Isotopic effects in nuclear reactions at relativistic energies

One of the main objectives of heavy ion collisions at relativistic energies is to
study nuclei and nuclear matter in extreme conditions of temperature and density.
Such collisions permit then to explore the phase diagram of nuclear matter and to
establish its equation of state. Data recently collected with the ALADiN spectrom-
eter at the synchrotron SIS of the GSI laboratory in Darmstadt aim to explore mass
and isospin eects in the multifragmentation process of the quasi-projectile. For this
purpose, stable beams of 197Au and 124Sn as well as radioactive secondary beams
of 124La and 107Sn, delivered by the fragment separator FRS, were used in order to
cover a large range of isotopic compositions. With the achieved mass resolution,
lighter isotopes with atomic numbers Z < 10 are individually resolved. The present
ongoing analyses of the measured isotope yield ratios focus on the extraction and
the comparison of the breakup temperatures with predicted limiting temperatures,
and on the observed isoscaling and its relation to the symmetry energy.

Presentation (pdf)