Transverse Isotropy in Identical Particle Scattering

It is pointed out that the cross section for the scattering of identical charged bosons is isotropic over a broad angular range around 90 degrees when the Sommerfeld parameter has a critical value, which depends exclusively on the spin of the particle. A discussion of systems where this phenomenon can be observed is presented.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX format, 2 figures (.eps format

A Semiclassical Approach to Fusion Reactions

The semiclassical method of Alder and Winther is generalized to study fusion reactions. As an illustration, we evaluate the fusion cross section in a schematic two-channel calculation. The results are shown to be in good agreement with those obtained with a quantal Coupled-Channels calculation. We suggest that in the case of coupling to continuum states this approach may provide a simpler alternative to the Continuum Discretized Coupled-Channels method.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, invited talk at the International Symposium "A new era of Nuclear Structure Physics", Niigata, Japan, Nov. 19-22 200

Approximations in Fusion and Breakup reactions induced by Radioactive Beams

Some commonly used approximations for complete fusion and breakup transmission coefficients in collisions of weakly bound projectiles at near barrier energies are assessed. We show that they strongly depend on the adopted classical trajectory and can be significantly improved with proper treatment of the incident and emergent currents in the WKB approximation.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Modeling Nonaxisymmetric Bow Shocks: Solution Method and Exact Analytic Solutions

A new solution method is presented for steady-state, momentum-conserving, non-axisymmetric bow shocks and colliding winds in the thin-shell limit. This is a generalization of previous formulations to include a density gradient in the pre-shock ambient medium, as well as anisotropy in the pre-shock wind. For cases where the wind is unaccelerated, the formalism yields exact, analytic solutions. Solutions are presented for two bow shock cases: (1) that due to a star moving supersonically with respect to an ambient medium with a density gradient perpendicular to the stellar velocity, and (2) that due to a star with a misaligned, axisymmetric wind moving in a uniform medium. It is also shown under quite general circumstances that the total rate of energy thermalization in the bow shock is independent of the details of the wind asymmetry, including the orientation of the non-axisymmetric driving wind, provided the wind is non-accelerating and point-symmetric. A typical feature of the solutions is that the region near the standoff point is tilted, so that the star does not lie along the bisector of a parabolic fit to the standoff region. The principal use of this work is to infer the origin of bow shock asymmetries, whether due to the wind or ambient medium, or both.Comment: 26 pages and 6 figures accepted to ap

Long-Range Excitation of Collective Modes in Mesoscopic Metal Clusters

We develop a semiclassical theory for the long range excitation of plasmon resonances in atomic clusters, based on the doorway hypothesis. The effect of the width of the plasmon resonance is fully taken into account. As an application we study plasmon excitation in small Sodium clusters, in collisions with electrons and protons.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure