8,928 research outputs found
Collisions of Deformed Nuclei: A Path to the Far Side of the Superheavy Island
A detailed understanding of complete fusion cross sections in heavy-ion
collisions requires a consideration of the effects of the deformation of the
projectile and target. Our aim here is to show that deformation and orientation
of the colliding nuclei have a very significant effect on the fusion-barrier
height and on the compactness of the touching configuration. To facilitate
discussions of fusion configurations of deformed nuclei, we develop a
classification scheme and introduce a notation convention for these
configurations. We discuss particular deformations and orientations that lead
to compact touching configurations and to fusion-barrier heights that
correspond to fairly low excitation energies of the compound systems. Such
configurations should be the most favorable for producing superheavy elements.
We analyse a few projectile-target combinations whose deformations allow
favorable entrance-channel configurations and whose proton and neutron numbers
lead to compound systems in a part of the superheavy region where alpha
half-lives are calculated to be observable, that is, longer than 1 microsecond.Comment: 15 pages. LaTeX with iopconf.sty style file. Submitted to Nuclear
Physics A. 25 figures not included here. PostScript version with figures
available at http://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/publications.html or at
ftp://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/cd
Microscopic Enhancement of Heavy-Element Production
Realistic fusion barriers are calculated in a macroscopic-microscopic model
for several soft-fusion heavy-ion reactions leading to heavy and superheavy
elements. The results obtained in such a realistic picture are very different
from those obtained in a purely macroscopic model. For reactions on 208:Pb
targets, shell effects in the entrance channel result in fusion-barrier
energies at the touching point that are only a few MeV higher than the ground
state for compound systems near Z = 110. The entrance-channel fragment-shell
effects remain far inside the touching point, almost to configurations only
slightly more elongated than the ground-state configuration, where the fusion
barrier has risen to about 10 MeV above the ground-state energy. Calculated
single-particle level diagrams show that few level crossings occur until the
peak in the fusion barrier very close to the ground-state shape is reached,
which indicates that dissipation is negligible until very late in the fusion
process. Whereas the fission valley in a macroscopic picture is several tens of
MeV lower in energy than is the fusion valley, we find in the
macroscopic-microscopic picture that the fission valley is only about 5 MeV
lower than the fusion valley for soft-fusion reactions leading to compound
systems near Z = 110. These results show that no significant
``extra-extra-push'' energy is needed to bring the system inside the fission
saddle point and that the typical reaction energies for maximum cross section
in heavy-element synthesis correspond to only a few MeV above the maximum in
the fusion barrier.Comment: 7 pages. LaTeX. Submitted to Zeitschrift fur Physik A. 5 figures not
included here. Complete preprint, including device-independent (dvi),
PostScript, and LaTeX versions of the text, plus PostScript files of the
figures, available at http://t2.lanl.gov/publications/publications.html or at
ftp://t2.lanl.gov/pub/publications/mehe
Kleene algebra with domain
We propose Kleene algebra with domain (KAD), an extension of Kleene algebra
with two equational axioms for a domain and a codomain operation, respectively.
KAD considerably augments the expressiveness of Kleene algebra, in particular
for the specification and analysis of state transition systems. We develop the
basic calculus, discuss some related theories and present the most important
models of KAD. We demonstrate applicability by two examples: First, an
algebraic reconstruction of Noethericity and well-foundedness; second, an
algebraic reconstruction of propositional Hoare logic.Comment: 40 page
Vocalization Influences Auditory Processing in Collicular Neurons of the CF-FM-Bat, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
1. In awake Greater Horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) the responses of 64 inferior colliculus neurons to electrically elicited vocalizations (VOC) and combinations of these with simulated echoes (AS: pure tones and AS(FM): sinusoidally frequency-modulated tones mimicking echoes from wing beating insects) were recorded.
2. The neurons responding to the species-specific echolocation sound elicited by electrical stimulation of the central grey matter had best frequencies between 76 and 86 kHz. The response patterns to the invariable echolocation sound varied from unit to unit (Fig. 1).
