Isospin Transport at Fermi Energies

Abstract

In this paper we investigate isospin transport mechanisms in semi-peripheral collisions at Fermi energies. The effects of the formation of a low density region (neck) between the two reaction partners and of pre-equilibrium emission on the dynamics of isospin equilibration are carefully analyzed. We clearly identify two main contributions to the isospin transport: isospin diffusion due to the $N/Z$ ratio and isospin drift due to the density gradients. Both effects are sensitive to the symmetry part of the nuclear Equation of State (EOS), in particular to the value and slope around saturation density.