23,904 research outputs found
Effects of geometric constraints on the nuclear multifragmentation process
We include in statistical model calculations the facts that in the nuclear
multifragmentation process the fragments are produced within a given volume and
have a finite size. The corrections associated with these constraints affect
the partition modes and, as a consequence, other observables in the process. In
particular, we find that the favored fragmenting modes strongly suppress the
collective flow energy, leading to much lower values compared to what is
obtained from unconstrained calculations. This leads, for a given total
excitation energy, to a nontrivial correlation between the breakup temperature
and the collective expansion velocity. In particular we find that, under some
conditions, the temperature of the fragmenting system may increase as a
function of this expansion velocity, contrary to what it might be expected.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
Statistical multifragmentation model with discretized energy and the generalized Fermi breakup. I. Formulation of the model
The Generalized Fermi Breakup recently demonstrated to be formally equivalent
to the Statistical Multifragmentation Model, if the contribution of excited
states are included in the state densities of the former, is implemented. Since
this treatment requires the application of the Statistical Multifragmentation
Model repeatedly on the hot fragments until they have decayed to their ground
states, it becomes extremely computational demanding, making its application to
the systems of interest extremely difficult. Based on exact recursion formulae
previously developed by Chase and Mekjian to calculate the statistical weights
very efficiently, we present an implementation which is efficient enough to
allow it to be applied to large systems at high excitation energies. Comparison
with the GEMINI++ sequential decay code shows that the predictions obtained
with our treatment are fairly similar to those obtained with this more
traditional model.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Magnetic-Island Contraction and Particle Acceleration in Simulated Eruptive Solar Flares
The mechanism that accelerates particles to the energies required to produce
the observed high-energy impulsive emission in solar flares is not well
understood. Drake et al. (2006) proposed a mechanism for accelerating electrons
in contracting magnetic islands formed by kinetic reconnection in multi-layered
current sheets. We apply these ideas to sunward-moving flux ropes (2.5D
magnetic islands) formed during fast reconnection in a simulated eruptive
flare. A simple analytic model is used to calculate the energy gain of
particles orbiting the field lines of the contracting magnetic islands in our
ultrahigh-resolution 2.5D numerical simulation. We find that the estimated
energy gains in a single island range up to a factor of five. This is higher
than that found by Drake et al. for islands in the terrestrial magnetosphere
and at the heliopause, due to strong plasma compression that occurs at the
flare current sheet. In order to increase their energy by two orders of
magnitude and plausibly account for the observed high-energy flare emission,
the electrons must visit multiple contracting islands. This mechanism should
produce sporadic emission because island formation is intermittent. Moreover, a
large number of particles could be accelerated in each
magnetohydrodynamic-scale island, which may explain the inferred rates of
energetic-electron production in flares. We conclude that island contraction in
the flare current sheet is a promising candidate for electron acceleration in
solar eruptions.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (2016
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