Spin-Isospin Modes in Heavy-Ion Collisions I: Nuclear Matter at Finite Temperatures

With a view towards implementation in microscopic transport simulations of heavy-ion collisions, the properties of spin-isospin modes are studied in nuclear matter consisting of nucleons and Delta isobars that interact by the exchange of pi and rho mesons. For a standard p-wave interaction and an effective g' short-range interaction, the dispersion relations for the spin- isospin modes, and the associated amplitudes, are calculated at various nuclear densities and temperatures, within the random-phase approximation. Quantities of physical interest are then extracted, including the total and partial Delta decay widths and the Delta cross sections in the nuclear medium. The self-consistent inclusion of the Delta width has a strong effect on the Delta cross sections at twice normal nuclear density, as compared with the result of ignoring the width. Generally, the obtained quantities exhibit a strong density dependence, but are fairly insensitive to the temperature, at least up to T=25 MeV. Finally, it is described how these in-medium effects may be consistently included into microscopic transport simulations of nuclear collisions, and the improvements over previous approaches are discussed.