PION ABSORPTION IN HIGHLY EXCITED NUCLEAR-MATTER

Motivated by pion productions in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, we study the p-wave pion absorption in highly excited nuclear matter. The basic absorption mechanism is the two-nucleon model with both pion and rho-meson rescattering. The excited nuclear matter is modeled by a finite temperature Fermi gas. We deduce that for a given pion kinetic energy, the mean free path for pion absorption depends weakly on the temperature of the nuclear matter, but strongly on the density. Its relevance to high-energy heavy-ion collisions is discussed. NUCLEAR REACTIONS intermediate energy: high-energy heavy-ion collisions, pion production and absorption, highly excited nuclear matter. © 1979 The American Physical Society.