Plasma Dynamics

Contains reports on three research projects.United States Atomic Energy Commission (Contract AT(30-1)-1842)United States Air Force, Air Force Cambridge Research Center (Contract AF19(604)-5992)United States Air Force, Air Force Cambridge Research Center (Contract AF19(604)-4551)National Science Foundation (Grant G-9930)Office of Naval Research through Project SQUID, Phase III, under contract with Massachusetts Institute of Technolog

Pion and neutron production by cosmic-ray muons underground

The production of positive pions and neutrons by cosmic muons at underground sites of various depths is investigated. We first test the equivalent photon method in the particular case of $\Delta$ excitation by the muon. We find that this method, when it neglects the momentum dependence of the transverse response, reproduces remarkably well the theoretical muon cross-section. This success has lead us to apply the method to higher energies, where it has not been tested. We evaluate in this way the production of positive pions in liquid scintillator from known photo-absorption cross-sections. At a shallow depth of 20 meters our estimate reproduces the measurement. As for the neutron emission, we include the obvious sources, such as the giant-resonance excitation, the quasi-deuteron process, the quasi- free pion production as well as neutrons emitted following pion capture. Our evaluation underestimates the number of neutrons produced and finds a too weak dependence on the depth. This suggests that secondary neutron production is important at all depths.Comment: 29 pages, late

Étude par diffusion des neutrons de la cinétique des moments magnétiques dans le fer au voisinage du point de Curie

We have worked out, by neutron scattering, the dynamics of the fluctuations of magnetization in iron near the Curie Point. Results support the validity of the Heisenberg model in iron.On étudie par diffusion des neutrons la cinétique des fluctuations d'aimantation dans le fer au voisinage du point de Curie. Les résultats confirment la validité de l'application du modèle de Heisenberg au fer

Neutral-Current Single π0\pi^0 Production on Argon

International audienceWe interpret the recent MicroBooNE data on neutral-current single π0 production on argon with the hypothesis that this process occurs via Delta excitation. We calculate the flux-integrated total cross section with our RPA-based model which allows for a simultaneous description of Delta-mediated resonant and coherent pion production. We also discuss the ratio between the two exclusive measurements with one proton and zero protons in the final state

The Interrelated Roles of Correlations in the Nuclear Equation of State and in Response Functions: Application to a Chiral Confining Theory

We study the role of short-range correlations, as well as pion and rho loops governing long-range RPA correlations, in nuclear matter properties and response functions. We use an adapted formulation of the Brueckner G-matrix approach to generate a pair correlation function satisfying the Beg--Agassi--Gal theorem, providing a natural cutoff to the loop integrals. We present results for the case of a relativistic chiral theory, including the effects of quark confinement and of the chirally broken vacuum in a version where parameters are directly connected to QCD observables or constrained by well-established hadron phenomenology. This provides a unified and coherent view of the nuclear matter equation of state and the effect of correlations on neutrino--nucleus scattering