98 research outputs found
Transient effects in fission evidenced from new experimental signatures
A new experimental approach is introduced to investigate the relaxation of
the nuclear deformation degrees of freedom. Highly excited fissioning systems
with compact shapes and low angular momenta are produced in peripheral
relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Both fission fragments are identified in
atomic number. Fission cross sections and fission-fragment element
distributions are determined as a function of the fissioning element. From the
comparison of these new observables with a nuclear-reaction code a value for
the transient time is deduced.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, background information at
http://www-w2k.gsi.de/kschmidt
Temperature quenching in LAB based liquid scintillator
The effect of temperature changes on the light output of LAB based liquid scintillator is investigated in a range from to 30\,^{\circ } C with -particles and electrons in a small scale setup. Two PMTs observe the scintillator liquid inside a cylindrically shaped aluminum cuvette that is heated or cooled and the temperature dependent PMT sensitivity is monitored and corrected. The -emitting isotopes in dissolved radon gas and in natural Samarium (bound to a LAB solution) excite the liquid scintillator mixtures and changes in light output with temperature variation are observed by fitting light output spectra. Furthermore, also changes in light output by compton electrons, which are generated from external calibration -ray sources, is analysed with varying temperature. Assuming a linear behaviour, a combined negative temperature coefficient of is found. Considering hints for a particle type dependency, electrons show , whereas the temperature dependency seems stronger for -particles, with . Due to a high sampling rate, a pulse shape analysis can be performed and shows an enhanced slow decay component at lower temperatures, pointing to reduced non-radiative triplet state de-excitations.Peer Reviewe
Solving the stellar 62Ni problem with AMS
An accurate knowledge of the neutron capture cross sections of 62,63Ni is
crucial since both isotopes take key positions which affect the whole reaction
flow in the weak s process up to A=90. No experimental value for the
63Ni(n,gamma) cross section exists so far, and until recently the experimental
values for 62Ni(n,gamma) at stellar temperatures (kT=30 keV) ranged between 12
and 37 mb. This latter discrepancy could now be solved by two activations with
following AMS using the GAMS setup at the Munich tandem accelerator which are
also in perfect agreement with a recent time-of-flight measurement. The
resulting (preliminary) Maxwellian cross section at kT=30 keV was determined to
be 30keV = 23.4 +/- 4.6 mb. Additionally, we have measured the
64Ni(gamma,n)63Ni cross section close to threshold. Photoactivations at 13.5
MeV, 11.4 MeV and 10.3 MeV were carried out with the ELBE accelerator at
Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. A first AMS measurement of the sample
activated at 13.5 MeV revealed a cross section smaller by more than a factor of
2 compared to NON-SMOKER predictions.Comment: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Accelerator Mass
Spectrometry in Rome, Sept. 14-19, 2008; to be published in Nucl. Instr.
Meth.
Constraints on Neutrino Parameters from Neutral-Current Solar Neutrino Measurements
We generalize the pull approach to define the function to the
analysis of the data with correlated statistical errors. We apply this method
to the analysis of the Sudbury Neutrino Collaboration data obtained in the
salt-phase. In the global analysis of all the solar neutrino and KamLAND data
we find the best fit (minimum ) values of neutrino parameters to be
and
eV. We confirm that the maximal mixing is strongly disfavored while the
bounds on are significantly strengthened.Comment: 6 figures. Some typos are corrected, figures are visually improve
Manifestation of transient effects in fission induced by relativistic heavy-ion collisions
We examine the manifestation of transient effects in fission by analysing
experimental data where fission is induced by peripheral heavy-ion collisions
at relativistic energies. Available total nuclear fission cross sections of
238U at 1 A GeV on gold and uranium targets are compared with a
nuclear-reaction code, where transient effects in fission are modelled using
different approximations to the numerical time-dependent fission-decay width: a
new analytical description based on the solution of the Fokker-Planck equation
and two widely used but less realistic descriptions, a step function and an
exponential-like function. The experimental data are only reproduced when
transient effects are considered. The deduced value of the dissipation strength
depends strongly on the approximation applied for the time-dependent
fission-decay width and is estimated to be of the order of 2x10**21 s**(-1). A
careful analysis sheds severe doubts on the use of the exponential-like
in-growth function largely used in the past. Finally, we discuss which should
be the characteristics of experimental observables to be most sensitive to
transient effects in fissionComment: 18 pages, 2 figures, background information on
http://www-w2k.gsi.de/kschmidt
Photon data shed new light upon the GDR spreading width in heavy nuclei
A global study of the electric dipole strength in and below the isovector
giant dipole resonance (GDR) is presented for mass numbers A>80. It relies on
the recently established remarkably good match between data for the nuclear
photo effect to novel photon scattering data covering the region below the
neutron emission threshold as well as by average resonance neutron capture
(ARC). From the wide energy coverage of these data the correlation of the GDR
spreading width with energy can be studied with remarkable accuracy. A clear
sensitivity to details of the nuclear shape, i.e. the beta- and
gamma-deformations, is demonstrated. Based hereon a new parameterization of the
energy dependence of the nuclear electric-dipole strength is proposed which -
with only two new parameters - allows to describe the dipole strength in all
heavy nuclei with A>80. Although it differs significantly from previous
parameterizations it holds for spherical, transitional, triaxial and well
deformed nuclei. The GDR spreading width depends in a regular way on the
respective resonance energy, but it is independent of the photon energy.Comment: accepted by Phys. Lett. B after minor modification
Electromagnetic-induced fission of 238U projectile fragments, a test case for the production of spherical super-heavy nuclei
Isotopic series of 58 neutron-deficient secondary projectiles (205,206At,
205-209Rn, 208-212,217,218Fr, 211-223Ra, 215-226Ac, 221-229Th, 226-231Pa,
231-234U) were produced by projectile fragmentation using a 1 A GeV 238U beam.
