Spinodal decomposition, nuclear fog and two characteristic volumes in thermal multifragmentation

Thermal multifragmentation of hot nuclei is interpreted as the nuclear liquid-fog phase transition inside the spinodal region. The experimental data for p(8.1GeV) + Au collisions are analyzed within the framework of the statistical multifragmentation model (SMM) for the events with emission of at least two IMFs. It is found that the partition of hot nuclei is specified after expansion to a volume equal to Vt = (2.6+-0.3) Vo, with Vo as the volume at normal density. However, the freeze-out volume is found to be twice as large: Vf = (5+-1) Vo.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Nucl.Phys.

Nuclear multifragmentation and fission: similarity and differences

Thermal multifragmentation of hot nuclei is interpreted as the nuclear liquid--fog phase transition deep inside the spinodal region. The experimental data for p(8.1GeV) + Au collisions are analyzed. It is concluded that the decay process of hot nuclei is characterized by two size parameters: transition state and freeze-out volumes. The similarity between dynamics of fragmentation and ordinary fission is discussed. The IMF emission time is related to the mean rupture time at the multi-scission point, which corresponds to the kinetic freeze-out configuration.Comment: 7 pages, 3 Postscript figures, Proceedings of IWM 2005, Catani

Comparative Study of Multifragmentation of Gold Nuclei Induced by Relativistic Protons, 4^4He, and 12^{12}C

Multiple emission of intermediate-mass fragments has been studied for the collisions of p, $^4$He and $^{12}$C on Au with the $4\pi$ setup FASA. The mean IMF multiplicities (for the events with at least one IMF) are saturating at the value of $2.2\pm0.2$ for the incident energies above 6 GeV. The observed IMF multiplicities cannot be described in a two-stage scenario, a fast cascade followed by a statistical multifragmentation. Agreement with the measured IMF multiplicities is obtained by introducing an intermediate phase and modifying empirically the excitation energies and masses of the remnants. The angular distributions and energy spectra from the p-induced collisions are in agreement with the scenario of ``thermal'' multifragmentation of a hot and diluted target spectator. In the case of $^{12}$C+Au(22.4 GeV) and $^4$He(14.6 GeV)+Au collisions, deviations from a pure thermal break-up are seen in the energy spectra of the emitted fragments, which are harder than those both from model calculations and from the measured ones for p-induced collisions. This difference is attributed to a collective flow.Comment: 33 pages 15 figures, accepted in Nucl. Phys.

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM