Constraints on the equation-of-state from low energy heavy-ion collisions within the PHQMD microscopic approach with momentum-dependent potential (2411.04969v1)

Abstract: We investigate the influence of the equation-of-state (EoS) of nuclear matter on collective observables, the directed ($v_1$) and the elliptic flow ($v_2$) of nucleons and light clusters in heavy-ion collisions at GeV beam energies employing the Parton-Hadron-Quantum-Molecular Dynamics (PHQMD) microscopic transport approach. Here the clusters are formed dynamically during the entire heavy-ion collision by potential interaction between nucleons, including additionally deuteron production by hadronic kinetic reactions. We employ three different EoS - realized via potential interactions: two static EoS, dubbed 'soft' and 'hard', which differ in the compressibility modulus, as well as a soft momentum dependent EoS, adjusted to pA elastic scattering data. We find that the momentum dependent potential has different consequences for rapidity and transverse momentum spectra than for flow coefficients. We obtain the best description of the HADES and FOPI data on the directed and elliptic flow coefficients of protons and light clusters applying a momentum dependent EoS. Moreover, we observe a scaling behavior of $v_2$ versus $p_T$ with atomic number $A$. Finally we demonstrate that flow observables can help to identify the cluster production mechanisms.