Effect of Coulomb Interaction on the Isospin Fractionation Process

We studied the effect of Coulomb interaction on the isospin fractionation in the intermediate energy heavy ion collisions by using the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics model. The calculated results show that Coulomb interaction induces the reduction of the isospin fractionation process with the evolutions of neutron-proton ratio and mass of system. Because Coulomb interaction is repulsive for the proton, more binding protons become free, which produces the neutron-poor gas phase and neutron-rich liquid phase, compared to the neutron-proton ratio of the system. The isospin fractionation degree is weakened by the Coulomb term. In contrast, the symmetry potential is repulsive for neutrons and attractive for protons in the neutron-rich system, and then the binding neutrons more than the protons become free, which produces a neutron-rich gas phase and neutron-poor liquid phase, so that the isospin fractionation degree is increased. The competition between the effects from the Coulomb interaction and the symmetry potential induces the reduction of the isospin fractionation degree for all the system masses. The properties for the sensitive dependence of isospin fractionation degree on the symmetry potential and weak dependence on the nucleon- nucleon cross section are preserved for all the neutron-rich systems.