The Quasi-Molecular Stage of Ternary Fission

We developed a three-center phenomenological model,able to explain qualitatively the recently obtained experimental results concerning the quasimolecular stage of a light-particle accompanied fission process. It was derived from the liquid drop model under the assumption that the aligned configuration, with the emitted particle between the light and heavy fragment, is reached by increasing continuously the separation distance, while the radii of the heavy fragment and of the light particle are kept constant. In such a way,a new minimum of a short-lived molecular state appears in the deformation energy at a separation distance very close to the touching point. This minimum allows the existence of a short-lived quasi-molecular state, decaying into the three final fragments.The influence of the shell effects is discussed. The half-lives of some quasimolecular states which could be formed in the $^{10}$Be and $^{12}$C accompanied fission of $^{252}$Cf are roughly estimated to be the order of 1 ns, and 1 ms, respectively.Comment: 12 pages, 6 epsf, uses ws-p8-50x6-00.cl

Alpha decay half-lives of new superheavy elements

The lifetimes of $\alpha$ decays of the recently produced isotopes of the elements 112, 114, 116 and the element $^{294}118$ and of some decay products have been calculated theoretically within the WKB approximation using microscopic $\alpha$-nucleus interaction potentials. These nuclear potentials have been obtained by folding the densities of the $\alpha$ and the daughter nuclei with the M3Y effective interaction, supplemented by a zero-range pseudo-potential for exchange along with the density dependence. Spherical charge distributions have been used for calculating the Coulomb interaction potentials. These calculations provide reasonable estimates for the observed $\alpha$ decay lifetimes and thus provide reliable predictions for other superheavies.Comment: 7 page

A new microscopic nucleon-nucleon interaction derived from relativistic mean field theory

A new microscopic nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction has been derived for the first time from the popular relativistic mean field theory (RMFT) Lagrangian. The NN interaction so obtained remarkably relate to the inbuilt fundamental parameters of RMFT. Furthermore, by folding it with the RMFT-densities of cluster and daughter nuclei to obtain the optical potential, it's application is also examined to study the exotic cluster radioactive decays, and results obtained found comparable with the successfully used M3Y phenomenological effective NN interactions. The presently derived NN-interaction can also be used to calculate a number of other nuclear observables.Comment: 4 Pages 2 Figure

Abrupt changes in alpha decay systematics as a manifestation of collective nuclear modes

An abrupt change in $\alpha$ decay systematics around the N=126 neutron shell closure is discussed. It is explained as a sudden hindrance of the clustering of the nucleons that eventually form the $\alpha$ particle. This is because the clustering induced by the pairing mode acting upon the four nucleons is inhibited if the configuration space does not allow a proper manifestation of the pairing collectivity.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. C, a few new references adde

Topological defects in spinor condensates

We investigate the structure of topological defects in the ground states of spinor Bose-Einstein condensates with spin F=1 or F=2. The type and number of defects are determined by calculating the first and second homotopy groups of the order-parameter space. The order-parameter space is identified with a set of degenerate ground state spinors. Because the structure of the ground state depends on whether or not there is an external magnetic field applied to the system, defects are sensitive to the magnetic field. We study both cases and find that the defects in zero and non-zero field are different.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. Published versio

Alpha-nucleus potential for alpha-decay and sub-barrier fusion

The set of parameters for alpha-nucleus potential is derived by using the data for both the alpha-decay half-lives and the fusion cross-sections around the barrier for reactions alpha+40Ca, alpha+59Co, alpha+208Pb. The alpha-decay half-lives are obtained in the framework of a cluster model using the WKB approximation. The evaluated alpha-decay half-lives and the fusion cross-sections agreed well with the data. Fusion reactions between alpha-particle and heavy nuclei can be used for both the formation of very heavy nuclei and spectroscopic studies of the formed compound nuclei.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Microscopic description of cluster radioactivity in actinide nuclei

Cluster radioactivity is the emission of a fragment heavier than an α particle and lighter than mass 50. The range of clusters observed in experiments goes from 14C to 32Si while the heavy mass residue is always a nucleus in the neighborhood of the doubly-magic 208Pb nucleus. Cluster radioactivity is described in this paper as very asymmetric nuclear fission. A new fission valley leading to a decay with large fragment mass asymmetry matching the cluster radioactivity products is found. The mass octupole moment is found to be more convenient than the standard quadrupole moment as the parameter driving the system to fission. The mean-field Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory with the phenomenological Gogny interaction has been used to compute the cluster emission properties of a wide range of even-even actinide nuclei from 222Ra to 242Cm, where emission of the clusters has been experimentally observed. Computed half-lives for cluster emission are compared with experimental results. The noticeable agreement obtained between the predicted properties of cluster emission (namely, cluster masses and emission half-lives) and the measured data confirms the validity of the proposed methodology in the analysis of the phenomenon of cluster radioactivity. A continuous fission path through the scission point has been described using the neck parameter constraintThe work of LMR was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (Spain) Grants No. FPA2009-08958 and No. FIS2009-07277, as well as by Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Programs CPAN CSD2007-00042 and MULTIDARK CSD2009- 00064. The work of MW was supported by Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyzszego (Poland) under Grant No. N N202 23113

Congenital anomalies in low- and middle-income countries: the unborn child of global surgery.

Surgically correctable congenital anomalies cause a substantial burden of global morbidity and mortality. These anomalies disproportionately affect children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to sociocultural, economic, and structural factors that limit the accessibility and quality of pediatric surgery. While data from LMICs are sparse, available evidence suggests that the true human and financial cost of congenital anomalies is grossly underestimated and that pediatric surgery is a cost-effective intervention with the potential to avert significant premature mortality and lifelong disability

Quantum tunneling in ^{277}112 and its alpha-decay chain

The $\alpha$-decay half lives of nuclei in the decay from element $^{277}112$ are calculated in a WKB framework using DDM3Y interaction and experimental Q-values. Theoretical estimation of half lives in the same quantum tunneling model, using Q-values from the mass formula of Muntian-Hofmann-Patyk-Sobiczewski, are also presented. Calculated results furnish corroborating evidence for the experimental findings at RIKEN and GSI. Certain discrepancies indicate necessity of a better mass formula. Further experimental data with higher statistics would also be useful.Comment: 10 page