Event-by-event analysis: Possible testing ground for the nuclear matter equation of state

Abstract

Intranuclear cascade calculations and fluid dynamical predictions of the kinetic energy flow are compared for collisions of $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ + $^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ and $^{238}\mathrm{U}$ + $^{238}\mathrm{U}$. The aspect ratio, ${R}_{13}$, as obtained from the global analysis, is independent of the bombarding energy for the intranuclear cascade model. Fluid dynamics, on the other hand, predicts a dramatic increase of ${R}_{13}$ at medium energies ${E}_{\mathrm{lab}}\ensuremath{\lesssim}200$ MeV/nucleon. In fact, ${R}_{13}({E}_{\mathrm{lab}})$ directly reflects the incompressibility of the nuclear matter and can be used to extract the nuclear equation of stat at high densities. Distortions of the flow tensor due to few nucleon scattering are analyzed. Possible procedures to remove this background from experimental data are discussed.