ROTATIONAL BEHAVIOR IN INTERMEDIATE-ENERGY HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS

The rotational behavior together with in-plane collective flow for the intermediate energy Ar-40 + Al-27 reaction is investigated by analyzing the rapidity dependent azimuthal distributions with the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) model. The azimuthal distributions are fitted by a Legendre polynomial expansion up to the second order. By incorporating the uncertainties in the experimental reaction plane determination into our calculations, quantitative agreement between the calculations and data is obtained. It is found that the rotational behavior at midrapidity depends strongly on the impact parameter. Information about the in-plane collective flow is also extracted from the azimuthal distributions. Both the rotational behavior and the in-plane collective flow depend strongly on the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section and nuclear equation of state.