Experimental investigations of the nuclear level density by using heavy ion reactions

The transition of the level density parameter a _off from the low excitation energy value a _off=A/8 MeV⁻¹ to the Fermi gas value a _FG ∼ A/15 MeV⁻¹ was discovered a few years ago studying particle spectra evaporated from hot compound systems of A∼ 160. A number of experiments have been recently performed to confirm the earlier findings and extend the investigation to other mass regions and to higher excitation energies. Furthermore, precision coincidence experiments have been done in the lead region in which evaporation residues are tagged by low energy gammarays. Those experiments open the possibility of a detailed study of the level densities in nuclei where the shell effects are important.     

A soluble model for the study of the leptodermous expansions in finite nuclei

In order to study the validity of the leptodermous expansions in nuclei we introduce a density profile which makes possible exact analytic calculations of the nuclear binding energy, in a three dimensional geometry. It is shown thus that the leptodermous expansion of the nuclear energy possesses the correct largeA limit and due to the presence of exponential terms the correct smallA limit as well.     

Analysis of fission excitation functions and the determination of shell effects at the saddle point

A method is proposed to deduce the shell correction energy corresponding to the fission transition state shape of nuclei in the mass region around 200, from an analysis of the first chance fission values of the ratio of fission to neutron widths, (Γ _f /Γ _n )₁. The method is applied to the typical case of the fissioning nucleus²¹²Po, formed by alpha bombardment of²⁰⁸Pb. For the calculation of the neutron width, the level densities of the daughter nucleus after neutron emission were obtained from a numerical calculation starting from shell model single particle energy level scheme. It is shown that with the use of standard Fermi gas expression for the level densities of the fission transition state nucleus in the calculation of the fission width, an apparent energy dependence of the fission barrier height is required to fit the experimental data. This energy dependence, which arises from the excitation energy dependence of shell effects on level densities, can be used to deduce the shell correction energy at the fission transition state point. It is found that in the case of²¹²Po, the energy of the actual transition state point is higher than the energy of the liquid drop model (LDM) saddle point by (3 ± 1) MeV, implying significant positive shell correction energy at the fission transition state. Further, the liquid drop model value of level density parametera is found to be a few per cent smaller for the saddle point shape as compared to its spherical shape.     

Isobaric degrees of freedom in nuclei as determined from nonrelativistic quark model

Isobaric degrees of freedom δδ in nuclei are determined from the quark cluster model of a nucleus. These additional degrees of freedom are brought in by the coloured quark exchange between different nucleon clusters present in nuclei. They are found to be important in the region of momentum transfer near 3.5 fm⁻¹. The mass dependence of these isobaric degrees of freedom in nuclei turns out to beA ^5/6.     

The spin-isospin decomposition of the nuclear symmetry energy from low to high density

The energy per particle BA in nuclear matter is calculated up to high baryon density in the whole isospin asymmetry range from symmetric matter to pure neutron matter.The results,obtained in the framework of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation with two-and three-body forces,confirm the well-known parabolic dependence on the asymmetry parameterβ=(N?Z)/A(β^2 law)that is valid in a wide density range.To investigate the extent to which this behavior can be traced back to the properties of the underlying interaction,aside from the mean field approximation,the spin-isospin decomposition of BA is performed.Theoretical indications suggest that theβ^2 law could be violated at higher densities as a consequence of the three-body forces.This raises the problem that the symmetry energy,calculated according to theβ^2 law as a difference between BA in pure neutron matter and symmetric nuclear matter,cannot be applied to neutron stars.One should return to the proper definition of the nuclear symmetry energy as a response of the nuclear system to small isospin imbalance from the Z=N nuclei and pure neutron matter.     

Binding energy of giant nuclear systems in an empirical density functional model

Calculations of the radial shape and the binding energy of giant nuclei are made, using an empirical density functional. The obtained binding energies are smaller than those obtained with extrapolations of the liquid drop model. The density distributions show a growing central depression (due to Coulomb and symmetry energy) which finally (forA>700) leads to bubble nuclei.     

