Nuclear pasta structures and the charge screening effect

Non uniform structures of the nucleon matter at subnuclear densities are numerically studied by means of the density functional theory with relativistic mean-fields coupled with the electric field. A particular role of the charge screening effects is demonstrated.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PR

Lifetime of Heavy Composite Systems Formed by Fusion between Heavy Nuclei

Collisions between heavy nuclei at relatively low energy region have attracted strong interests of heavy-ion physicists for 3 different reasons, namely the creation of super heavy elements (SHEs), fission dynamics of very heavy systems, and creation of electron-positron pair due to the strong Coulomb field of the composite heavy nuclei as a verification of the QED process. In these processes, the lifetime of the composite system, created by the fusion of the projectile and the target, which decays eventually by fission is the key issue to understand the underlying reaction mechanisms and to estimate the probability of occurrence of these processes. SHEs are produced in two ways: one is "cold fusion" which is complete fusion below the classical barrier, and the other is "hot fusion" which allows several neutrons to be emitted. Even though the name is "hot", such reactions are still at very low energy near the barrier and the total mass number is very close to the aimed one. As far as the formation of SHE is concerned, the "fusion" of very heavy nuclei where the fission barrier no more exists is found to be ineffective. In the study of fission dynamics of heavy systems including the spontaneous fission and the fusion-fission of heavy composite, the competition of neutron emission between the fission and the fission delay have been discussed intensively. However almost all the discussion are done for mass regions where the classical fission barrier exists. Sometime ago many physicists paid attention to the low energy collision of very heavy nuclei in regard to the spontaneous positron emission from strong electric fields. If a molecule state of, say, U and U is formed and stays sufficiently long time, the binding energy of an electron can exceed the electron mass and might create electron-positron pair by a static QED process. Unfortunately no clear evidence of static positron creation was observed below Coulomb energy region. They have pointed out the importance of nuclear reaction which causes the time delay of separation of two nuclei. Although there increases the background component of positrons from nuclear excitation, which in this case is not interested in, the electron-positron from the static QED process is also expected to increase. However, the reaction mechanism of very heavy nuclei has not been discussed by fully dynamical models. In this paper we discuss the possibility of molecule-like states of heavy nuclei and the time scale of very heavy composite system formed by the fusion-fission or deep inelastic processes. To investigate these problems theoretically we use a recently developed constrained molecular dynamics (CoMD) model. This model has been proposed to include the Fermionic nature of constituent nucleons by a constraint that the phase space distribution should always satisfy the condition f ≤ 1. ∗Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. In this paper we apply CoMD to the investigation of Au + Au collisions at low energies where fusion-fission or deep-inelastic process may occur. In the following we give a brief review of the model

Simulation of Transitions between "Pasta" Phases in Dense Matter

Calculations of equilibrium properties of dense matter predict that at subnuclear densities nuclei can be rodlike or slablike. To investigate whether transitions between phases with non-spherical nuclei can occur during the collapse of a star, we perform quantum molecular dynamic simulations of the compression of dense matter. We have succeeded in simulating the transitions between rodlike and slablike nuclei and between slablike nuclei and cylindrical bubbles. Our results strongly suggest that non-spherical nuclei can be formed in the inner cores of collapsing stars.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, final version published in Phys. Rev. Lett., high-res figures can be seen at http://www.nordita.dk/~gentaro/research/fig

Quantum R-matrix and Intertwiners for the Kashiwara Algebra

We study the algebra $B_q(\ge)$ presented by Kashiwara and introduce intertwiners similar to $q$-vertex operators. We show that a matrix determined by 2-point functions of the intertwiners coincides with a quantum R-matrix (up to a diagonal matrix) and give the commutation relations of the intertwiners. We also introduce an analogue of the universal R-matrix for the Kashiwara algebra.Comment: 21 page

Media additives to promote spheroid circularity and compactness in hanging drop platform

Three-dimensional spheroid cultures have become increasingly popular as drug screening platforms, especially with the advent of different high throughput spheroid forming technologies. However, comparing drug efficacy across different cell types in spheroid culture can be difficult due to variations in spheroid morphologies and transport characteristics. Improving the reproducibility of compact, circular spheroids contributes to standardizing and increasing the fidelity of the desired gradient profiles in these drug screening three-dimensional tissue cultures. In this study we discuss the role that circularity and compaction has on spheroids, and demonstrate the impact methylcellulose (MethoCel) and collagen additives in the culture media can contribute to more compact and circular spheroid morphology. We demonstrate that improved spheroid formation is not a simple function of increased viscosity of the different macromolecule additives, suggesting that other macromolecular characteristics contribute to improved spheroid formation. Of the various macromolecular additives tested for hanging drop culture, MethoCel provided the most desirable spheroid formation. Additionally, the higher viscosity of MethoCel-containing media improved the ease of imaging of cellular spheroids within hanging drop cultures by reducing motion-induced image blur.open2

