$ωN$ final state interactions and $ω$-meson production from heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We calculate the elastic and inelastic $ωN\to ωN, \to πN, \to ρN, \to ρπN, \to ππN, \to σN$ reactions within a boson exchange approximation where the $ωρπ$ coupling constant and form factor are fixed by the reaction $πN \to ωN$ in comparison to the experimental data. We find rather large $ωN$ cross sections at low relative momenta of the $ω$-meson which leads to a substantial broadening of the $ω$-meson width in nuclear matter. The implications of the $ωN$ final state interactions are studied for $ω$ production in $^{12}C{+}^{12}C, ^{40}Ca{+}^{40}Ca$ and $^{58}Ni{+}^{58}Ni$ reactions at about 2 A GeV within the HSD transport approach; the drastic changes of the transverse mass spectra relative to a general m_T-scaling (for $π^0$ and $η$ mesons) might be controlled experimentally by the TAPS Collaboration.