The 14C(n,g) cross section between 10 keV and 1 MeV

The neutron capture cross section of 14C is of relevance for several nucleosynthesis scenarios such as inhomogeneous Big Bang models, neutron induced CNO cycles, and neutrino driven wind models for the r process. The 14C(n,g) reaction is also important for the validation of the Coulomb dissociation method, where the (n,g) cross section can be indirectly obtained via the time-reversed process. So far, the example of 14C is the only case with neutrons where both, direct measurement and indirect Coulomb dissociation, have been applied. Unfortunately, the interpretation is obscured by discrepancies between several experiments and theory. Therefore, we report on new direct measurements of the 14C(n,g) reaction with neutron energies ranging from 20 to 800 keV

Discovery of a SAR11 growth requirement for thiamin's pyrimidine precursor and its distribution in the Sargasso Sea.

This is the author's accepted manuscript.Final version available from Nature via the DOI in this record.Vitamin traffic, the production of organic growth factors by some microbial community members and their use by other taxa, is being scrutinized as a potential explanation for the variation and highly connected behavior observed in ocean plankton by community network analysis. Thiamin (vitamin B1), a cofactor in many essential biochemical reactions that modify carbon-carbon bonds of organic compounds, is distributed in complex patterns at subpicomolar concentrations in the marine surface layer (0-300 m). Sequenced genomes from organisms belonging to the abundant and ubiquitous SAR11 clade of marine chemoheterotrophic bacteria contain genes coding for a complete thiamin biosynthetic pathway, except for thiC, encoding the 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine (HMP) synthase, which is required for de novo synthesis of thiamin's pyrimidine moiety. Here we demonstrate that the SAR11 isolate 'Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique', strain HTCC1062, is auxotrophic for the thiamin precursor HMP, and cannot use exogenous thiamin for growth. In culture, strain HTCC1062 required 0.7 zeptomoles per cell (ca. 400 HMP molecules per cell). Measurements of dissolved HMP in the Sargasso Sea surface layer showed that HMP ranged from undetectable (detection limit: 2.4 pM) to 35.7 pM, with maximum concentrations coincident with the deep chlorophyll maximum. In culture, some marine cyanobacteria, microalgae and bacteria exuded HMP, and in the Western Sargasso Sea, HMP profiles changed between the morning and evening, suggesting a dynamic biological flux from producers to consumers.This work was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Marine Microbiology Initiative and National Science Foundation grant OCE-0802004

Distribution of extracellular flavins in a coastal marine basin and their relationship to redox gradients and microbial community members

The flavins (including flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and riboflavin (RF)) are a class of organic compounds synthesized by organisms to assist in critical redox reactions. While known to be secreted extracellularly by some species in laboratory-based cultures, flavin concentrations are largely unreported in the natural environment. Here, we present pore water and water column profiles of extracellular flavins (FMN and RF) and two degradation products (lumiflavin and lumichrome) from a coastal marine basin in the Southern California Bight alongside ancillary geochemical and 16S rRNA microbial community data. Flavins were detectable at picomolar concentrations in the water column (93–300 pM FMN, 14–40 pM RF) and low nanomolar concentrations in pore waters (250–2070 pM FMN, 11–210 pM RF). Elevated pore water flavin concentrations displayed an increasing trend with sediment depth and were significantly correlated with the total dissolved Fe (negative) and Mn (positive) concentrations. Network analysis revealed a positive relationship between flavins and the relative abundance of Dehalococcoidia and the MSBL9 clade of Planctomycetes, indicating possible secretion by members of these lineages. These results suggest that flavins are a common component of the so-called shared extracellular metabolite pool, especially in anoxic marine sediments where they exist at physiologically relevant concentrations for metal oxide reduction

Improved Value for the Energy Splitting of the Ground-State Doublet in the Nucleus 229Th

We have made an improved estimate of the 229mTh isomer energy. The new value 7.8(5) eV includes an estimate of spectral contamination due to the out-of-band E2 transition from the 42.43-keV 7/2+ member of the [633] ground state band to the 3/2+ [631] 229mTh bandhead. We estimate a 2% branching ratio for this unobserved transition in the 42.43-keV 7/2+ [633] deexcitation. The excitation of the 229mTh level is increased from the previously reported value of 7.6(5) eV to the new value of 7.8(5) eV when this branch is included in the analysis

A proposed measurement of the ß asymmetry in neutron decay with the Los Alamos Ultra-Cold Neutron Source

This article reviews the status of an experiment to study the neutron spin-electron angular correlation with the Los Alamos Ultra-Cold Neutron (UCN) source. The experiment will generate UCNs from a novel solid deuterium, spallation source, and polarize them in a solenoid magnetic field. The experiment spectrometer will consist of a neutron decay region in a solenoid magnetic field combined with several different detector possibilities. An electron beam and a magnetic spectrometer will provide a precise, absolute calibration for these detectors. An A-correlation measurement with a relative precision of 0.2% is expected by the end of 2002

Performance of a 229 Thorium solid-state nuclear clock

The 7.8 eV nuclear isomer transition in 229 Thorium has been suggested as an etalon transition in a new type of optical frequency standard. Here we discuss the construction of a "solid-state nuclear clock" from Thorium nuclei implanted into single crystals transparent in the vacuum ultraviolet range. We investigate crystal-induced line shifts and broadening effects for the specific system of Calcium fluoride. At liquid Nitrogen temperatures, the clock performance will be limited by decoherence due to magnetic coupling of the Thorium nucleus to neighboring nuclear moments, ruling out the commonly used Rabi or Ramsey interrogation schemes. We propose a clock stabilization based on counting of flourescence photons and present optimized operation parameters. Taking advantage of the high number of quantum oscillators under continuous interrogation, a fractional instability level of 10^{-19} might be reached within the solid-state approach.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure

Search for superradiant emission states in nuclear isomer crystals

This is the final report of a one-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The objective was to verify the stimulated emission of gamma rays from {sup 125m}Te, as claimed by Russian scientists. The reported cross section for stimulated emission was sufficiently large to allow gain in a single-pass gamma-ray laser. The stimulated emission of gamma rays from a nuclear isomer is expected to result in collinear photons and, therefore, should be observable as a sum peak in the gamma-ray spectrum. Skorobogatov and Dzevitskii reported an increase of an order of magnitude in the sum peak (218.56 keV) when a sample of beryllium telluride containing {sup 125m}Te was cooled from room temperature to near-liquid-helium temperatures. The authors have repeated their experiment and have observed no increase in the sum peak above accidental summing. The upper limit for the stimulated-emission cross section based on the three-standard-deviation statistical error is 6.8 x 10 {sup {minus}21} cm{sup 2}. This result is one order of magnitude lower than the cross section reported by Skorobogatov and Dzevitskii. The cross section would not allow gain in a single-pass gamma-ray laser. Their results support the position of Baldwin and Solem rather than that of Kamenov