Quadrupole collectivity in Ca 42 from low-energy Coulomb excitation with AGATA

A Coulomb-excitation experiment to study electromagnetic properties of Ca42 was performed using a 170-MeV calcium beam from the TANDEM XPU facility at INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro. γ rays from excited states in Ca42 were measured with the AGATA spectrometer. The magnitudes and relative signs of ten E2 matrix elements coupling six low-lying states in Ca42, including the diagonal E2 matrix elements of 21+ and 22+ states, were determined using the least-squares code gosia. The obtained set of reduced E2 matrix elements was analyzed using the quadrupole sum rule method and yielded overall quadrupole deformation for 01,2+ and 21,2+ states, as well as triaxiality for 01,2+ states, establishing the coexistence of a weakly deformed ground-state band and highly deformed slightly triaxial sideband in Ca42. The experimental results were compared with the state-of-the-art large-scale shell-model and beyond-mean-field calculations, which reproduce well the general picture of shape coexistence in Ca42

Superdeformed and Triaxial States in Ca 42

Shape parameters of a weakly deformed ground-state band and highly deformed slightly triaxial sideband in ^{42}Ca were determined from E2 matrix elements measured in the first low-energy Coulomb excitation experiment performed with AGATA. The picture of two coexisting structures is well reproduced by new state-of-the-art large-scale shell model and beyond-mean-field calculations. Experimental evidence for superdeformation of the band built on 0_{2}^{+} has been obtained and the role of triaxiality in the A∼40 mass region is discussed. Furthermore, the potential of Coulomb excitation as a tool to study superdeformation has been demonstrated for the first time

Morfologia Jaskini Czarnej i jej znaczenie dla geomorfologicznego rozwoju Doliny Kościeliskiej

Czarna Cave represents phreatic cave with multiple loops. No cave level developed at the water table was detected. The cave was later modified by invasion vadose waters and breakdown processes. The phreatic paleoflow directions were analyse from the asymmetry of scallops. The paleoflow was directed from the east to the west, that is in a direction of the Kościeliska Valley. Therefore, this valley represented the main discharge zone of the region during the formation of Czarna Cave

Evolution of the Bystrej Valley caves (Tatra Mts, Poland) based on corrosive forms, clastic deposits and U-series speleothem dating

The origin and age of cave deposits, as well as palaeogeographical changes in the Bystrej catchment during the last ca. 250 ka, were reconstructed in Magurska, Kasprowa Niżnia, Goryczkowa, Kalacka and Bystrej caves (the Bystrej Valley). The reconstruction is based on the study of corrosive forms, heavy mineral analyses and U-series dating of speleothems. Two generations of palaeoflows were distinguished by observations of scallops and heavy mineral analyses. In the older stage, now abandoned caves drained massifs surrounding the Bystrej Valley and part of an adjacent valley. The direction of palaeoflow changed as a result of the water capture after Kasprowa Niżnia Cave came into being. In the later stages, the evolution of cave systems was controlled by glaciation-deglaciation cycles. Probably at this time, some caves located in the lowest parts of the massifs also started to be formed. U-series speleothem dating allows the determination of five phases of speleothem deposition: ca. 220–150 ka, ca. 135–105 ka, ca. 95–70 ka, ca. 40–23 ka and during the Holocene

Tectonic control of cave developmen t: a case study of the Bystra Valley in the Tatra Mts., Poland

Tectonic research and morphological observations were carried out in six caves (Kalacka, Goryczkowa, Kasprowa Niżna, Kasprowa Średnia, Kasprowa Wyżnia and Magurska) in the Bystra Valley, in the Tatra Mountains. There are three cave levels, with the youngest active and the other two inactive, reflecting development partly under epiphreatic and partly under phreatic conditions. These studies demonstrate strong control of the cave pattern by tectonic features, including faults and related fractures that originated or were rejuvenated during uplift, lasting from the Late Miocene. In a few local cases, the cave passages are guided by the combined influence of bedding, joints and fractures in the hinge zone of a chevron anticline. That these cave passages are guided by tectonic structures, irrespective of lithological differences, indicates that these proto-conduits were formed by “tectonic inception”. Differences in the cave pattern between the phreatic and epiphreatic zones at a given cave level may be a result of massif relaxation. Below the bottom of the valley, the effect of stress on the rock mass is related to the regional stress field and only individual faults extend below the bottom of the valley. Thus in the phreatic zone, the flow is focused and a single conduit becomes enlarged. The local extension is more intense in the epiphreatic zone above the valley floor and more fractures have been sufficiently extended to allow water to flow. The water migrates along a network of fissures and a maze could be forming. Neotectonic displacements (of up to 15 cm), which are more recent than the passages, were also identified in the caves. Neotectonic activity is no longer believed to have as great an impact on cave morphology as previously was thought. Those faults with displacements of several metres, described as younger than the cave by other authors, should be reclassified as older faults, the surfaces of which have been exposed by speleogenesis. The possible presence of neotectonic faults with greater displacements is not excluded, but they would have had a much greater morphological impact than the observed features suggest