684 research outputs found
Structural behavior of uranium dioxide under pressure by LSDA+U calculations
The structural behavior of UO2 under high pressure up to 300GPa has been
studied by first-principles calculations with LSDA+U approximation. The results
show that a pressure-induced structural transition to the cotunnite-type
(orthorhombic Pnma) phase occurs at 38GPa. It agrees well with the
experimentally observed ~42 GPa. An isostructural transition following that is
also predicted to take place from 80 to 130GPa, which has not yet been observed
in experiments. Further high compression beyond 226GPa will result in a
metallic and paramagnetic transition. It corresponds to a volume of 90A^3 per
cell, in good agreement with a previous theoretical analysis in the reduction
of volume required to delocalize 5f states.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis with Unstable Gravitino and Upper Bound on the Reheating Temperature
We study the effects of the unstable gravitino on the big-bang
nucleosynthesis. If the gravitino mass is smaller than \sim 10 TeV, primordial
gravitinos produced after the inflation are likely to decay after the big-bang
nucleosynthesis starts, and the light element abundances may be significantly
affected by the hadro- and photo-dissociation processes as well as by the p n
conversion process. We calculate the light element abundances and derived upper
bound on the reheating temperature after the inflation. In our analysis, we
calculate the decay parameters of the gravitino (i.e., lifetime and branching
ratios) in detail. In addition, we performed a systematic study of the hadron
spectrum produced by the gravitino decay, taking account of all the hadrons
produced by the decay products of the gravitino (including the daughter
superparticles). We discuss the model-dependence of the upper bound on the
reheating temperature.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figure
A Start-Timing Detector for the Collider Experiment PHENIX at RHIC-BNL
We describe a start-timing detector for the PHENIX experiment at the
relativistic heavy-ion collider RHIC. The role of the detector is to detect a
nuclear collision, provide precise time information with an accuracy of 50ps,
and determine the collision point along the beam direction with a resolution of
a few cm. Technical challenges are that the detector must be operational in a
wide particle-multiplicity range in a high radiation environment and a strong
magnetic field. We present the performance of the prototype and discuss the
final design of the detector.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, 9 gif and 4 ps figures. Submitted to NIM
Ab initio investigation on oxygen defect clusters in UO2+x
By first-principles LSDA+U calculations, we revealed that the current
physical picture of defective uranium dioxide suggested solely by neutron
diffraction analysis is unsatisfactory. An understanding based on quantum
theory has been established as a thermodynamical competition among point
defects and cuboctahedral cluster, which naturally interprets the puzzled
origin of the asymmetric O' and O'' interstitials. It also gives a clear and
consistent agreement with most available experimental data. Unfortunately, the
observed high occupation of O'' site cannot be accounted for in this picture
and is still a challenge for theoretical simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, title change
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