A nucleonic NJL model for finite nuclei: dynamic mass generation and ground-state observables

We test the compatibility of chiral symmetry, dynamic mass generation of the nucleon due to spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry, and the description of finite nuclear systems by employing an NJL model understood as a chiral invariant effective theory for nucleons. We apply the model to nuclear matter as well as to finite nuclei. In the latter case, the model is adjusted to nuclear ground-state observables. We treat the case of a pure chiral theory and the physically more realistic case where a portion of the nucleon mass (160 MeV) explicitly breaks chiral symmetry. The best version of this current model is found to deliver reasonably good results simultaneously for both finite nuclei and the nucleon mass, which supports our motivation of probing a link between low-momentum QCD and the nuclear many-body problem. However, the observables calculated for finite nuclei are not as good as those coming from existing relativistic mean field models without explicit chiral symmetry.Comment: 19 pages, 3 eps figures, accepted for publication in Nucl. Phys.

Final excitation energy of fission fragments

We study how the excitation energy of the fully accelerated fission fragments is built up. It is stressed that only the intrinsic excitation energy available before scission can be exchanged between the fission fragments to achieve thermal equilibrium. This is in contradiction with most models used to calculate prompt neutron emission where it is assumed that the total excitation energy of the final fragments is shared between the fragments by the condition of equal temperatures. We also study the intrinsic excitation-energy partition according to a level density description with a transition from a constant-temperature regime to a Fermi-gas regime. Complete or partial excitation-energy sorting is found at energies well above the transition energy.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Recent progress in the study of fission barriers in covariant density functional theory

Recent progress in the study of fission barriers of actinides and superheavy nuclei within covariant density functional theory is overviewed.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. In press in International Journal of Modern Physics

Event-by-event study of neutron observables in spontaneous and thermal fission

The event-by-event fission model FREYA is extended to spontaneous fission of actinides and a variety of neutron observables are studied for spontaneous fission and fission induced by thermal neutrons with a view towards possible applications for detection of special nuclear materials.Comment: 16 pages, 24 figure

High-Resolution Topographic and Chemical Surface Imaging of Chalk for Oil Recovery Improvement Applications

Chalk is a very fine-grained carbonate and can accommodate high porosity which is a key characteristic for high-quality hydrocarbon reservoirs. A standard procedure within Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) is seawater-injection which repressurizes the reservoir pore pressure. Long-term seawater-injection will influence mineralogical processes as dissolution and precipitation of secondary minerals. These secondary minerals (<1 micrometer) precipitate during flooding experiments mimicking reservoir conditions. Due to their small sizes, analysis from traditional scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy is not conclusive because of insufficient spatial resolution and detection limit. Therefore, chalk was analyzed with high-resolution imaging by helium ion microscopy (HIM) combined with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) for the first time. Our aim was to identify mineral phases at sub-micrometer scale and identify locations of brine–rock interactions. In addition, we wanted to test if current understanding of these alteration processes can be improved with the combination of complementary imaging techniques and give new insights to IOR. The HIM-SIMS imaging revealed well-defined crystal boundaries and provided images of excellent lateral resolution, allowing for identification of specific mineral phases. Using this new methodology, we developed chemical identification of clay minerals and could define their exact location on micron-sized coccolith grains. This shows that it is essential to study mineralogical processes at nanometer scale in general, specifically in the research field of applied petroleum geology within IOR.publishedVersio

Exploring continuum structures with a pseudo-state basis

The ability of a recently developed square-integrable discrete basis to represent the properties of the continuum of a two-body system is investigated. The basis is obtained performing a simple analytic local scale transformation to the harmonic oscillator basis. Scattering phase-shifts and the electric transition probabilities B(E1) and B(E2) have been evaluated for several potentials using the proposed basis. Both quantities are found to be in excellent agreement with the exact values calculated from the true scattering states. The basis has been applied to describe the projectile continuum in the 6He scattering by 12C and 208Pb targets at 240 MeV/nucleon and the 11Be scattering by 12C at 67 MeV/nucleon. The calculated breakup differential cross sections are found to be in very good agreement with the available experimental data for these reactions.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures (Version to appear in Phys. Rev. C

Predicting total reaction cross sections for nucleon-nucleus scattering

Nucleon total reaction and neutron total cross sections to 300 MeV for 12C and 208Pb, and for 65 MeV spanning the mass range, are predicted using coordinate space optical potentials formed by full folding of effective nucleon-nucleon interactions with realistic nuclear ground state densities. Good to excellent agreement is found with existing data.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Description of nuclear systems within the relativistic Hartree-Fock method with zero range self-interactions of the scalar field

An exact method is suggested to treat the nonlinear self-interactions (NLSI) in the relativistic Hartree-Fock (RHF) approach for nuclear systems. We consider here the NLSI constructed from the relativistic scalar nucleon densities and including products of six and eight fermion fields. This type of NLSI corresponds to the zero range limit of the standard cubic and quartic self-interactions of the scalar field. The method to treat the NLSI uses the Fierz transformation, which enables one to express the exchange (Fock) components in terms of the direct (Hartree) ones. The method is applied to nuclear matter and finite nuclei. It is shown that, in the RHF formalism, the NLSI, which are explicitly isovector-independent, generate scalar, vector and tensor nucleon self-energies strongly density-dependent. This strong isovector structure of the self-energies is due to the exchange terms of the RHF method. Calculations are carried out with a parametrization containing five free parameters. The model allows a description of both types of systems compatible with experimental data.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures (v2: major quantitative changes

Relativistic nuclear model with point-couplings constrained by QCD and chiral symmetry

We derive a microscopic relativistic point-coupling model of nuclear many-body dynamics constrained by in-medium QCD sum rules and chiral symmetry. The effective Lagrangian is characterized by density dependent coupling strengths, determined by chiral one- and two-pion exchange and by QCD sum rule constraints for the large isoscalar nucleon self-energies that arise through changes of the quark condensate and the quark density at finite baryon density. This approach is tested in the analysis of the equations of state for symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter, and of bulk and single-nucleon properties of finite nuclei. In comparison with purely phenomenological mean-field approaches, the built-in QCD constraints and the explicit treatment of pion exchange restrict the freedom in adjusting parameters and functional forms of density dependent couplings. It is shown that chiral (two-pion exchange) fluctuations play a prominent role for nuclear binding and saturation, whereas strong scalar and vector fields of about equal magnitude and opposite sign, induced by changes of the QCD vacuum in the presence of baryonic matter, generate the large effective spin-orbit potential in finite nuclei.Comment: 46 pages, 12 figures, uses elsart.cls, revised version, to appear in Nucl.Phys. A735 (2004) 449-48