Vector Meson Production in Heavy Ion Collisions

Abstract

Heavy ion collisions in the energy regime of 1–2 AGeV offer the possibility to study hot and dense hadronic matter under laboratory conditions. Densities of up to three times normal nuclear matter density are reached, where theoretical models^[1] predict a partial restoration of chiral symmetry. In vacuum, chiral symmetry is spontanously broken, leading to the constituent quark masses of about 300 MeV/c². One can assume that chiral symmetry restoration will also affect the properties of hadrons inside compressed hadronic. matter. This is also of practical interest for microscopic transport models like BUU or QMD, which need these properties as input to describe the dynamics of heavy ion collisions.