Narrowing of the vibrational spectrum under compression of liquid carbon dioxide

The broadening and shift of the Q bands of the 1388/1285-cm⁻¹ Fermi doublet of carbon dioxide have been measured by means of the spectroscopy of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering in a wide density range realized at compression in dense gaseous and liquid states. The spectrum of the low-frequency Q band exhibits an essential narrowing upon the compression of the liquid in the density range of 320–400 amagat from a maximum width of about 2.2 cm⁻¹ to about 1.7 cm⁻¹ determined by elastic dephasing. The observed dependence is connected with the progressive narrowing of the spectral contribution attributed to the collapsed rotational structure.     

Diffraction at HERA, Color Opacity and Nuclear Shadowing in DIS off nuclei

The QCD factorization theorem for diffractive processes in DIS is used to derive formulae for the leading twist contribution to the nuclear shadowing of parton distributions in the low thickness limit (due to the coherent projectile (photon) interactions with two nucleons). Based on the current analyzes of diffraction at HERA we find that the average strength of the interactions which govern diffraction in the gluon sector at x≤ 10⁻³, Q ₀= 2 GeV is ∼50mb. This is three times larger than in the quark sector and suggests that applicability of DGLAP approximation requires significantly larger Q ₀ in the gluon sector. We use this information on diffraction to estimate the higher order shadowing terms due to the photon interactions with N≥ 3 nucleons which are important for the scattering of heavy nuclei and to calculate nuclear shadowing and Q ² dependence of gluon densities. For the heavy nuclei the amount of the gluon shadowing: G _A(x,Q ₀ ²) /AG _N(x,Q ₀ ²)_{|x ≤ 10−3}∼ 0.25–0.4 is sensitive to the probability of the small size configurations within wave function of the gluon “partonometer” at the Q ₀ scale. At this scale for A∼ 200 the nonperturbative contribution to the gluon density is reduced by a factor of 4–5 at x≤ 10⁻³ unmasking PQCD physics in the gluon distribution of heavy nuclei. We point out that the shadowing of this magnitude would strongly modify the first stage of the heavy ion collisions at the LHC energies, and also would lead to large color opacity effects in eA collisions at HERA energies. In particular, the leading twist contribution to the cross section of the coherent J/ψ production off A≥ 12 nuclei at s ⁻²≥ 70 GeV is strongly reduced as compared to the naive color transparency expectations. The Gribov black body limit for F _2A(x,Q ²) is extended to the case of the gluon distributions in nuclei and shown to be relevant for the HERA kinematics of eA collisions. Properties of the final states are also briefly discussed. Received: 12 March 1999     

Physical properties of hot,dense matter: The general case

The thermodynamic properties of hot, dense matter are examined in the density range 10^?5 fm^?3 ? n ? 0.35 fm^?3 and the temperature range 0 ? T ? 21 MeV, for fixed lepton fractions Y_? = 0.4, 0.3 and 0.2 and for matter in β-equilibrium with no neutrinos. Three phases of the matter are considered: the nuclei phase is assumed to consist of Wigner-Seitz cells with central nuclei surrounded by a nucleon vapor containing also α-particles; in the bubbles phase the cell contains a central spherical bubble of nucleon vapor surrounded by dense nuclear matter; the third phase is that of uniform nuclear matter. All are immersed in a sea of leptons (electrons and neutrinos) and photons. The nuclei and bubbles are described by a compressible liquid drop model which is self-consistent in the sense that all of the constituent properties — bulk, surface, Coulomb energies and other minor contributions — are calculated from the same nuclear effective hamiltonian, in this case the Skyrme 1' interaction. The temperature dependence of all of these energies is included, for bulk and surface energies by direct calculation, for the Coulomb energy by combining in a plausible way the usual electrostatic energy and the numerical results pertaining to a hot Coulomb plasma. Lattice contributions to the Coulomb energy are an essential ingredient, and lattice modifications to the nuclear translational energy are included. A term is constructed to allow also for the reduced density of excited states of light nuclei. All of these modifications incorporate necessary physical effects which modify significantly the matter properties in some regions.     

