THE SYMMETRY ENERGY IN NUCLEAR REACTIONS

New results for the strength of the symmetry energy are presented which illustrate the complementary aspects encountered in reactions probing nuclear densities below and above saturation. A systematic study of isotopic effects in spectator fragmentation was performed at the ALADIN spectrometer with Sn-124 primary and Sn-107 and La-124 secondary beams of 600 MeV/nucleon incident energy. The analysis within the Statistical Fragmentation Model shows that the symmetry-term coefficient entering the liquid-drop description of the emerging fragments decreases significantly as the multiplicity of fragments and light particles from the disintegration of the produced spectator systems increases. Higher densities were probed in the FOPI/LAND study of nucleon and light-particle flows in central and mid-peripheral collisions of Au-197 + Au-197 nuclei at 400MeV/nucleon incident energy. From the comparison of the measured neutron and hydrogen squeeze-out ratios with predictions of the UrQMD model a moderately soft symmetry term with a density dependence of the potential term proportional to (rho=rho(0))(gamma) with gamma = 0.9 +/- 0.3 is favored.