Hyperfine structure and isotope shift study in singly ionized lead

Hyperfine structure and isotope shifts in five optical transitions: 424.5 nm ( – ), 537.2 nm ( – ), 554.5 nm ( – ), 560.9 nm ( – ) and 666.0 nm ( – ) of Pb  II have been measured. As a light source the discharge tube was used. The hyperfine structure measurements were performed using metallic isotope ²⁰⁷Pb. For isotope shifts measurements natural lead was used. The high resolution spectral apparatus consisted of a silver coated Fabry-Perot etalon and a grating spectrograph combined with a CCD camera used as a detector. In the analysis of the spectra a computer simulation technique was used. The hyperfine structure observations yielded the splitting constants A for seven levels of Pb II. The isotope shift studies enabled to separate the mass and the field shifts and to determine values of changes of the mean square nuclear charge radii.     

Studies of ion energy and yield from argon clusters heated by intense femtosecond laser pulses

Using time-of-flight spectrometry, the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with argon clusters has been studied by measuring the energy and yield of emitted ions. With two different supersonic nozzles, the dependence of average ion energy on cluster size in a large range of has been measured. The experimental results indicate that when the cluster size , the average ion energy Coulomb explosion is the dominant expansion mechanism. Beyond this size, the average ion energy gets saturated gradually, the clusters exhibit a mixed Coulomb-hydrodynamic expansion behavior. We also find that with the increasing gas backing pressure, there is a maximum ion yield, the ion yield decreases as the gas backing pressure is further increased.     

Two-step laser optogalvanic spectroscopy of the odd-parity Rydberg states of atomic mercury

We present new experimental data on the highly excited levels in mercury using the two-step laser excitation and optogalvanic detection technique in conjunction with a RF discharge cell. The 6s7s ³S₁ intermediate level has been accessed from the 6s6p ³P₂ metastable level that is collisionally populated in the mercury discharge in the presence of a buffer gas at a pressure of about 1 Torr. Two beams fromtwo different dye lasers pumped with a common excimer laser were passed through the discharge cell containing mercury vapors. The first laser was tuned to 6s7s ³S₁ level whereas the second laser was scanned covering the wavelength region between 544-458 nm. We have observed the 6snp ³P₀ ( ), 6snp ( ), 6snp ( ) and 6snp ) Rydberg series. The 6snp Rydberg series to such high n-value has been reported for the first time. The first ionization potential of mercury is determined from the 6snp Rydberg series as 84184.15 0.05 cm^-1. Some collisionally induced parity forbidden transitions have also been located that are identified as 6sns ( ) series.Received: 5 November 2003, Published online: 20 January 2004PACS: 31.50.-x Potential energy surfaces - 32.30.Jc Visible and ultraviolet spectra - 32.80.Rm Multiphoton ionization and excitation to highly excited states (e.g., Rydberg states)     

Strongest gravitational waves from neutrino oscillationsat supernova core bounce

Resonant active-to-active ( ), as well as active-to-sterile ( ) neutrino ( ) oscillations can take place during the core bounce of a supernova collapse. Besides, over this phase, weak magnetism increases the antineutrino ( ) mean free path, and thus its luminosity. Because the oscillation feeds mass-energy into the target species, the large mass-squared difference between the species ( ) implies a huge amount of energy to be given off as gravitational waves ( erg s^-1), due to anisotropic but coherent flow over the oscillation length. This asymmetric -flux is driven by both the spin-magnetic and the universal spin-rotation coupling. The novel contribution of this paper stems from (1) the new computation of the anisotropy parameter -0.01, and (2) the use of the tight constraints from neutrino experiments as SNO and KamLAND, and the cosmic probe WMAP, to compute the gravitational-wave emission during neutrino oscillations in supernovae core collapse and bounce. We show that the mass of the sterile neutrino that can be resonantly produced during the flavor conversions makes it a good candidate for dark matter as suggested by Fuller et al. , Phys. Rev. D 68, 103002 (2003). The new spacetime strain thus estimated is still several orders of magnitude larger than those from diffusion (convection and cooling) or quadrupole moments of neutron star matter. This new feature turns these bursts into the more promising supernova gravitational-wave signals that may be detected by observatories as LIGO, VIRGO, etc., for distances far out to the VIRGO cluster of galaxies.Received: 26 November 2003, Revised: 26 February 2004, Published online: 3 June 2004     

Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbech calculation of total reaction cross-section and fragmentation cross-section