Kinetics of the photoconductivity and absorption in the D −(A +) bands in doped silicon

The photoconductivity (PC) spectra and the induced absorption of background radiation in the energy range 10–40 meV are investigated in weakly compensated B-, Ga-, and As-doped silicon at 4.2 K. It is shown that dips corresponding to the photoionization of long-lived excited states of B and As are observed in the PC spectra on the D ⁻(A ⁺) bands. It is found that the frequency dependence of the PC spectra corresponds to excitation relaxation times of the order of 10⁻⁴ s for the states in the D ⁻ (A ⁺) bands. It is established that in electric fields E>100 V/cm the PC decreases sharply, while the induced absorption of the background radiation changes very little. This confirms the conclusion that the excitation of the D ⁻ (A ⁺) itself makes the main contribution to the PC. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 66, No. 4, 224–227 (25 August 1997)     

The analysis of π− mesons produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions at a momentum of 4.5 GeV/c nucleon in light front variables

The light front analysis of π⁻ mesons in He(Li,C), C-Ne, C-Cu and O-Pb collisions is carried out. The phase space of secondary pions is divided into two parts in one of which the thermal equilibrium assumption seems to be in a good agreement with the data. Corresponding temperatures T are extracted and their dependence on (A _P·A _T)^1/2 is studied. The results are compared with the predictions of the Quark-Gluon String Model (QGSM). The QGSM satisfactorily reproduces the experimental data for light and intermediate-mass nuclei. Received: 29 September 1999     

Infinite nuclear matter model and a new mass formula for atomic nuclei

The ground-state energy of an atomic nucleus with asymmetryβ is considered to be equivalent to the energy of a perfect sphere made up of the infinite nuclear matter of the same asymmetry plus a residual energyη called the local energy,η represents the energy due to shell, deformation, diffuseness and exchange Coulomb effect etc. Using this picture and the generalized Hugenholtz- Van Hove theorem of many-body theory a new mass formula has been developed. Based on this, a mass table containing the mass excesses of 3481 nuclei in the range 18 ⩽A ⩽ 267 has been made. This mass formula is compared with other mass models.     

Mesonic and binding contributions to the nuclear Drell-Yan process

We have evaluated the Drell-Yan cross section in nuclei paying special attention to the meson cloud contribution from pions and ϱ-mesons, for which an accurate calculation using the meson nuclear spectral functions is used. Similarly, the nucleonic contribution is evaluated in terms of a relativistic nucleon spectral function. Fair agreement with experiment is found for different nuclei and the results show a sizeable contribution from the renormalized meson cloud. In order to reproduce the experiment a novel element is introduced, consisting of a gradual energy loss of the incoming proton in its pass through the nucleus which produces a strong A dependence at x₁ large.     

Multipole resonances in open-shell nuclei: Connection with direct-reaction spectroscopy

Probability distributions for the excitation of the 1ħω multipole resonances E1, M6, and M2 in the sd-shell nuclei ¹⁸O, ²²Ne, ²⁴Mg, ²⁶Mg, ²⁷Al, ²⁸Si, ³²S, and ⁴⁰Ca were obtained by means of the spectroscopy of direct pickup reactions within the particle-core coupling (PCC) version of the multiparticle shell model. The deviation of the ground state of a nucleus featuring A nucleons from the case of closed shells or subshells manifests itself in a broad range of the energy distribution of holes among states of (A − 1) nuclei. This energy spread is the main source of the fragmentation of multipole resonances in open-shell nuclei. A comparison of PCC theoretical results with experimental data confirms the applicability of the approach used over a broad range of momentum transfers and proves the existence of connections between direct and resonance processes.     

