far from being reached, even in central HIC especially near Fermi energy. A hierarchy in the stopping of fragments, which favors heavy fragments to penetrate, provides a robust restriction on the global trend of nuclear stopping and could serve as a probe for nuclear equations of state.