Comparative Study of Multifragmentation of Gold Nuclei Induced by Relativistic Protons, 4^4He, and 12^{12}C

Multiple emission of intermediate-mass fragments has been studied for the collisions of p, $^4$He and $^{12}$C on Au with the $4\pi$ setup FASA. The mean IMF multiplicities (for the events with at least one IMF) are saturating at the value of $2.2\pm0.2$ for the incident energies above 6 GeV. The observed IMF multiplicities cannot be described in a two-stage scenario, a fast cascade followed by a statistical multifragmentation. Agreement with the measured IMF multiplicities is obtained by introducing an intermediate phase and modifying empirically the excitation energies and masses of the remnants. The angular distributions and energy spectra from the p-induced collisions are in agreement with the scenario of ``thermal'' multifragmentation of a hot and diluted target spectator. In the case of $^{12}$C+Au(22.4 GeV) and $^4$He(14.6 GeV)+Au collisions, deviations from a pure thermal break-up are seen in the energy spectra of the emitted fragments, which are harder than those both from model calculations and from the measured ones for p-induced collisions. This difference is attributed to a collective flow.Comment: 33 pages 15 figures, accepted in Nucl. Phys.

Nuclear Skins and Halos in the Mean-Field Theory

Nuclei with large neutron-to-proton ratios have neutron skins, which manifest themselves in an excess of neutrons at distances greater than the radius of the proton distribution. In addition, some drip-line nuclei develop very extended halo structures. The neutron halo is a threshold effect; it appears when the valence neutrons occupy weakly bound orbits. In this study, nuclear skins and halos are analyzed within the self-consistent Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov and relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theories for spherical shapes. It is demonstrated that skins, halos, and surface thickness can be analyzed in a model-independent way in terms of nucleonic density form factors. Such an analysis allows for defining a quantitative measure of the halo size. The systematic behavior of skins, halos, and surface thickness in even-even nuclei is discussed.Comment: 22 RevTeX pages, 22 EPS figures included, submitted to Physical Review

Monitoring fissile and matrix materials in closed containers by means of pulsed neutron sources

Computational and experimental studies of the possibility of determining the fissile and matrix materials by means of differential neutron attenuation are presented. The time response of 235U fission under the action of 14 MeV neutrons from an ING-07T pulsed neutron generator, fabricated by VNIIA, on a 70-liter steel container holding uranium in graphite, iron and polyethylene matrices is analyzed. It is shown that milligram quantities of 235U can be detected and the matrix type and density as well as the location of fissile material inside a container can be determined.\ua92013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Total charge-changing cross sections for neutron-rich light nuclei

Total charge-charging cross sections at relativistic energies on a carbon target have been measured for the light stable and neutron-rich radioactive nuclei "1"4Be, "1"0"-"1"9B, "1"2"-"2"0C, "1"4"-"2"3N, "1"6"-"2"4O, and "1"8"-"2"7F. A combined analysis of interaction and total charge-changing cross sections allows to draw definite conclusions concerning the thickness of the neutron skins or the size of the neutron halos for very neutron-rich isotopes. The obtained cross sections are also important in astrophysical applications to describe the propagation of galactic cosmic rays through the interstellar medium. A simple parameterization can reproduce the total charge-changing cross section within an accuracy of 5% for light nuclei from the valley of #beta#-stability up to the drip line. These systematics improve the predictive capability of the formulae used to describe the unknown cross sections. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RO 801(2000-07) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman