5,084 research outputs found
Microscopic Enhancement of Heavy-Element Production
Realistic fusion barriers are calculated in a macroscopic-microscopic model
for several soft-fusion heavy-ion reactions leading to heavy and superheavy
elements. The results obtained in such a realistic picture are very different
from those obtained in a purely macroscopic model. For reactions on 208:Pb
targets, shell effects in the entrance channel result in fusion-barrier
energies at the touching point that are only a few MeV higher than the ground
state for compound systems near Z = 110. The entrance-channel fragment-shell
effects remain far inside the touching point, almost to configurations only
slightly more elongated than the ground-state configuration, where the fusion
barrier has risen to about 10 MeV above the ground-state energy. Calculated
single-particle level diagrams show that few level crossings occur until the
peak in the fusion barrier very close to the ground-state shape is reached,
which indicates that dissipation is negligible until very late in the fusion
process. Whereas the fission valley in a macroscopic picture is several tens of
MeV lower in energy than is the fusion valley, we find in the
macroscopic-microscopic picture that the fission valley is only about 5 MeV
lower than the fusion valley for soft-fusion reactions leading to compound
systems near Z = 110. These results show that no significant
``extra-extra-push'' energy is needed to bring the system inside the fission
saddle point and that the typical reaction energies for maximum cross section
in heavy-element synthesis correspond to only a few MeV above the maximum in
the fusion barrier.Comment: 7 pages. LaTeX. Submitted to Zeitschrift fur Physik A. 5 figures not
included here. Complete preprint, including device-independent (dvi),
PostScript, and LaTeX versions of the text, plus PostScript files of the
figures, available at http://t2.lanl.gov/publications/publications.html or at
ftp://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/mehe
Density waves and supersolidity in rapidly rotating atomic Fermi gases
We study theoretically the low-temperature phases of a two-component atomic
Fermi gas with attractive s-wave interactions under conditions of rapid
rotation. We find that, in the extreme quantum limit, when all particles occupy
the lowest Landau level, the normal state is unstable to the formation of
"charge" density wave (CDW) order. At lower rotation rates, when many Landau
levels are occupied, we show that the low-temperature phases can be
supersolids, involving both CDW and superconducting order.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, uses feynmp.st
Fission-fragment mass distributions from strongly damped shape evolution
Random walks on five-dimensional potential-energy surfaces were recently
found to yield fission-fragment mass distributions that are in remarkable
agreement with experimental data. Within the framework of the Smoluchowski
equation of motion, which is appropriate for highly dissipative evolutions, we
discuss the physical justification for that treatment and investigate the
sensitivity of the resulting mass yields to a variety of model ingredients,
including in particular the dimensionality and discretization of the shape
space and the structure of the dissipation tensor. The mass yields are found to
be relatively robust, suggesting that the simple random walk presents a useful
calculational tool. Quantitatively refined results can be obtained by including
physically plausible forms of the dissipation, which amounts to simulating the
Brownian shape motion in an anisotropic medium.Comment: 14 pages, 11 ps figure
Shape transition and oblate-prolate coexistence in N=Z fpg-shell nuclei
Nuclear shape transition and oblate-prolate coexistence in nuclei are
investigated within the configuration space (, ,
, and ). We perform shell model calculations for Zn,
Ge, and Se and constrained Hartree-Fock (CHF) calculations for
Zn, Ge, Se, and Kr, employing an effective pairing
plus quadrupole residual interaction with monopole interactions. The shell
model calculations reproduce well the experimental energy levels of these
nuclei. From the analysis of potential energy surface in the CHF calculations,
we found shape transition from prolate to oblate deformation in these
nuclei and oblate-prolate coexistence at Se. The ground state of
Se has oblate shape, while the shape of Zn and Ge are
prolate. It is shown that the isovector matrix elements between and
orbits cause the oblate deformation for Se, and four-particle
four-hole () excitations are important for the oblate configuration.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Momentum-resolved study of the saturation intensity in multiple ionization
We present a momentum-resolved study of strong field multiple ionization of
ionic targets. Using a deconvolution method we are able to reconstruct the
electron momenta from the ion momentum distributions after multiple ionization
up to four sequential ionization steps. This technique allows an accurate
determination of the saturation intensity as well as of the electron release
times during the laser pulse. The measured results are discussed in comparison
to typically used models of over-the-barrier ionization and tunnel ionization
Enhanced quasiparticle dynamics of quantum well states: the giant Rashba system BiTeI and topological insulators
In the giant Rashba semiconductor BiTeI electronic surface scattering with
Lorentzian linewidth is observed that shows a strong dependence on surface
termination and surface potential shifts. A comparison with the topological
insulator Bi2Se3 evidences that surface confined quantum well states are the
origin of these processes. We notice an enhanced quasiparticle dynamics of
these states with scattering rates that are comparable to polaronic systems in
the collision dominated regime. The Eg symmetry of the Lorentzian scattering
contribution is different from the chiral (RL) symmetry of the corresponding
signal in the topological insulator although both systems have spin-split
surface states.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Constraining the CDM and Galileon models with recent cosmological data
The Galileon theory belongs to the class of modified gravity models that can
explain the late-time accelerated expansion of the Universe. In previous works,
cosmological constraints on the Galileon model were derived, both in the
uncoupled case and with a disformal coupling of the Galileon field to matter.
There, we showed that these models agree with the most recent cosmological
data. In this work, we used updated cosmological data sets to derive new
constraints on Galileon models, including the case of a constant conformal
Galileon coupling to matter. We also explored the tracker solution of the
uncoupled Galileon model. After updating our data sets, especially with the
latest \textit{Planck} data and BAO measurements, we fitted the cosmological
parameters of the CDM and Galileon models. The same analysis framework
as in our previous papers was used to derive cosmological constraints, using
precise measurements of cosmological distances and of the cosmic structure
growth rate. We showed that all tested Galileon models are as compatible with
cosmological data as the CDM model. This means that present
cosmological data are not accurate enough to distinguish clearly between both
theories. Among the different Galileon models, we found that a conformal
coupling is not favoured, contrary to the disformal coupling which is preferred
at the level over the uncoupled case. The tracker solution of the
uncoupled Galileon model is also highly disfavoured due to large tensions with
supernovae and \textit{Planck}+BAO data. However, outside of the tracker
solution, the general uncoupled Galileon model, as well as the general
disformally coupled Galileon model, remain the most promising Galileon
scenarios to confront with future cosmological data. Finally, we also discuss
constraints coming from Lunar Laser Ranging experiment and gravitational wave
speed of propagation.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, published version in A&
Proton-neutron quadrupole interactions: an effective contribution to the pairing field
We point out that the proton-neutron energy contribution, for low multipoles
(in particular for the quadrupole component), effectively renormalizes the
strength of the pairing interaction acting amongst identical nucleons filling
up a single-j or a set of degenerate many-j shells. We carry out the
calculation in lowest-order perturbation theory. We perform a study of this
correction in various mass regions. These results may have implications for the
use of pairing theory in medium-heavy nuclei and for the study of pairing
energy corrections to the liquid drop model when studying nuclear masses.Comment: 19 pages, TeX, 3 tables, 2 figures. Accepted in PR
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