Lifetime measurements in 63^{63}Co and 65^{65}Co

Lifetimes of the $9/2^-_1$ and $3/2^-_1$ states in $^{63}$Co and the $9/2^-_1$ state in $^{65}$Co were measured using the recoil distance Doppler shift and the differential decay curve methods. The nuclei were populated by multi-nucleon transfer reactions in inverse kinematics. Gamma rays were measured with the EXOGAM Ge array and the recoiling fragments were fully identified using the large-acceptance VAMOS spectrometer. The E2 transition probabilities from the $3/2^-_1$ and $9/2^-_1$ states to the $7/2^-$ ground state could be extracted in $^{63}$Co as well as an upper limit for the $9/2^-_1\rightarrow7/2^-_1$ $B$(E2) value in $^{65}$Co. The experimental results were compared to large-scale shell-model calculations in the $pf$ and $pfg_{9/2}$ model spaces, allowing to draw conclusions on the single-particle or collective nature of the various states.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Multi-Phonon γ\gamma-Vibrational Bands and the Triaxial Projected Shell Model

We present a fully quantum-mechanical, microscopic, unified treatment of ground-state band and multi-phonon $\gamma$-vibrational bands using shell model diagonalization with the triaxial projected shell model. The results agree very well with data on the g- and $\gamma$-band spectra in $^{156-170}$Er, as well as with recently measured $4^+$ 2-phonon $\gamma$-bandhead energies in $^{166}$Er and $^{168}$Er. Multi-phonon $\gamma$-excitation energies are predicted.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

First spectroscopy of 66^{66}Se and 65^{65}As: Investigating shape coexistence beyond the N = Z line

The experiment was performed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), at Michigan State University (USA).We report on the first γ spectroscopy of 66Se and 65As from two-neutron removal at intermediate beam energies. The deduced excitation energies for the first-excited states in 66Se and 65As are compared to mean-field-based predictions within a collective Hamiltonian formalism using the Gogny D1S effective interaction and to state-of-the-art shell-model calculations restricted to the pf5/2 g9/2 valence space. The obtained Coulomb-energy differences for the first excited states in 66Se and 65As are discussed within the shell-model formalism to assess the shape-coexistence picture for both nuclei. Our results support a favored oblate ground-state deformation in 66Se and 65As. A shape transition for the ground state of even-odd As isotopes from oblate in 65As to prolate in 67,69,71As is suggested

Greening Capitalism? A Marxist Critique of Carbon Markets

Climate change is increasingly being recognized as a serious threat to dominant modes of social organization, inspiring suggestions that capitalism itself needs to be transformed if we are to ‘decarbonize’ the global economy. Since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, carbon markets have emerged as the main politico-economic tools in global efforts to address climate change. Newell and Paterson (2010) have recently claimed that the embrace of carbon markets by financial and political elites constitutes a possible first step towards the transformation of current modes of capitalist organization into a new form of greener, more sustainable ‘climate capitalism.’ In this paper, we argue that the institutionalization of carbon markets does not, in fact, represent a move towards the radical transformation of capitalism, but is better understood as the most recent expression of ongoing trends of ecological commodification and expropriation, driving familiar processes of uneven and crisis-prone development. In this paper, we review four critical Marxist concepts: metabolic rift (Foster, 1999), capitalism as world ecology (Moore, 2011a), uneven development and accumulation through dispossession (Harvey, 2003, 2006), and sub-imperialism (Marini, 1972, 1977), developing a framework for a Marxist analysis of carbon markets. Our analysis shows that carbon markets form part of a longer historical development of global capitalism and its relation to nature. Carbon markets, we argue, serve as creative new modes of accumulation, but are unlikely to transform capitalist dynamics in ways that might foster a more sustainable global economy. Our analysis also elucidates, in particular, the role that carbon markets play in exacerbating uneven development within the Global South, as elites in emerging economies leverage carbon market financing to pursue new strategies of sub-imperial expansion. </jats:p

Conflict Management for Multiple Resource Users in Pastoralist and Agro-Pastoralist Contexts

Livelihood systems in rural social formations often involve the utilization of natural resources for multiple purposes (e.g. wetlands which are used for both cropping and for grazing) or by more than one user (as when rangelands are grazed by different herdowners or groups of herdowners). Disputes or conflicts are common in these situations, and institutional frameworks for resolving disputes and managing conflict have usually evolved in response.European Research Council (ERC