Statistical Mechanics for Unstable States in Gel'fand Triplets and Investigations of Parabolic Potential Barriers

Free energies and other thermodynamical quantities are investigated in canonical and grand canonical ensembles of statistical mechanics involving unstable states which are described by the generalized eigenstates with complex energy eigenvalues in the conjugate space of Gel'fand triplet. The theory is applied to the systems containing parabolic potential barriers (PPB's). The entropy and energy productions from PPB systems are studied. An equilibrium for a chemical process described by reactions $A+CB\rightleftarrows AC+B$ is also discussed.Comment: 14 pages, AmS-LaTeX, no figur

Compatibility of localized wave packets and unrestricted single particle dynamics for cluster formation in nuclear collisions

Antisymmetrized molecular dynamics with quantum branching is generalized so as to allow finite time duration of the unrestricted coherent mean field propagation which is followed by the decoherence into wave packets. In this new model, the wave packet shrinking by the mean field propagation is respected as well as the diffusion, so that it predicts a one-body dynamics similar to that in mean field models. The shrinking effect is expected to change the diffusion property of nucleons in nuclear matter and the global one-body dynamics. The central \xenon+\tin collisions at 50 MeV/nucleon are calculated by the models with and without shrinking, and it is shown that the inclusion of the wave packet shrinking has a large effect on the multifragmentation in a big expanding system with a moderate expansion velocity.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Plasma Wakefield Acceleration for Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays

A cosmic acceleration mechanism is introduced which is based on the wakefields excited by the Alfven shocks in a relativistically flowing plasma, where the energy gain per distance of a test particle is Lorentz invariant. We show that there exists a threshold condition for transparency below which the accelerating particle is collision-free and suffers little energy loss in the plasma medium. The stochastic encounters of the random accelerating-decelerating phases results in a power-law energy spectrum: f(e) 1/e^2. The environment suitable for such plasma wakefield acceleration can be cosmically abundant. As an example, we discuss the possible production of super-GZK ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) through this mechanism in the atmosphere of gamma ray bursts. We show that the acceleration gradient can be as high as G ~ 10^16 eV/cm. The estimated event rate in our model agrees with that from UHECR observations.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Partially functional outer arm dynein in a novel Chlamydomonas mutant expressing a truncated γ heavy chain

The outer dynein arm of Chlamydomonas flagella contains three heavy chains (α, β, and γ), each of which exhibits motor activity. How they assemble and cooperate is of considerable interest. Here we report the isolation of a novel mutant, oda2-t, whose γ heavy chain is truncated at about 30% of the sequence. While the previously isolated γ chain mutant oda2 lacks the entire outer arm, oda2-t retains outer arms that contain α and β heavy chains, suggesting that the N-terminal sequence (corresponding to the tail region) is necessary and sufficient for stable outer-arm assembly. Thin-section electron microscopy and image analysis localize the γ heavy chain to a basal region of the outer-arm image in the axonemal cross section. The motility of oda2-t is lower than that of the wild type and oda11 (lacking the α heavy chain) but higher than that of oda2 and oda4-s7 (lacking the motor domain of the β heavy chain). Thus, the outer-arm dynein lacking the γ heavy-chain motor domain is partially functional. The availability of mutants lacking individual heavy chains should greatly facilitate studies on the structure and function of the outer-arm dynein

Revisited cold gas content with atomic carbon [C I] in z=2.5 protocluster galaxies

We revisit the cold gas contents of galaxies in a protocluster at z=2.49 using the lowest neutral atomic carbon transition [CI]$^3$P$_1$-$^3$P$_0$ from Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations. We aim to test if the same gas mass calibration applied in field galaxies can be applied to protocluster galaxies. Five galaxies out of sixteen targeted galaxies are detected in the [CI] line, and these are all previously detected in CO(3-2) and CO(4-3) and three in 1.1 mm dust continuum. We investigate the line luminosity relations between CO and [CI] in the protocluster and compare them with other previous studies. We then compare the gas mass based on three gas tracers of [CI], CO(3-2), and dust if at least one of the last two tracers are available. Using the calibration adopted for field main-sequence galaxies, the [CI]-based gas measurements are lower than or comparable to the CO-based gas measurements by -0.35 dex at the lowest with the mean deviation of -0.14 dex. The differences between [CI]- and the dust- based measurements are relatively mild by up to 0.16 dex with the mean difference of 0.02 dex. Taking these all together with calibration uncertainties, with the [CI] line, we reconfirm our previous findings that the mean gas fraction is comparable to field galaxies for a stellar-mass range of $\log(M_{\rm star}/M_\odot = [10.6, 11.3]$. However, at least for these secure five detections, the depletion time scale decreases more rapidly with stellar mass than field galaxies that might be related to earlier quenching in dense environments.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap