Neck fragmentation reaction mechanism

Based on a microscopic transport model, we study the origin of nonstatistical intermediate mass fragment (IMF) production in semicentral heavy ion collisions at the Fermi energies. We show that a fast, dynamical IMF formation process, the neck fragmentation mechanism, can explain the experimentally observed features: deviations from Viola systematics and anisotropic, narrow angular distributions. It may be regarded as the continuation of the multifragmentation mechanism towards intermediate impact parameters. Its relation to other dynamical mechanisms, the induced fission and the abrasion of the spectator zones, that can also contribute to mid-rapidity IMF production, is discussed. The dependence on beam energy and centrality of the collision is carefully analysed. The competition between volume and surface instabilities makes this mechanism very sensitive to the in-medium nucleon-nucleon interactions, from the cross sections for hard collisions to the compressibility and other equation of state (EOS) properties.

For charge asymmetric collisions the sensitivity of various observables to the symmetry energy is investigated. Of particular interest appears the isospin diffusion dynamics with no signal of isospin equilibration. However, in spite of the short time scales and of the dynamical aspects, we notice isoscaling features of the neck mechanism. We observe that isospin enrichment of the neck zone as well as the isoscaling parameters are sensitive to the density dependence of asymmetry term of EOS around and below saturation value.     

非对称核物质的化学不稳定性与力学不稳定性

基于扩展的Skyrme有效相互作用,在Hartree-Fock近似下对非对称核物质的化学不稳定性与力学不稳定性进行了研究,并与简单的三参数势,即所谓的软势与硬势的计算结果进行了比较.结果发现两种模型给出的非对称核物质化学不稳定性与力学不稳定性之间的关系是完全不同的.通过研究化学不稳定性在临界温度附近的行为发现,对软势与硬势,化学不稳定性可能出现在温度高于临界温度的气化(全爆炸)机制中.而对于SKM势参数,化学不稳定性不会出现在温度高于临界温度的气化(全爆炸)机制中.这种差别也反映在压强密度平面上力学不稳定 关键词： 非对称核物质状态方程 化学不稳定性 力学不稳定性     

Symmetry energy,unstable nuclei and neutron star crusts

We present an upgraded review of our microscopic investigation on the single-particle properties and the EOS of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter within the framework of the Brueckner theory extended to include a microscopic three-body force. We pay special attention to the discussion of the three-body force effect and the comparison of our results with the predictions by other ab initio approaches. Three-body force is shown to be necessary for reproducing the empirical saturation properties of symmetric nuclear matter within nonrelativistic microscopic frameworks, and also for extending the hole-line expansion to a wide density range. The three-body force effect on nuclear symmetry energy is repulsive, and it leads to a significant stiffening of the density dependence of symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities. Within the Brueckner approach, the three-body force affects the nucleon s.p. potentials primarily via its rearrangement contribution which is strongly repulsive and momentum-dependent at high densities and high momenta. Both the rearrangement contribution induced by the three-body force and the effect of ground-state correlations are crucial for predicting reliably the single-particle properties within the Brueckner framework.     

Isovector Scalar Field Effects in Asymmetric Nuclear Matter

Density-dependent parametrization models of the nucleon-meson coupfing constants, including the isovector scalar δ-field, are applied to asymmetric nuclear matter. The nuclear equation of state （EOS） and the neutron star properties are studied in a relativistic Lagrangian density, using the relativistic mean field （RMF） hadron theory. It is known that the δ-field in the constant coupling scheme leads to a larger repulsion in dense neutron-rich matter and to a definite splitting of proton and neutron effective masses, finally influences the stability of the neutron stars. We use density-dependent models of the nucleon-meson couplings to study the properties of neutron star matter and to reexamine the （~-field effects in asymmetric nuclear matter. Our calculation shows that the stability conditions of the neutron star matter can be improved in presence of the δ-meson in the density-dependent models of the coupling constants. The EOS of nuclear matter strongly depends on the density dependence of the interactions.     