, and have been calculated via the BUU model with soft EOS and 0.8 times of . The density distribution without any adjustable parameters which comes from the RMF model has been introduced into the BUU calculation to replace the normally used one-parameter square-type distribution. The calculated results can reproduce the experimental data well for both halo- and stable-nuclei-induced reactions. Here or is calculated as the difference between of halo nucleus and core nucleus, by assuming . It indicates that this assumption works very well at high energy in the BUU calculation. More experimental measurements are necessary to test the validity of this assumption at intermediate energy.Received: 12 June 2003, Revised: 29 September 2003, Published online: 27 April 2004PACS: 24.10.-i Nuclear reaction models and methods - 25.60.Dz Interaction and reaction cross-sections - 25.60.Gc Breakup and momentum distributions - 27.20. + n      

The high-energy critical minimum in elastic electron scattering by argon

The position of high-energy critical minimum in elastic electron-argon scattering was investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Differential cross-sections (DCSs) were measured as a function of both incident electron energy (40-150 eV) and scattering angle ( ), in small steps around the critical minimum. The position of the high-energy critical minimum in elastic electron-argon scattering was experimentally found to be at eV and . To cover the energy and angular ranges of the present experiment, relevant relativistic ab initio calculations were carried out, based on the Dirac-Hartree-Fock method with the exchange calculated exactly. Target polarization is described by an ab initio potential taken from relativistic polarized orbital calculations. The calculated position of the high-energy critical minimum is eV, . It was shown that even slight difference of fixed scattering angle close to the critical point could affect significantly the energy dependent DCS. Discussion of behavior of DCS in the vicinity of the critical minimum was performed including convolution analysis in both energy and angle.Received: 31 October 2003, Published online: 20 April 2004PACS: 31.15.Ar Ab initio calculations - 34.80.Bm Elastic scattering of electrons by atoms and molecules     

Triple differential cross-sections of Ne (2s<Superscript>2</Superscript>) in coplanar to perpendicular plane geometry

The distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) with the spin averaged static exchange potential has been used to calculate the triple differential cross-sections (TDCSs) for Ne (2s ²) ionization by electron impact in coplanar to perpendicular plane symmetric geometry at 110.5 eV incident electron energy. The present theoretical results at gun angles (coplanar symmetric geometry) and (perpendicular plane geometry) are in satisfactory agreement with the available experimental data. A deep interference minimum appears in the TDCS in the coplanar symmetric geometry and a strong peak at scattering angle caused by the single collision mechanism has been observed in the perpendicular plane geometry. The TDCSs at the gun angles , and are predicted.Received: 16 July 2002, Published online: 22 July 2003PACS: 34.80.Gs Molecular excitation and ionization by electron impact - 34.80.Dp Atomic excitation and ionization by electron impact     

Two-time synchronism and induced synchronization in a Kerr coupler

A pair of interacting Kerr oscillators treated as a master coupler sending chaotic or hyperchaotic signals to its slave copy is considered. We synchronize a with A and b with B through two communication channels and . The effect of synchronization is non-simultaneous, the pairs and have different times of synchronization. It is possible to synchronize an individual pair, for example, when its communication channel is turned off, provided that the second channel for the pair is turned on. The resulted synchronization is termed induced. The efficiencies of the presented synchronization precesses are studied.Received: 20 February 2003, Published online: 29 April 2003PACS: 05.45.Xt Synchronizations; coupled oscillators - 05.45.Pq Numerical simulations of chaotic systems - 42.65.Sf Dynamics of nonlinear optical systems; optical instabilities, optical chaos and complexity, and optical spatio-temporal dynamics     

The optimal velocity traffic flow models with open boundaries

The effects of the open boundaries on the dynamical behavior of the optimal velocity traffic flow models with a delay time allowing the car to reach its optimal velocity is studied using numerical simulations. The particles could enter the chain with a given injecting rate probability , and could leave the system with a given extracting rate probability . In the absence of the variation of the delay time , it is found that the transition from unstable to metastable and from metastable to stable state occur under the effect of the probabilities rates and . However, for a fixed value of , there exist a critical value of the extraction rate above which the wave density disappears and the metastable state appears and a critical value above which the metastable state disappears while the stable state appears. and depend on the values of and the variation of the delay time . Indeed and increase when increasing and/or decreasing . The flow of vehicles is calculated as a function of , and for a fixed value of . Phase diagrams in the ( ) plane exhibits four different phases namely, unstable, metastable, stable. The transition line between stable phase and the unstable one is curved and it is of first order type. While the transition between stable (unstable) phase and the metastable phase are of second order type. The region of the metastable phase shrinks with increasing the variation of the delay time and disappears completely above a critical value .Received: 23 July 2003, Published online: 8 December 2003PACS: 05.50. + q Lattice theory and statistics (Ising, Potts, etc.) - 64.60.Cn Order-disorder transformations; statistical mechanics of model systems - 75.30.Kz Magnetic phase boundaries (including magnetic transitions, metamagnetism, etc.) - 82.20.Wt Computational modeling; simulation     

