Application of the EXtrapolated Efficiency Method (EXEM) to infer the gamma-cascade detection efficiency in the actinide region

The study of transfer-induced gamma-decay probabilities is very useful for understanding the surrogate-reaction method and, more generally, for constraining statistical-model calculations. One of the main difficulties in the measurement of gamma-decay probabilities is the determination of the gamma-cascade detection efficiency. In [Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 700, 59 (2013)] we developed the Extrapolated Efficiency Method (EXEM), a new method to measure this quantity. In this work, we have applied, for the first time, the EXEM to infer the gamma-cascade detection efficiency in the actinide region. In particular, we have considered the 238U(d,p)239U and 238U(3He,d)239Np reactions. We have performed Hauser-Feshbach calculations to interpret our results and to verify the hypothesis on which the EXEM is based. The determination of fission and gamma-decay probabilities of 239Np below the neutron separation energy allowed us to validate the EXEM

The inelastic hard dimer gas: a non-spherical model for granular matter

We study a two-dimensional gas of inelastic smooth hard dimers. Since the collisions between dimers are dissipative, being characterized by a coefficient of restitution $\alpha<1$, and no external driving force is present, the energy of the system decreases in time and no stationary state is achieved. However, the resulting non equilibrium state of the system displays several interesting properties in close analogy with systems of inelastic hard spheres, whose relaxational dynamics has been thoroughly explored. We generalise to inelastic systems a recently method introduced [G.Ciccotti and G.Kalibaeva, J. Stat. Phys. {\bf 115}, 701 (2004)] to study the dynamics of rigid elastic bodies made up of different spheres hold together by rigid bonds. Each dimer consists of two hard disks of diameter $d$, whose centers are separated by a fixed distance $a$. By describing the rigid bonds by means of holonomic constraints and deriving the appropriate collision rules between dimers, we reduce the dynamics to a set of equations which can be solved by means of event driven simulation. After deriving the algorithm we study the decay of the total kinetic energy, and of the ratio between the rotational and the translational kinetic energy of inelastic dimers. We show numerically that the celebrated Haff's homogeneous cooling law $t^{-2}$, describing how the kinetic energy of an inelastic hard sphere system with constant coefficient of restitution decreases in time, holds even in the case of these non spherical particles. We fully characterize this homogeneous decay process in terms of appropriate decay constants and confirm numerically the scaling behavior of the velocity distributions.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures and 2 tables, submitted to JC

Dynamics of vibrofluidized granular gases in periodic structures

The behavior of a driven granular gas in a container consisting of $M$ connected compartments is studied employing a microscopic kinetic model. After obtaining the governing equations for the occupation numbers and the granular temperatures of each compartment we consider the various dynamical regimes. The system displays interesting analogies with the ordering processes of phase separating mixtures quenched below the their critical point. In particular, we show that below a certain value of the driving intensity the populations of the various compartments become unequal and the system clusterizes. Such a phenomenon is not instantaneous, but is characterized by a time scale, $\tau$, which follows a Vogel-Vulcher exponential behavior. On the other hand, the reverse phenomenon which involves the ``evaporation'' of a cluster due to the driving force is also characterized by a second time scale which diverges at the limit of stability of the cluster.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figure

Dark Matter searches using gravitational wave bar detectors: quark nuggets and newtorites

Many experiments have searched for supersymmetric WIMP dark matter, with null results. This may suggest to look for more exotic possibilities, for example compact ultra-dense quark nuggets, widely discussed in literature with several different names. Nuclearites are an example of candidate compact objects with atomic size cross section. After a short discussion on nuclearites, the result of a nuclearite search with the gravitational wave bar detectors Nautilus and Explorer is reported. The geometrical acceptance of the bar detectors is 19.5 $\rm m^2$ sr, that is smaller than that of other detectors used for similar searches. However, the detection mechanism is completely different and is more straightforward than in other detectors. The experimental limits we obtain are of interest because, for nuclearites of mass less than $10^{-5}$ g, we find a flux smaller than that one predicted considering nuclearites as dark matter candidates. Particles with gravitational only interactions (newtorites) are another example. In this case the sensitivity is quite poor and a short discussion is reported on possible improvements.Comment: published on Astroparticle Physics Sept 25th 2016 replaced fig 1