Isospin properties of electric dipole excitations in 48Ca

Two different experimental approaches were combined to study the electric dipole strength in the doubly-magic nucleus 48Ca below the neutron threshold. Real-photon scattering experiments using bremsstrahlung up to 9.9 MeV and nearly mono-energetic linearly polarized photons with energies between 6.6 and 9.51 MeV provided strength distribution and parities, and an (\alpha,\alpha'\gamma) experiment at E_{\alpha}=136 MeV gave cross sections for an isoscalar probe. The unexpected difference observed in the dipole response is compared to calculations using the first-order random-phase approximation and points to an energy-dependent isospin character. A strong isoscalar state at 7.6 MeV was identified for the first time supporting a recent theoretical prediction.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, as accepted in Phys. Lett.

Correlated Prompt Fission Data in Transport Simulations

Detailed information on the fission process can be inferred from the observation, modeling and theoretical understanding of prompt fission neutron and $\gamma$-ray~observables. Beyond simple average quantities, the study of distributions and correlations in prompt data, e.g., multiplicity-dependent neutron and \gray~spectra, angular distributions of the emitted particles, $n$-$n$, $n$-$\gamma$, and $\gamma$-$\gamma$~correlations, can place stringent constraints on fission models and parameters that would otherwise be free to be tuned separately to represent individual fission observables. The FREYA~and CGMF~codes have been developed to follow the sequential emissions of prompt neutrons and $\gamma$-rays~from the initial excited fission fragments produced right after scission. Both codes implement Monte Carlo techniques to sample initial fission fragment configurations in mass, charge and kinetic energy and sample probabilities of neutron and $\gamma$~emission at each stage of the decay. This approach naturally leads to using simple but powerful statistical techniques to infer distributions and correlations among many observables and model parameters. The comparison of model calculations with experimental data provides a rich arena for testing various nuclear physics models such as those related to the nuclear structure and level densities of neutron-rich nuclei, the $\gamma$-ray~strength functions of dipole and quadrupole transitions, the mechanism for dividing the excitation energy between the two nascent fragments near scission, and the mechanisms behind the production of angular momentum in the fragments, etc. Beyond the obvious interest from a fundamental physics point of view, such studies are also important for addressing data needs in various nuclear applications. (See text for full abstract.)Comment: 39 pages, 57 figure files, published in Eur. Phys. J. A, reference added this versio

DEMONSTRATION OF PROTEIN HYDROGEN BONDING NETWORK APPLICATION TO MICROELECTRONICS

Model of hydrogen bonding networks in active site of b-lactamase during the last intermediate EY of acylenzyme reaction semicycle is presented. The I-V characteristics of each hydrogen bond are calculated following Marcus theory and theory of protein electrostatics. Simulations showed that HBN characteristics are similar to the characteristics of microelectronic devices such as amplifier, signal modulator, triangular pulse source. The results demonstrated the analogy of HBNs in the active site of β-lactamase protein to microelectronic integrated circuit with multiple outputs each with different characteristics

Dipole response of 238 U to polarized photons below the neutron separation energy

Nuclear resonance fluorescence experiments were carried out at the High-Intensity γ -ray Source facility at Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory to characterize the low-energy dipole structure of 238 U using 100% linearly polarized photon beams from 2.0 to 6.2 MeV. 113 transitions corresponding to de-excitations to the ground state in 238 U were observed and the energy, spin, parity, integrated cross section, reduced width, and branching ratio were determined for each of these identified levels. The total E1 γ -ray interaction cross section was calculated and it was deduced that the observed concentration of low-lying E1 transitions were excited from the low-energy tail of the giant dipole resonance and were not a pygmy dipole resonance. Comparisons were made between quasiparticle random-phase approximation calculations and the experimentally observed strength. The observed and predicted M1 strength agreed well with each other. However, there was no similar agreement for the E1 strength

Two-body Photodisintegration of 3He Between 7 and 16 MeV

A comprehensive data set is reported for the two-body photodisintegration cross section of 3He using mono-energetic photon beams at eleven energies between 7.0 and 16.0 MeV. A 3He + Xe high-pressure gas scintillator served as target and detector. Although our data are in much better agreement with our state-of-the-art theoretical calculations than the majority of the previous data, these calculations underpredict the new data by about 10%. This disagreement suggests an incomplete understanding of the dynamics of the three-nucleon system and its response to electromagnetic probes