Study of Z pair production and anomalous couplingsin e + e- collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ between 190 GeV and 209 GeV

A study of Z-boson pair production in e ⁺ e^- annihilation at center-of-mass energies between 190 GeV and 209 GeV is reported. Final states containing only leptons, ( and ), quark and lepton pairs, ( , ) and only hadrons ( ) are considered. In all states with at least one Z boson decaying hadronically, lifetime, lepton and event-shape tags are used to separate pairs from final states. Limits on anomalous ZZ and ZZZ couplings are derived from the measured cross sections and from event kinematics using an optimal observable method. Limits on low scale gravity with large extra dimensions are derived from the cross sections and their dependence on polar angle.Received: 14 July 2003, Published online: 18 December 2003     

Electron impact excitation of 2p and 3p states of hydrogen at intermediate energies

The recent theoretical work by Bartlett et al. [J. Phys. B 38, L95 (2005)] and the latest measurements on the reduced Stokes parameters , and for 54.4 eV electron impact excitation of the 2p state atomic hydrogen by Williams and Mikosza [J. Phys. B 39, 4113 (2006)] has motivated the present work. A coupled-channel-optical calculation with 9 and 12 atomic states supplemented with the continuum optical potentials for the stronger coupling channels has been performed. The calculated n = 2 and n = 3 differential cross sections and the reduced Stokes parameters are comparable with the state-of-the art calculations. There is closer agreement between the present calculations and the experimental measurements for the reduced Stokes parameters and in the n = 2p excitation at 54.4 eV. The present CCO calculations also display good accord with the limited experimental data for the reduced Stokes parameters in the n=3p excitation.     

The $\eta_{c}(2980)$ formation in two-photon collisions at LEP energies

production in interactions has been detected via its decays into ,K ⁺ K ^- K ⁺ K ^- and in the data taken with the DELPHI detector at LEP1 and LEP2 energies. The two-photon radiative width averaged over all observed decay channels is = 13.9 2.0 (stat.) 1.4(syst.) 2.7 (BR) keV. No direct decay channel has been observed. An upper limit < 5.5 keV at 95% confidence level has been evaluated for this decay mode.Received: 3 July 2003, Published online: 7 November 2003     

Lifetime vibrational interference during the NO 1s-1π* resonant excitation studied by the NO+(A 1Π → X 1Σ+) fluorescence

Dispersed fluorescence from fragments formed after the de-excitation of the 1s^-1π^* resonances of N^*O and NO^* has been measured in the spectral range of 118–142 nm. This range is dominated by lines of atomic nitrogen and oxygen fragments and by the bands in the NO⁺ ion which result from the participator Auger decay of the 1s^-1π^* resonances. Ab-initio calculations of the transition probabilities between vibrational levels during the reaction NO N^*O ⇒ NO were used to explain the observed intensity dependence for the fluorescence bands on the exciting-photon energy across the resonances and on both v^′ and v^′′ vibrational quantum numbers. The multiplet structure of the 1s^-1π^* resonance and lifetime vibrational interference explain the observed exciting-photon energy dependence of the fluorescence intensity. A strong spin-orbit coupling between singlet and triplet states of NO⁺ is proposed to reduce additional cascade population of the state via radiative transitions from the and states and to explain remaining differences between measured and calculated integral fluorescence intensities.     

