Effects of momentum-dependent symmetry potential on heavy-ion collisions induced by neutron-rich nuclei Original Research Article

Using an isospin- and momentum-dependent transport model we study effects of the momentum-dependent symmetry potential on heavy-ion collisions induced by neutron-rich nuclei. It is found that symmetry potentials with and without the momentum-dependence but corresponding to the same density-dependent symmetry energy Esym(ρ) lead to significantly different predictions on several Esym(ρ)-sensitive experimental observables especially for energetic nucleons. The momentum- and density-dependence of the symmetry potential have to be determined simultaneously in order to extract the Esym(ρ) accurately. The isospin asymmetry of midrapidity nucleons at high transverse momenta is particularly sensitive to the momentum-dependence of the symmetry potential. It is thus very useful for investigating accurately the equation of state of dense neutron-rich matter.