Superheavy element production, nucleus-nucleus potential and mu-catalysis

The semi-microscopic potential between heavy nuclei is evaluated for various colliding ions in the approach of frozen densities in the framework of the extended Thomas-Fermi approximation with hbar^2 correction terms in the kinetic energy density functional. The proton and neutron densities of each nucleus are obtained in the Hartree-Fock-BCS approximation with SkM* parameter set of the Skyrme force. A simple expression for the nuclear interaction potential between spherical nuclei is presented. It is shown that muon bound with light projectile induces the superheavy elements production in nucleus-nucleus collisions.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, RevTex, Tours 5 Symposium on Nuclear Physics, Tours, August 200

Nuclear reactions in hot stellar matter and nuclear surface deformation

Cross-sections for capture reactions of charged particles in hot stellar matter turn out be increased by the quadrupole surface oscillations, if the corresponding phonon energies are of the order of the star temperature. The increase is studied in a model that combines barrier distribution induced by surface oscillations and tunneling. The capture of charged particles by nuclei with well-deformed ground-state is enhanced in stellar matter. It is found that the influence of quadrupole surface deformation on the nuclear reactions in stars grows, when mass and proton numbers in colliding nuclei increase.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Space-time velocity correlation function for random walks

Space-time correlation functions constitute a useful instrument from the research toolkit of continuous-media and many-body physics. We adopt here this concept for single-particle random walks and demonstrate that the corresponding space-time velocity auto-correlation functions reveal correlations which extend in time much longer than estimated with the commonly employed temporal correlation functions. A generic feature of considered random-walk processes is an effect of velocity echo identified by the existence of time-dependent regions where most of the walkers are moving in the direction opposite to their initial motion. We discuss the relevance of the space-time velocity correlation functions for the experimental studies of cold atom dynamics in an optical potential and charge transport on micro- and nano-scales.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett., in pres