Search for anomalous weak dipole moments of the $\tau$ lepton

The anomalous weak dipole moments of the lepton are measured in a data sample collected by ALEPH from 1990 to 1995 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 155 pb^-1. Tau leptons produced in the reaction at energies close to the mass are studied using their semileptonic decays to , , or . The real and imaginary components of both the anomalous weak magnetic dipole moment and the CP-violating anomalous weak electric dipole moment, , , and , are measured simultaneously by means of a likelihood fit built from the full differential cross section. No evidence of new physics is found. The following bounds are obtained (95% CL): , , , and .Received: 25 September 2002, Published online: 29 August 2003     

Di-jet production in photon-photon collisionsat $\sqrt{s_{\protect\bf\mathrm{ee}}}$ from 189 to 209 GeV

Di-jet production is studied in collisions of quasi-real photons at e ⁺ e^- centre-of-mass energies from 189 to 209 GeV at LEP. The data were collected with the OPAL detector. Jets are reconstructed using an inclusive -clustering algorithm for all cross-section measurements presented. A cone jet algorithm is used in addition to study the different structure of the jets resulting from either of the algorithms. The inclusive di-jet cross-section is measured as a function of the mean transverse energy of the two leading jets, and as a function of the estimated fraction of the photon momentum carried by the parton entering the hard sub-process, , for different regions of . Angular distributions in di-jet events are measured and used to demonstrate the dominance of quark and gluon initiated processes in different regions of phase space. Furthermore the inclusive di-jet cross-section as a function of and is presented, where is the jet pseudo-rapidity. Different regions of the - -space are explored to study and control the influence of an underlying event. The results are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and to the predictions of the leading order Monte Carlo generator PYTHIA.Received: 20 December 2002, Published online: 17 October 2003     

Amplitude-squared squeezing in superposed coherent states

We study amplitude-squared squeezing of the Hermitian operator Z_θ=Z₁ cosθ+Z₂ sin θ, in the most general superposition state , of two coherent states and . Here operators Z_1,2 are defined by , a is annihilation operator, θ is angle, and complex numbers C_1,2 , α, β are arbitrary and only restriction on these is the normalization condition of the state . We define the condition for a state to be amplitude-squared squeezed for the operator Z_θ if squeezing parameter , where N=a⁺a and . We find maximum amplitude-squared squeezing of Z_θ in the superposed coherent state with minimum value 0.3268 of the parameter S for an infinite combinations with α- β= 2.16 exp [±i(π/4) + iθ/2], and with arbitrary values of (α+β) and θ. For this minimum value of squeezing parameter S, the expectation value of photon number can vary from the minimum value 1.0481 to infinity. Variations of the parameter S with different variables at maximum amplitude-squared squeezing are also discussed.     

Multiphoton radiation in leptonic <Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis>-boson decays

We explore CP violation in decay processes in the presence of the anomalous right-handed and couplings. The complex anomalous top coupling can be a source of new CP violation and may lead to a deviation of the observed weak phase in decays, which accounts for the present disagreement of the observed between and decays. Direct CP violation is also predicted. Received: 27 November 2002, Revised: 28 March 2003, Published online: 2 June 2003     

Absolute resonance strengths in the $^{6,7}Li(\alpha, \gamma)^{10,11}B$ reactions

The absolute strengths of the keV resonance in the reaction and of the keV resonance in the reaction have been measured to meV and meV, respectively, in good agreement with previous values. These resonances can be used to measure the absolute acceptance of the recoil separator ERNA to a precision of about 10%.Received: 12 December 2003, Revised: 10 February 2004, Published online: 3 August 2004PACS: 24.30.-v Resonance reactions - 25.40.Lw Radiative capture - 26.20. + f Hydrostatic stellar nucleosynthesis     

Multi-ring signatures of the oscillation $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_e$ in a water Cherenkov detector

Multi-ring signatures of appearance via the oscillation are formulated for a water Cherenkov detector. These signatures are appropriate for long-baseline neutrino experiments operating at relatively high neutrino energies GeV that emphasize the matter effect. The NC background is less for selected multi-ring events than for 1e-like events, and may be directly estimated from the data. Our results suggest that best sensitivity to and to the sign of can be reached with baselines over some 6000 km.Received: 14 April 2003, Revised: 19 June 2003, Published online: 26 September 2003M.A. Kubantsev: Now at Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA     

ZZ production in e+ e- int eractions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 183-209 G eV

Measurements of on-shell ZZ production are described, using data from the DELPHI experiment at LEP in e ⁺ e ^- collisions at centre-of-mass energies between 183 and 209 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 665 pb^-1. Results obtained in each of the final states , , , , , l ⁺ l ^- l ⁺ l ^-, and (with ) are presented. The measured production cross-sections are consistent with the Standard Model expectations. These results update and supersede those already published at 183 and 189 GeV.Received: 3 March 2002, Revised: 28 May 2003, Published online: 19 September 2003