Cross sections of fission induced by nuclear and electromagnetic interactions
in a secondary lead target were measured. They were found to vary smoothly as a
function of proton and neutron number of the fissioning system, also for nuclei
with large ground-state shell effects near the 126-neutron shell. No
stabilization against fission was observed for these nuclei at low excitation
energies. Consequences for the expectations on the production cross sections of
super-heavy nuclei are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figure
Asymptotic normalization coefficients for 8B->7Be+p from a study of 8Li->7Li+n
Asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs) for 8Li->7Li+n have been
extracted from the neutron transfer reaction 13C(7Li,8Li)12C at 63 MeV. These
are related to the ANCs in 8B->7Be+p using charge symmetry. We extract ANCs for
8B that are in very good agreement with those inferred from proton transfer and
breakup experiments. We have also separated the contributions from the p_1/2
and p_3/2 components in the transfer. We find the astrophysical factor for the
7Be(p,gamma)8B reaction to be S_17(0)=17.6+/-1.7 eVb. This is the first time
that the rate of a direct capture reaction of astrophysical interest has been
determined through a measurement of the ANCs in the mirror system.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
Do solar neutrinos decay?
Despite the fact that the solar neutrino flux is now well-understood in the
context of matter-affected neutrino mixing, we find that it is not yet possible
to set a strong and model-independent bound on solar neutrino decays. If
neutrinos decay into truly invisible particles, the Earth-Sun baseline defines
a lifetime limit of \tau/m \agt 10^{-4} s/eV. However, there are many
possibilities which must be excluded before such a bound can be established.
There is an obvious degeneracy between the neutrino lifetime and the mixing
parameters. More generally, one must also allow the possibility of active
daughter neutrinos and/or antineutrinos, which may partially conceal the
characteristic features of decay. Many of the most exotic possibilities that
presently complicate the extraction of a decay bound will be removed if the
KamLAND reactor antineutrino experiment confirms the large-mixing angle
solution to the solar neutrino problem and measures the mixing parameters
precisely. Better experimental and theoretical constraints on the B
neutrino flux will also play a key role, as will tighter bounds on absolute
neutrino masses. Though the lifetime limit set by the solar flux is weak, it is
still the strongest direct limit on non-radiative neutrino decay. Even so,
there is no guarantee (by about eight orders of magnitude) that neutrinos from
astrophysical sources such as a Galactic supernova or distant Active Galactic
Nuclei will not decay.Comment: Very minor corrections, corresponds to published versio
Solar Neutrino Constraints on the BBN Production of Li
Using the recent WMAP determination of the baryon-to-photon ratio, 10^{10}
\eta = 6.14 to within a few percent, big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN)
calculations can make relatively accurate predictions of the abundances of the
light element isotopes which can be tested against observational abundance
determinations. At this value of \eta, the Li7 abundance is predicted to be
significantly higher than that observed in low metallicity halo dwarf stars.
Among the possible resolutions to this discrepancy are 1) Li7 depletion in the
atmosphere of stars; 2) systematic errors originating from the choice of
stellar parameters - most notably the surface temperature; and 3) systematic
errors in the nuclear cross sections used in the nucleosynthesis calculations.
Here, we explore the last possibility, and focus on possible systematic errors
in the He3(\alpha,\gamma)Be7 reaction, which is the only important Li7
production channel in BBN. The absolute value of the cross section for this key
reaction is known relatively poorly both experimentally and theoretically. The
agreement between the standard solar model and solar neutrino data thus
provides additional constraints on variations in the cross section (S_{34}).
Using the standard solar model of Bahcall, and recent solar neutrino data, we
can exclude systematic S_{34} variations of the magnitude needed to resolve the
BBN Li7 problem at > 95% CL. Additional laboratory data on
He3(\alpha,\gamma)Be7 will sharpen our understanding of both BBN and solar
neutrinos, particularly if care is taken in determining the absolute cross
section and its uncertainties. Nevertheless, it already seems that this
``nuclear fix'' to the Li7 BBN problem is unlikely; other possible solutions
are briefly discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 3 ps figure
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