On the Lorentz structure of the symmetry energy Original Research Article

We investigate in detail the density dependence of the symmetry energy in a relativistic description by decomposing the isovector mean field into contributions with different Lorentz covariant properties. We find important effects of the isovector, scalar channel (i.e., δ-meson like) on the high density behavior of the symmetry energy. Applications to static properties of finite nuclei and to dynamic situations of heavy ion collisions are explored and related to each other. The nuclear structure studies show only moderate effects originating from the virtual δ meson. At variance, in heavy ion collisions one finds important contributions on the reaction dynamics arising from the different Lorentz structure of the high density symmetry energy when a scalar isovector δ field is introduced. Particularly interesting is the related neutron/proton effective mass splitting for nucleon transport effects and for resonance and particle production around the threshold. We show that the δ-like channel turns out to be essential for the production of pions, when comparing with experimental data, in particular for high momentum selections.