Nuclear time delay in resonant heavy ion collisions

From a quantum mechanical model for quasielastic nuclear scattering, involving a pocket in the internuclear potential, we derive a distribution of nuclear delay times. We show that coherent excitation of states in a rotational band of nuclear resonances leads to a lighthouse effect in the nuclear scattering cross section. Its influence on atomic excitations is shortly discussed for the case of positron creation in supercritical heavy ion collisions.     

Quantum mechanical treatment of electron-positron excitations in heavy ion collisions with nuclear contact

A general theory is formulated of electron-positron excitations in heavy ion collisions with nuclear contact, treating the nuclear relative motion quantum mechanically. A set of coupled channel equations for the electronic occupation amplitudes is derived, which is formally very similar to the semiclassical theory based on a classical nuclear trajectory, and reduces to the latter in the JWKB approximation. The new coupled equations contain all the quantum mechanical information on the details of the nuclear scattering during nuclear contact. The importantce of this formulation for a quantitative theory of spontaneous positron creation in supercritical systems with nuclear time delay is pointed out. The possibility of line structures in the positron spectrum, as predicted semiclassically and recently discovered experimentally, is discussed in the framework of the DWBA approximation. For light-particle scattering off a nuclear resonance, the Blair formula for vacancy production is recovered in the same approximation.     

Positrons from supercritical fields of giant nuclear systems

During collisions of heavy nuclei with a combined chargeZ?160 the electronic 1s-state is deeply bound due to the strong Coulomb field, forZ≧173 it even enters as a resonance the lower continuum of the Dirac-Hamiltonian. In pure Rutherford scattering no qualitative indication for the filling of a dynamically createdK-hole by the spontaneous positron creation process is predicted, but the study of heavy-ion collisions with nuclear time delay due to the attractive nuclear force promises clear signatures for the decay of the vacuum. Emphasis is laid also on the quantitative influence of the electron-electron interaction and ofE0-transitions in the giant nuclear system on positron emission, the latter treated in a classical approximation. We compare our results with recent experimental data of two different groups at GSI, Darmstadt.     

The decay of the vacuum in the field of superheavy nuclear systems

In the strong Coulomb field of a nucleus or quasimolecule withZ?172 a change of the QED vacuum has been predicted, signalled by the spontaneous emission of positrons if holes in theK-shell are available. The dynamical semiclassical theory of positron excitation in heavy ion scattering is presented and extended to collisions with nuclear contact. Interference patterns in the energy spectrum of the emitted positrons and, for sufficiently long reaction timeT, the emerging of a characteristic line at the position of the 1sσ-resonance is predicted. The position and width of the 1sσ-resonance is calculated in dependence on the nuclear configuration, the effect of electron screening is taken into account. Recent experimental indications [1, 2] for structures in the spectra of positrons emitted in U-U collisions at energies close to the Coulomb barrier are discussed in terms of spontaneous positron creation. The observed spectra could be explained under the assumption of long lasting nuclear reactions (T?4·10^?20 s) with a cross section in the millibarn region. Various consequences of this interpretation are discussed.     

Beam energy dependence of spontaneous positron creation in delayed nuclear collisions

We compute positron emission from U+Cm collisions within a quantum mechanical model for delayed nuclear collisions. We demonstrate a striking beam energy dependence of the strength of the spontaneous positron peak.     

On a microscopic mechanism of collisions between extremely light nuclei

The method previously proposed by one of the present authors for studying three-body problems is generalized with the aim of exploring more complicated nuclear processes. The idea underlying the method consists in preserving the unitarity property for the scattering amplitude determined approximately. A specific analysis is performed for elastic collisions of ³He nuclei and for quasielastic deuteron-triton collisions. The theoretical results obtained by our method are compared with experimental data, and the agreement is found to be quite satisfactory.     

Positronium formation by electron capture from hydrogen-like ions

Two different impulse approximations are provided for the problem of fast positron collisions with hydrogen-like ions. One of the impulse approximations is formulated by making a consistent expansion of the scattering wave function in powers of the weak interaction to the strong. The other impulse approximation is formulated by making a consistent expansion of theT-matrix in powers of the weak interaction to the strong. In this impulse approximation, the opposite limits of the target nuclear charge tending to zero and to infinity are examined. Differential and angle-integrated cross sections are computed for ground-state positronium formation from hydrogen within the impulse approximations. The full peaking approximation is employed in the evaluation of theT-matrix. By 300 eV, the impulse approximations for the angle-integrated cross section are in close agreement with the strong potential Born and the exact second Born calculations.     

Spontaneous vacuum decay of supercritical nuclear composites

We show that in deep inelastic heavy ion collisions withZ ₁+Z ₂> 173 the spontaneous decay of the neutral vacuum by emission of positrons may be isolated from other competing positron producing processes. From the details of the spontaneous positron spectrum information about the nature (lifetime, shape and angular momentum) of the composite nuclear system may be derived.     

