Cluster formation in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions

Ogawa, Tatsuhiko   ; Sato, Tatsuhiko   ; Hashimoto, Shintaro  ; Niita, Koji*

Particle production by nucleus-nucleus reactions in the energy range from GeV to TeV is substantially important for safety evaluation in heavy ion accelerators and evaluation of space radiation dose. A lot of models and theories have been studied. In the models developed in the past, interaction between nucleons were dependent on the reference frame; therefore the moving incident nucleus and the target nucleus at rest transferred to the common frame were disintegrated. Previously, intentional bias was introduced to the calculation algorithms to supplement stability but residual nucleus mass and secondary particle production was underestimated. In this study, a reaction model JAMQMD was developed, in which intra-nucleon interaction was described in a frame-independent way. This model can reproduce the stability of nuclei regardless of the reference frame and the yield of residual nuclei as well as secondary particles including deuterons. JQMD Ver.2 developed 3 years ago can simulate nucleus-nucleus reactions up to 3 GeV/nucleon; therefore the development of JAMQMD is the doorway to simulate nucleus-nucleus reactions regardless of the incident energy. JAMQMD is an useful model for not only radiation protection studies but also analysis of fundamental physics studies.