Nonlinear Nuclear Equation of State and Thermodynamical Instabilities in Warm and Dense Nuclear Matter

We study a nonlinear nuclear equation of state in the framework of a relativistic mean field theory. We investigate the possible thermodynamic instability in a warm and dense asymmetric nuclear medium where a phase transition from nucleonic matter to resonance dominated Δ matter can take place. Such a phase transition is characterized by both mechanical instability (fluctuations on the baryon density) and by chemical-diffusive instability (fluctuations on the isospin concentration) in asymmetric nuclear matter. Similarly to the liquid-gas phase transition, the nucleonic and the Δ-matter phase have a different isospin density in the mixed phase. In the liquid-gas phase transition, the process of producing a larger neutron excess in the gas phase is referred to as isospin fractionation. A similar effects can occur in the nucleon-Δ matter phase transition due essentially to a negative Δ-particles excess in asymmetric nuclear matter. In this context, we investigate also the effects of power law effects, due to the possible presence of nonextensive statistical mechanics effect

Constructal thermodynamics combined with infrared experiments to evaluate temperature differences in cells

The aim of this work was to evaluate differences in energy flows between normal and immortalized cells when these distinct biological systems are exposed to environmental stimulation. These differences were considered using a constructal thermodynamic approach, and were subsequently verified experimentally. The application of constructal law to cell analysis led to the conclusion that temperature differences between cells with distinct behaviour can be amplified by interaction between cells and external fields. Experimental validation of the principle was carried out on two cellular models exposed to electromagnetic fields. By infrared thermography we were able to assess small changes in heat dissipation measured as a variation in cell internal energy. The experimental data thus obtained are in agreement with the theoretical calculation, because they show a different thermal dispersion pattern when normal and immortalized cells are exposed to electromagnetic fields. By using two methods that support and validate each other, we have demonstrated that the cell/environment interaction can be exploited to enhance cell behavior differences, in particular heat dissipation. We propose infrared thermography as a technique effective in discriminating distinct patterns of thermal dispersion and therefore able to distinguish a normal phenotype from a transformed one

NEAR: A New Station to Study Neutron-Induced Reactions of Astrophysical Interest at CERN-n_TOF

We present NEAR, a new experimental area at the CERN-n_TOF facility and a possible setup for cross section measurements of interest to nuclear astrophysics. This was recently realized with the aim of performing spectral-averaged neutron-capture cross section measurements by means of the activation technique. The recently commissioned NEAR station at n_TOF is now ready for the physics program, which includes a preliminary benchmark of the proposed idea. Based on the results obtained by dedicated Monte Carlo simulations and calculation, a suitable filtering of the neutron beam is expected to enable measurements of Maxwellian Averaged Cross Section (MACS) at different temperatures. To validate the feasibility of these studies we plan to start the measurement campaign by irradiating several isotopes whose MACS at different temperatures have recently been or are planned to be determined with high accuracy at n_TOF, as a function of energy in the two time-of-flight measurement stations. For instance, the physical cases of 88Sr(n,γ ), 89Y(n,γ ), 94Zr(n,γ ) and 64Ni(n,γ ) are discussed. As the neutron capture on 89Y produces a pure β -decay emitter, we plan to test the possibility to perform activation measurements on such class of isotopes as well. The expected results of these measurements would open the way to challenging measurements of MACS by the activation technique at n_TOF, for rare and/or exotic isotopes of interest for nuclear astrophysic