Nuclear Collective Flow as a Function of Projectile Energy and Mass

Abstract

The dependence of collective nuclear flow on multiplicity and beam energy for Ca+Ca, Nb+Nb, and Au+Au collisions has been measured with the Plastic Ball detector at the Bevalac. Event by event the data are analyzed with the transverse-momentum method and a new quantitative measure of the flow effect is extracted. It is expected that comparison of the present systematic results with model calculations will lead to a more precise determination of the nuclear-matter equation of state.