Theory of induced molecular-orbital K x rays in heavy-ion collision

The mechanisms of spontaneous and induced emission of radiation are derived from the Dirac equation in a rotating coordinate system. The molecular-orbital x-ray spectra exhibit a strong asymmetry with respect to the beam axis. The asymmetry peaks for the high-energy transitions, which can be used for spectroscopy of two-center orbitals

Description of atomic excitations in heavy-ion reactions

Excitations of the atomic shell in heavy-ion collisions are influenced by the presence of a nuclear reaction. In the present Rapid Communication we point out the equivalence between a semiclassical description based on the nuclear autocorrelation function with an earlier model which employs a distribution of reaction times f(T). For the example of U+U collisions, results of coupled-channel calculations for positron creation and K-hole excitations are discussed for two schematic reaction models

Comment on "New atomic mechanism for positron production in heavy-ion collisoins"

A Comment on the Letter by W. Lichten and A. Robatino, Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 781 (1985). See Also: W. Lichten and A. Robatino, New atomic mechanism for positron production in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 781 (1985). http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v54/i8/p781_

Theory of positron production in heavy-ion collisions

Collisions of very heavy ions at energies close to the Coulomb barrier are discussed as a unique tool to study the behavior of the electron-positron field in the presence of strong external electromagnetic fields. To calculate the excitation processes induced by the collision dynamics, a semiclassical model is employed and adapted to describe the field-theoretical many-particle system. An expansion in the adiabatic molecular basis is chosen. Energies and matrix elements are calculated using the monopole approximation. In a supercritical (Z1+Z2≳173) quasiatomic system the 1s level joins the antiparticle continuum and becomes a resonance, rendering the neutral vacuum state unstable. Several methods of treating the corresponding time-dependent problem are discussed. A projection-operator technique is introduced for a fully dynamical treatment of the resonance. Positron excitation rates in s1/2 and p1/2 states are obtained by numerical solution of the coupled-channel equations and are compared with results from first- plus second-order perturbation theory. Calculations are performed for subcritical and supercritical collisions of Pb-Pb, Pb-U, U-U, and U-Cf. Strong relativistic deformations of the wave functions and the growing contributions from inner-shell bound states lead to a very steep Z dependence of positron production. The results are compared with available data from experiments done at GSI. Correlations between electrons and positrons are briefly discussed

Magnetic neutrino scattering by crystals

The magnetic dipole scattering of neutrinos by the electrostatic potentials of single atoms as well as crystals is investigated. It is shown that scattering by a rigid cubic lattice can amplify the neutrino-atom cross section by a factor of N1/3, N being the number of scatterers. However, comparing the results with typical weak-interaction cross sections, the effect seems to be not observable in experiment

Extrusion of Aluminum Tubes with Axially Graded Wall Thickness and Mechanical Characterization

In this study the indirect extrusion of seamless aluminum tubes with variable wall thickness was investigated. Therefore, an axially moveable stepped mandrel was applied. Investigations revealed that wall thickness transitions can either be graded over the tube length or very sharp. The microstructures in thin-walled and thick-walled tube sections were investigated. The local variation of the extrusion ratio and with that the tube wall thickness, product velocity and product temperature during the process lead to significantly different local microstructures at TB=400 °C. At TB=500 °C the microstructure was homogeneously recrystallized with similar grain size in all different tube sections. Furthermore, the mechanical tube properties were characterized by three point bending tests

Spectroscopy of electronic states in superheavy quasimolecules

We show that information about quasimolecular electronic binding energies in transient atomic systems of Z=Z1+Z2 up to 184 can be obtained from three sources: (1) the impact-parameter dependence of the ionization probability; (2) the ionization probability in head-on collisions as a function of total nuclear charge Z; (3) the delta-electron spectrum in coincidence with K-vacancy formation in asymmetric collisions. Experiments are proposed and discussed

Nuclear shock waves in heavy-ion collisions

It is shown that nuclear matter is compressed during the encounter of heavy ions. If the relative velocity of the nuclei is larger than the velocity of first sound in nuclear matter (compression sound for isospin T=0), nuclear shock waves occur. They lead to densities which are 3-5 times higher than the nuclear equilibrium density ρ0, depending on the energy of the nuclei. The implications of this phenomenon are discussed

Dirac particles in Rindler space

We show that a uniformly accelerated observer experiences a "thermal" flux of Dirac particles in the ordinary Minkowski vacuum

Electron-translation effects in heavy-ion scattering

The origin and importance of electron-translation effects within a molecular description of electronic excitations in heavy-ion collisions is investigated. First, a fully consistent quantum-mechanical description of the scattering process is developed; the electrons are described by relativistic molecular orbitals, while the nuclear motion is approximated nonrelativistically. Leaving the quantum-mechanical level by using the semiclassical approximation for the nuclear motion, a set of coupled differential equations for the occupation amplitudes of the molecular orbitals is derived. In these coupled-channel equations the spurious asymptotic dynamical couplings are corrected for by additional matrix elements stemming from the electron translation. Hence, a molecular description of electronic excitations in heavy-ion scattering has been achieved, which is free from the spurious asymptotic couplings of the conventional perturbated stationary-state approach. The importance of electron-translation effects for continuum electrons and positrons is investigated. To this end an algorithm for the description of continuum electrons is proposed, which for the first time should allow for the calculation of angular distributions for δ electrons. Finally, the practical consequences of electron-translation effects are studied by calculating the corrected coupling matrix elements for the Pb-Cm system and comparing the corresponding K-vacancy probabilities with conventional calculations. We critically discuss conventional methods for cutting off the coupling matrix elements in coupled-channel calculations