3. In 26 neurons the responses to vocalized echolocation sounds markedly differed from those to identical artificial ones copying the CF-portion of the vocalized sound (AS). These neurons reacted with a different response to the same pure tone whether it was presented artificially or vocalized by the bat (Fig. 2). In these neurons vocalization activities qualitatively alter the responsiveness to the stimulus parameters of the echoes.
4. A few neurons neither responded to vocalization nor to an identical pure tone but discharged when vocalization and pure tone were presented simultaneously.
5. In 2 neurons synchronized encoding of small frequency-modulations of the pure tone (mimicking an echo returning from a wing beating prey) occurred only during vocalization. Without vocalization the neurons did not respond to the identical stimulus set (Fig. 3). In these neurons vocalization activities enhanced FM-encoding capabilities otherwise not present in these neurons.
6. FM-encoding depended on the timing between vocalization and frequency-modulated signal (echo). As soon as vocalization and FM-signal no more overlapped or at least 60–80 ms after onset of vocalization synchronized firing to the FM was lost (4 neurons) (Fig. 4).
7. 4 neurons weakly responded to playbacks of the bat's own vocalization 1 ms after onset of vocalization. But when the playback frequency was shifted to higher frequencies by more than 400 Hz the neurons changed firing patterns and the latency of the first response peak (Fig. 5). These neurons sensitive to frequency shifts in the echoes returning during vocalization may be relevant to the Doppler-shift compensation mechanism in Greater Horseshoe bats
Oxometalate-glass composites and thin films
New glass-composites with ion exchange properties have been developed.
Ammonium 12-molybdophosphate (AMP) (ΝΗ4)3ΡΜοΐ2θ4ο, and ammonium 12-tungstophosphate (AWP) (Nh4)3PW12O40, known for their ion exchange
capabilities, are included either in preformed aerogels with defined pore size, or are
added to sol-gel mixtures during the process of gel formation. Characterization is
carried out by FTIR, Raman and EXAFS spectroscopy. Ion exchange capacities for the
oxometalate precursors are determined for silver and rubidium and are compared to
those of the glass composites. Glass composites show high ion exchange capacity, but
some portion of the metalate complexes leaches from the glass during the procedure.
This is in contrast to thin composite films, which have almost no porosity and do not
show loss of metalate. EXAFS spectroscopy demostrates that the oxometalate
microstructure is maintained in glass composites and that rubidium ions after ion
exchange in glasses occupy similar cation positions as in the precursor compounds
Detection of nanoparticles by means of reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy depth profiling
The various studies of nanoparticles are of great importance because of the wide application of nanotechnology. The shape and structure of the nanoparticles can be determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and their chemistry by electron energy loss spectroscopy. TEM sample preparation is an expensive and difficult procedure, however. Surface sensitive, analytical techniques, such as Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are well applicable to detect the atoms that make up the nanoparticles, but cannot determine whether particle formation occurred. On the other hand, reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy (REELS) probes the electronic structures of atoms, which are strongly different for the atoms being in solution or in precipitated form. If the particle size is in the nm range, plasmon resonance can be excited in it, which appears as a loss feature in REELS spectrum. Thus, by measuring AES (XPS) spectra parallel with those of REELS, besides the atomic concentrations the presence of the nanoparticles can also be identified. As an example, the appearance of nanoparticles during ion beam induced mixing of C/Si layer will be shown
Nuclear Ground-State Masses and Deformations
We tabulate the atomic mass excesses and nuclear ground-state deformations of
8979 nuclei ranging from O to . The calculations are based on the
finite-range droplet macroscopic model and the folded-Yukawa single-particle
microscopic model. Relative to our 1981 mass table the current results are
obtained with an improved macroscopic model, an improved pairing model with a
new form for the effective-interaction pairing gap, and minimization of the
ground-state energy with respect to additional shape degrees of freedom. The
values of only 9 constants are determined directly from a least-squares
adjustment to the ground-state masses of 1654 nuclei ranging from O to
106 and to 28 fission-barrier heights. The error of the mass model is
0.669~MeV for the entire region of nuclei considered, but is only 0.448~MeV for
the region above .Comment: 50 pages plus 20 PostScript figures and 160-page table obtainable by
anonymous ftp from t2.lanl.gov in directory masses, LA-UR-93-308
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