Spin, iso-spin dependence of nucleon-nucleon effective interaction in nuclear matter calculations

A set of density dependent nucleon-nucleon (N-N) interactions has been examined in nuclear matter calculations by varying spin-isospin contributions. Two sets of potentials have been considered. One having a density dependentσ-function type short range part followed by one term long range Gaussian part while the other having a density dependentσ-function part followed by two Gaussian terms. The strength parameters of the potential have been fitted to the saturation properties of nuclear matter, i.e. binding energy per particle of 15.5 MeV atk _F=1.35 fm⁻¹. Several sets of these two potentials have been generated by varying the strength parameterM of Majorana exchange operatorP _M. It is seen thatM indirectly controls the spin, iso-spin contribution to the interaction potential and thus affects the nuclear matter properties such as compressibility and symmetry energy considerably, while variation of these quantities with the range parameterμ for givenM is moderate at lowM values while at higherM values it is quite large.     

Formation of light isotopes by protons and deuterons of 3.65 GeV/nucleon on separated tin isotopes

We measure cross sections for residual nuclide formation in the mass range 7 ≤ A ≤ 96 caused by bombardment with protons and deuterons of 3.65-GeV/nucleon energy of enriched tin isotopes (^{112,118,120,124}Sn). The experimental data are compared with calculations by the codes FLUKA, LAHET, CEM03, and LAQGSM03. Scaling behavior is observed for the whole mass region of residual nuclei, showing a possible multifragmentation mechanism for the formation of light products (7 ≤ A ≤ 30). Our analysis of the isoscaling dependence also shows a possible contribution of multifragmentation to the production of heavier nuclides, in the mass region 40 ≤ A ≤ 80. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Polarization of leading Λ hyperons produced by neutrons on target nuclei

The polarization of the leading Λ hyperons produced on carbon and lead target nuclei by 4–10 GeV neutrons in the angle range Θ<8.5° with respect to the beam and with only neutral-particle accompaniment is measured: 〈Π〉=−0.096±0.018 for C and 〈Π〉=− 0.128±0.047 for Pb. The dependence of the polarization on the transverse momentum and the Feynman variable is measured. The normalized invariant cross section as a function of p _⊥ ² is found to be approximated by the function A exp(−Bp _⊥ ² ), where the parameter B is independent of the kind of nucleus (B=8.71±0.09 (GeV/c)⁻² for carbon and B=8.83±0.18 (GeV/c)⁻² for lead). Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 4, 237–240 (25 August 1996)     

Magnetically stabilized electron-hole liquid in indium antimonide

Luminescence spectra of sufficiently pure n-type indium antimonide crystals (N _D−N _A=(1–22)·10¹⁴ cm⁻³) in a magnetic field of up to 56 kOe, at temperatures of 1.8–2 K, and high optical pumping densities (more than 100 W/cm²) have been studied. More evidence of the existence of electron-hole liquid stabilized by magnetic field has been obtained, and its basic thermodynamic parameters as functions of magnetic field have been measured. When the magnetic field increases from 23 to 55.2 kOe, the liquid density increases from 3.2·10¹⁵ to 6.7·10¹⁵ cm⁻³, the binding energy per electron-hole pair rises from 3.0 to 5.2 meV, and the binding energy with respect to the ground exciton level (work function of an exciton in the liquid) rises from 0.43 to 1.2 meV. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 111, 737–758 (February 1997)     

Coulomb contributions to nuclear radii and energies

The effect of including the isospin non-scalar Coulomb interaction (also taking into account the finite proton size) in binding energy and rms radius calculations for the closed shell nuclei ⁴He, ¹⁶O and ⁴⁰Ca is discussed in detail. Using the saturating Sussex matrix elements and including 0 + 2?ω excitations it is found that the major Coulomb contribution is in the first order, and that the pure second-order Coulomb contribution to the energy, near the saturation value of the size parameter for each nucleus, is more important than the mixed second-order contribution. Finally, for third order and above one can safely neglect the pure Coulomb contributions compared to the mixed ones which are in turn small compared to the pure nuclear contribution, in that order.