Incompressibility of strange matter

Strange stars (ReSS) calculated from a realistic equation of state (EOS), that incorporate chiral symmetry restoration as well as deconfinement at high density [Phys. Lett. B 438 (1998) 123; Phys. Lett. B 447 (1999) 352, Addendum; Phys. Lett. B 467 (1999) 303, Erratum; Indian J. Phys. B 73 (1999) 377] show compact objects in the mass radius curve. We compare our calculations of incompressibility for this EOS with that of nuclear matter. One of the nuclear matter EOS has a continuous transition to ud-matter at about five times normal density. Another nuclear matter EOS incorporates density dependent coupling constants. From a look at the consequent velocity of sound, it is found that the transition to ud-matter seems necessary.     

Stability of superflow for ultracold fermions in optical lattices

We investigate the stability of superflow of paired fermions in an optical lattice. We show that there are two distinct dynamical instabilities which limit the superflow in this system. One dynamical instability occurs when the superfluid stiffness becomes negative; this evolves, with increasing pairing interaction, from the fermion pair breaking instability to the well-known dynamical instability of lattice bosons. The second, more interesting, dynamical instability is marked by the emergence of a transient atom density wave. Both dynamical instabilities can be experimentally accessed by tuning the pairing interaction and the fermion density.     

Electronic structure and anomalous photoemission line-shape of quasi-2D oxide η-Mo4O11

The η-Mo₄O₁₁ compound is a layered two-dimensional (2D) metallic system whose reduced dimensionality originates non-linear properties as charge density wave (CDW) instabilities. We report on synchrotron radiation angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements in order to obtain a detailed picture of the electronic structure of this material. The symmetry of the states near the Fermi level (E_F) has been discussed in relation to the photoemission symmetry selections rules. Our results are in excellent agreement with previous tight-binding calculations and support the hidden nesting concept proposed to explain the CDW instabilities exhibited by this family of compounds. In addition, a very peculiar photoemission line-shape has been found with the presence of localized non-dispersive states. Some possible explanations are discussed.     

Application of microscopic transport model in the study of nuclear equation of state from heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies

The equation of state (EOS) of nuclear matter, i.e., the thermodynamic relationship between the binding energy per nucleon, temperature, density, as well as the isospin asymmetry, has been a hot topic in nuclear physics and astrophysics for a long time. The knowledge of the nuclear EOS is essential for studying the properties of nuclei, the structure of neutron stars, the dynamics of heavy ion collision (HIC), as well as neutron star mergers. HIC offers a unique way to create nuclear matter with high density and isospin asymmetry in terrestrial laboratory, but the formed dense nuclear matter exists only for a very short period, one cannot measure the nuclear EOS directly in experiments. Practically, transport models which often incorporate phenomenological potentials as an input are utilized to deduce the EOS from the comparison with the observables measured in laboratory. The ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model has been widely employed for investigating HIC from the Fermi energy (40 MeV per nucleon) up to the CERN Large Hadron Collider energies (TeV). With further improvement in the nuclear mean-field potential term, the collision term, and the cluster recognition term of the UrQMD model, the newly measured collective flow and nuclear stopping data of light charged particles by the FOPI Collaboration can be reproduced. In this article we highlight our recent results on the studies of the nuclear EOS and the nuclear symmetry energy with the UrQMD model. New opportunities and challenges in the extraction of the nuclear EOS from transport models and HIC experiments are discussed.     

Spinodal instabilities of asymmetric nuclear matter within the Brueckner–Hartree–Fock approach

We study the spinodal instabilities of asymmetric nuclear matter at finite temperature within the microscopic Brueckner–Hartree–Fock (BHF) approximation using the realistic Argonne V18 nucleon–nucleon potential plus a three-body force of Urbana type. Our results are compared with those obtained with the Skyrme force SLy230a and the relativistic mean field models NL3 and TW. We find that BHF predicts a larger spinodal region. This result is a direct consequence of the fact that our Brueckner calculation predicts a larger critical temperature and saturation density of symmetric nuclear matter than the Skyrme and relativistic mean field ones. We find that the instability is always dominated by total density fluctuations, in agreement with previous results of other authors. We study also the restoration of the isospin symmetry in the liquid phase, i.e., the so-called isospin distillation or fragmentation effect, finding that its efficiency increases with increasing proton fraction and decreases as temperature and density increase. In general, we find that the Brueckner results are comparable to those obtained with the Skyrme and the relativistic mean field models, although the restoration of isospin symmetry is not so efficient in this case.     

