Probing the momentum dependence of medium modifications of the nucleon-nucleon elastic cross sections

The momentum dependence of the medium modifications on nucleon-nucleon elastic cross sections is discussed with microscopic transport theories and numerically investigated with an updated UrQMD microscopic transport model. The semi-peripheral Au+Au reaction at beam energy $E_b=400A$ MeV is adopted as an example. It is found that the uncertainties of the momentum dependence on medium modifications of cross sections influence the yields of free nucleons and their collective flows as functions of their transverse momentum and rapidity. Among these observables, the elliptic flow is sensitively dependent on detailed forms of the momentum dependence and more attention should be paid. The elliptic flow is hardly influenced by the probable splitting effect of the neutron-neutron and proton-proton cross sections so that one might pin down the mass splitting effect of the mean-field level at high beam energies and high nuclear densities by exploring the elliptic flow of nucleons or light clusters.