Quantum signature in heavy-ion pion production

A revised model for pion production in heavy-ion peripheral collisions is presented. The pion-production mechanism investigated here is a two step process involving the formation and subsequent decay of an isobar resonance in the projectile nucleus. The independent-particle shell model with harmonic oscillator states is used to approximate the internal structure of the nucleus. The inclusion of the internal structure of the projectile nucleus led to the discovery of a quantum signature in the pion-production differential cross section. The quantum signature involves a matching condition where the pion-production differential cross section goes to zero for a particular value of the pion kinetic energy. The theory is compared to a recent experiment, but the results of this comparison are inconclusive