Protoneutron star cooling with convection: the effect of the symmetry energy

We model neutrino emission from a newly born neutron star subsequent to a supernova explosion to study its sensitivity to the equation of state, neutrino opacities, and convective instabilities at high baryon density. We find the time period and spatial extent over which convection operates is sensitive to the behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy at and above nuclear density. When convection ends within the protoneutron star, there is a break in the predicted neutrino emission that may be clearly observable.     

Wigner crystal in snaked nanochannels

We study the properties of a Wigner crystal in snaked nanochannels and show that they are characterized by a conducting sliding phase at low charge densities and an insulating pinned phase above a critical charge density. The transition between these phases has a devil’s staircase structure typical for the Aubry transition in dynamical maps and the Frenkel-Kontorova model. We discuss the implications of this phenomenon for charge density waves in quasi-one-dimensional organic conductors and for supercapacitors in nanopore materials.     

A phenomenological equation of state for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter

A phenomenological momentum-independent(MID) model is constructed to describe the equation of state(EOS) for isospin asymmetric nuclear matter,especially the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy Esym(ρ).This model can reasonably describe the general properties of the EOS for symmetric nuclear matter and the symmetry energy predicted by both the sophisticated isospin and momentum dependent MDI model and the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock approach.We find that there exists a nicely linear correlation betwee...     

重离子碰撞中同位旋自由度输运和对称能约束

重离子核反应是地面实验室研究核物质状态方程的有效手段。当核物质体系 (包括原子核) 中的中子和质子数目差异很大时,核物质状态方程中除了对称核物质贡献之外,对称能项的贡献逐渐变得重要。它反映了核子相互作用势的同位旋矢量部分,与致密星体的性质和恒星核合成等天体物理基本问题,以及远离β稳定线原子核的奇异性质与核素图边界等核物理前沿问题,都紧密相关。然而,迄今为止,对称能对密度的依赖行为尚未很精确地约束。因此,对称能的研究成为当前国际上主要的中能核物理实验室和天体观测装置的主要物理目标之一。本文简单评述了这一领域的实验进展,并介绍了基于国内的大科学装置,即兰州重离子研究装置(HIRFL)开展费米能区重离子反应与对称能实验研究的一些进展。实验结果表明,这一能区的同位旋自由度输运时标和具体的物理过程相关,同位旋漂移效应可能持续到反应晚期。由于同位旋效应的长时间积累,轻粒子同位旋的角度分布可以用来约束对称能的密度依赖,在饱和点附近对称能值为$ S\!=\!28.3 $ MeV的条件下,其斜率参数约束在$L\!=\!33\!\sim\! 61\,\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}$的区间,置信度水平为95%。借助一套具有裂变碎片和带电粒子符合测量能力的高性能重离子反应测量谱仪,可以测量具有同位素分辨的带电粒子小角关联函数,从而给出费米能区重离子反应中同位旋驰豫的时标。最后,介绍了氘核的同位旋矢量极化效应,该效应可能提供一种全新的约束对称能密度依赖的途径。     

Relationship between the symmetry energy and the single-nucleon potential in isospin-asymmetric nucleonic matter

When skyrmions representing nucleons are put on crystal lattice and compressed to simulate high density, there is a transition above the normal nuclear matter density (n₀) from a matter consisting of skyrmions with integer baryon charge to a state of half-skyrmions with half-integer baryon charge. We exploit this observation in an effective field theory framework to access dense baryonic system. We find that the topology change involved in the transition implies changeover from a Fermi liquid structure to a non-Fermi liquid with the chiral condensate in the “melted-off” nucleon. The ～ 80% of the nucleon mass that remains “unmelted”, invariant under chiral transformation, points to the possible origin of the (bulk of) proton mass that is not encoded in the standard mechanism of spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. The topology change engenders a drastic modification of the nuclear tensor forces, thereby non-trivially affecting the EoS, in particular, the symmetry energy, for compact star matter. It brings in stiffening of the EoS needed to accommodate a neutron star of ～ 2 solar mass. The strong effect on the EoS in general and in the tensor force structure in particular will also have impact on processes that could be measured at RIB-type accelerators.     

