  Dilepton spectra from the decay of phi mesons produced in heavy-ion
collisions at SIS/GSI energies ($\sim 2$ GeV/nucleon) are studied in the
relativistic transport model. We include phi mesons produced from
baryon-baryon, pion-baryon, and kaon-antikaon collisions. The cross sections
for the first two processes are obtained from an one-boson-exchange model,
while that for the last process is taken to be the Breit-Wigner form through
the phi meson resonance. For dileptons with invariant mass near the phi meson
peak, we also include contributions from neutron-proton bremsstrahlung,
pion-pion annihilation, and the decay of rho and omega mesons produced in
baryon-baryon and meson-baryon collisions. Effects due to medium modifications
of the kaon and vector (rho, omega and phi) meson properties are investigated.
We find that the kaon medium effects lead to a broadening of the dilepton
spectrum as a result of the increase of phi meson decay width. Furthermore, the
dropping of phi meson mass in nuclear medium leads to a shoulder structure in
the dilepton spectrum besides the main peak at the bare phi meson mass. The
experimental measurement of the dilepton spectra from heavy-ion collisions is
expected to provide useful information about the phi meson properties in dense
matter.

Nuclear Theory