Relativistic continuum-continuum coupling in the dissociation of halo nuclei

A relativistic coupled-channels theory for the calculation of dissociation cross sections of halo nuclei is developed. A comparison with non-relativistic models is done for the dissociation of $^{8}$B projectiles. It is shown that neglecting relativistic effects leads to seizable inaccuracies in the extraction of the astrophysical S-factor for the proton+beryllium radiative capture reaction.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, version accepted for publication at Physics Review Letter

Determination of S17 from 8B breakup by means of the method of continuum-discretized coupled-channels

The astrophysical factor for 7Be(p,\gamma)8B at zero energy, S17(0), is determined from an analysis of 208Pb(8B, p+7Be)208Pb at 52 MeV/nucleon by means of the method of continuum-discretized coupled-channels (CDCC) taking account of all nuclear and Coulomb breakup processes. The asymptotic normalization coefficient (ANC) method is used to extract S17(0) from the calculated breakup-cross-section. The main result of the present paper is S17(0)=20.9 +2.0/-1.9 eV b. The error consists of 8.4% experimental systematic error and the error due to the ambiguity in the s-wave p-7Be scattering length. This value of S17(0) differs from the one extracted with the first-order perturbation theory including Coulomb breakup by dipole transitions: 18.9 +/- 1.8 eV b. It turns out that the difference is due to the inclusion of the nuclear and Coulomb-quadrupole transitions and multi-step processes of all-order in the present work. The p-7Be interaction potential used in the CDCC calculation is also used in the ANC analysis of 7Be(p,\gamma)8B. The value of S17(0)=21.7 +0.62/-0.55 eV b obtained is consistent with the previous one obtained from a precise measurement of the p-capture reaction cross section extrapolated to zero incident energy, S17(0)=22.1 +/- 0.6 (expt) +/- 0.6 (theo) eV b, where (theo) stands for the error in the extrapolation. Thus, the agreement between the values of S17(0) obtained from direct 7Be(p,\gamma)8B and indirect 8B-breakup measurements is significantly improved.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, published in PR

Light Ξ\Xi hypernuclei in four-body cluster models

Detailed structure calculations in $^{\: 12}_{\Xi^-}$Be, $^{\: 5}_{\Xi^-}$H, $^{\: 9}_{\Xi^-}$Li, $^{\: 7}_{\Xi^-}$H and $^{\:10}_{\Xi^-}$Li are performed within the framework of the microscopic two-, three- and four-body cluster models using the Gaussian Expansion Method.Comment: 14 pages, 19 figures. To be published in Phys. Rev.

Spin-Orbit Assisted Variable-Range Hopping in Strong Magnetic Fields

It is shown that in the presence of strong magnetic fields, spin-orbit scattering causes a sharp increase in the effective density of states in the variable-range hopping regime when temperature decreases. This effect leads to an exponential enhancement of the conductance above its value without spin-orbit scattering. Thus an experimental study of the hopping conductivity in a fixed, large magnetic field, is a sensitive tool to explore the spin-orbit scattering parameters in the strongly localized regime.Comment: 9 pages + 2 figures (enclosed), Revte

Quantum limits of super-resolution in reconstruction of optical objects

We investigate analytically and numerically the role of quantum fluctuations in reconstruction of optical objects from diffraction-limited images. Taking as example of an input object two closely spaced Gaussian peaks we demonstrate that one can improve the resolution in the reconstructed object over the classical Rayleigh limit. We show that the ultimate quantum limit of resolution in such reconstruction procedure is determined not by diffraction but by the signal-to-noise ratio in the input object. We formulate a quantitative measure of super-resolution in terms of the optical point-spread function of the system.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Physical Review A e-mail: [email protected]

Evidence of ratchet effect in nanowires of a conducting polymer

Ratchet effect, observed in many systems starting from living organism to artificially designed device, is a manifestation of motion in asymmetric potential. Here we report results of a conductivity study of Polypyrrole nanowires, which have been prepared by a simple method to generate a variation of doping concentration along the length. This variation gives rise to an asymmetric potential profile that hinders the symmetry of the hopping process of charges and hence the value of measured resistance of these nanowires become sensitive to the direction of current flow. The asymmetry in resistance was found to increase with decreasing nanowire diameter and increasing temperature. The observed phenomena could be explained with the assumption that the spatial extension of localized state involved in hopping process reduces as the doping concentration reduces along the length of the nanowires.Comment: Revtex, two column, 4 pages, 10 figure