Systematic Study on System Size Dependence of Global Stopping: Role of Momentum-Dependent Interactions and Symmetry Energy

Using the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamical model, we systematically study the role of symme- try energy with and without momentum-dependent interactions on the global nuclear stopping. We simulate the reactions by varying the total mass of the system from 80 to 394 at different beam energies from 30 to 1000 Me V/nucleon over central and semi-central geometries. The nuclear stopping is found to be sensitive towards the momentum-dependent interactions and symmetry energy at low incident energies. The momentum-dependent interactions are found to weaken the finite size effects in nuclear stopping.     

Stability and instability of a hot and dilute nuclear droplet

The diabatic approach to dissipative collective nuclear motion is reformulated in the local-density approximation in order to treat the normal modes of a spherical nuclear droplet analytically. In a first application the adiabatic isoscalar modes are studied and results for the eigenvalues of compressional (bulk) and pure surface modes are presented as function of density and temperature inside the droplet, as well as for different mass numbers and for soft and stiff equations of state. We find that the region of bulk instabilities (spinodal regime) is substantially smaller for nuclear droplets than for infinite nuclear matter. For small densities below 30% of normal nuclear matter density and for temperatures below 5 MeV all relevant bulk modes become unstable with similar growth rates. The surface modes have a larger spinodal region, reaching out to densities and temperatures way beyond the spinodal line for bulk instabilities. Essential experimental features of multifragmentation, like fragmentation temperatures and fragment-mass distributions (in particular the power-law behavior) are consistent with the instability properties of an expanding nuclear droplet, and hence with a dynamical fragmentation process within the spinodal regime of bulk and surface modes (spinodal decomposition). Received: 4 September 2000 / Accepted: 14 November 2000     

Isospin effects in nuclear fragmentation

The availability of radioactive heavy-ion beams has driven a large interest in studies of nuclear structure of unstable nuclei. Some essential information in this field can come from investigations of charge asymmetry effects on nonequilibrium dynamics. It is therefore very important to understand the properties of the symmetry term in the nuclear matter equation of state. The purpose of this work is to extract valuable information about the symmetry term in the nuclear equation of state by studying the multifragmentation processes occurring during intermediate-energy heavy-ion reactions. We will concentrate on those observables in fragment production that are particularly sensitive to the symmetry term. The calculations are performed within the semiclassical Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck approach with the inclusion of nuclear density fluctuations. We consider neutron-poor and neutron-rich Sn + Sn reactions at 50 MeV/A, with the N/Z ratio varying from 1.24 to 1.48. Both central and peripheral collisions are investigated. Some comparison with the experimental data obtained in the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University is presented.     

Mass Distributions and Charge Dispersion for the Nuclear Fission

The theory of nuclear fission is reconsidered by introducing the charge asymmetry in the asymmetric two center shell model as a dynamical collective coordinate. The quantum mechanical fluctuations, which are accompanied with the collective motion as a function of the mass asymmetry, are responsible for the mass distributions in nuclear fission. Numerical calculations are carried out for the mass distributions and charge dispersions for the nuclear fission of the ²³⁶U and ²³⁸U nuclei. The present obtained theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the experimental measurements.     

Destruction of Landau levels in asymmetric bilayer nanographene ribbons

Magneto-electronic properties of asymmetric bilayer nanographene ribbons are enriched by geometric structures, interlayer atomic interactions, magnetic quantization and finite-size confinement. There are drastic changes on the band symmetry, the degeneracy of the partial flat bands, the number of band-edge states, the energy dispersion, the carrier density, and the spatial symmetry of the wave function. Quasi-Landau levels might be converted into oscillating bands where extra band-edge states are created. When the upper ribbon is located at the ribbon centre, the Landau wave functions are completely destroyed. Meanwhile, a charge transfer between different layers or different sublattices in the same layer occurs. Furthermore, the density of states, reflecting the band structure, is also severely altered in terms of the number, structure, energy, and height of the prominent peaks.