Deep processes in nuclei and in-medium dressing of the nucleons and mesons

K⁺ scattering and quasielastic electron scattering from nuclei are expected to provide information about the nucleons and mesons in the inner regions of nuclei. The K⁺- nucleus cross sections and the quasielastic electron-nucleus response functions have been calculated taking into account the same in-medium dressing of the nucleons and the same coupling of the σ and ω mesons to the polarization of nuclear matter. We obtain a good agreement with experimental data for the two processes.     

Recent positron-atom cross section measurements and calculations

We review recent cross section results for low-energy positron scattering from atomic targets. A comparison of the latest measurements and calculations for positron collisions with the noble gases and a brief update of the newest studies on other atoms is presented. In particular, we provide an overview of the cross sections for elastic scattering, positronium formation, direct and total ionisation, as well as total scattering, at energies typically between about 0.1 and a few hundred eV. We discuss the differences in the current experimental data sets and compare those results to the available theoretical models. Recommended data sets for the total cross section are also reported for each noble gas. A summary of the recent developments in the scattering from other atoms, such as atomic hydrogen, the alkali and alkaline-earth metals, and two-electron systems is finally provided.     

Signature of a type-a glass transition and intrinsic confinement effects in a binary glass-forming system

We study dynamically highly asymmetric binary mixtures comprised of small methyl tetrahydrofuran (MTHF) molecules and polystyrene. Combined use of dielectric spectroscopy, ^{2}H nuclear magnetic resonance, incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering, and depolarized dynamic light scattering allows us to selectively probe the dynamics of the components in a broad dynamic range. It turns out that the mixtures exhibit two glass transitions in a wide concentration range although being fully miscible on a macroscopic scale. In between both glass transition temperatures, the dynamics of the small molecules show strong confinement effects, e.g., a crossover from Vogel-Fulcher to Arrhenius behavior of the time constants. Moreover, the dynamical behavior of small molecules close to the slow matrix is consistent with mode coupling theory predictions for a type-A glass transition, which was expected from recent theoretical and simulation studies in comparable systems.     

Charge ordering and polaron formation in the magnetoresistive oxide La0.7Ca0.3MnO3

Neutron scattering has been used to study the nature of the ferromagnetic transition in a single crystal of the perovskite La0. 7Ca0.3MnO3. Diffuse scattering from lattice polarons develops as the Curie temperature is approached from below, along with short range polaron correlations that are consistent with stripe formation. Both the scattering due to the polaron correlations and the anomalous quasielastic component in the magnetic fluctuation spectrum maximize very close to T(C), in a manner remarkably similar to the resistivity, indicating that they have a common origin.     

Investigations of Solid State Dynamics at the NRSSR Beamline at PETRA II. An Overview

The present status of the new nuclear resonance beamline PETRA 1 at HASYLAB, DESY, Hamburg is described. Besides an overview of the experimental setup some examples of recent experiments are given. Those cover the main applications, i.e., inelastic scattering from iron alloys and quasielastic scattering from glass-forming liquids. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Thermal neutron scattering from a hydrogen-metal system in terms of a general multi-sublattice jump diffusion model—I: Theory

A Multi-Sublattice Jump Diffusion Model (MSJD) for hydrogen diffusion through interstitial-site lattices is presented. The MSJD approach may, in principle, be considered as an extension of the Rowe et al.[1] model. Jump diffusion to any neighbours with different jump times which may be asymmetric in space is discussed. On the basis of the model a new method of calculating the diffusion tensor is advanced. The quasielastic, double differential cross section for thermal neutron scattering is obtained in terms of the MSJD model. The model can be used for systems in which interstitial jump diffusion of impurity particles occurs. In Part II the theoretical results are compared with those for quasielastic neutron scattering from the αNbH_x system.     

Quantum reflection and dwell times of metastable states

The concept of phase and dwell times used in tunneling is extended to quantum collisions to derive a relation between the phase and dwell time delays in scattering. This relation can be used to remove the near threshold s-wave singularities in the Wigner-Eisenbud delay times and amounts to an extension of the concept of quantum reflection to strong interactions. Dwell time delay emerges as the quantity which gives the correct behavior of the density of states of a metastable state at all energies. This fact is demonstrated by investigating some recently found metastable states of mesic nuclei.     

Enhanced Landau-Placzek ratio in a heavy fermion metal observed by Brillouin scattering

Brillouin spectroscopy of the heavy fermion metal UPt₃ shows strong quasielastic scattering, which has no analogue in ordinary metals. An enhanced Landau-Placzek ratio relating the quasielastic to the inelastic scattering intensity is deduced from the line shape analysis. The quasielastic line is of nonmagnetic origin and is attributed to electron density fluctuations as predicted by a recent theory of hydrodynamic fluctuations in heavy fermion systems.     

Monte Carlo simulation of elastic and quasielastic nucleus-nucleus scattering

The amplitude of elastic nucleus-nucleus scattering is calculated in framework of the multiple scattering theory. We consider the dependence of the amplitude on slope and cross section ofNN scattering, and on nuclear matter density. The results are compared to approximate calculations. The total inelastic nucleus-nucleus cross sections as well as the cross sections of quasielastic processes are calculated. Predictions are given for the case of superhigh energies.