Trapping in the coherent radiationless decay of degenerate states

The interference between N degenerate levels decaying through the same continuum always leads to formation of N - 1 bound states in the continuum. The decay follows a single-exponential law just as in a nondegenerate case, but its asymptotic value depends on the initial conditions.     

Influence of a continuum on cluster-decay processes

A microscopic approach to cluster decay including single-particle states in a continuum is given. The equations of motion describing cluster-like states are derived within the multistep shell-model approach. The lowest collective two-particle eigenmodes are used as building blocks for α-like states. Good agreement with low-lying states in ²¹²Po is obtained. The spectroscopic factor for the α decay between ground states is reproduced. It is shown that only by including the continuum part of the single-particle spectrum is the decay width for α-and cluster-decay processes reproduced. The α-like structure of the lowest states in ²¹²Po is analyzed, and strong high-lying resonances are predicted.     

Decay of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance in 208Pb

The decay of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance (GMR) in ²⁰⁸Pb has been studied with the ²⁰⁸Pb(α, α'n)²⁰⁷Pb reaction at θ_α′ = 0°. Comparison of the experimental data with detailed statistical model calculations shows a good overall agreement for the decay of both the GMR and the underlying continuum. Interpreting small discrepancies between the calculations and data for the GMR as indications for the presence of pre-equilibrium decay we find a direct decay branch of the GMR ⩽ 10% and a pre-equilibrium decay branch ⩽ 30%.     

Double-beta decay in gauge theories

Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a very important process both from the particle and nuclear physics point of view. From the elementary particle point of view, it pops up in almost every model, giving rise among others to the following mechanisms: (a) the traditional contributions like the light neutrino mass mechanism as well as the j _L –j _R leptonic interference (λ and η terms), (b) the exotic R-parity-violating supersymmetric (SUSY) contributions. Thus, its observation will severely constrain the existing models and will signal that the neutrinos are massive Majorana particles. From the nuclear physics point of view, it is challenging, because (1) the nuclei, which can undergo double-beta decay, have complicated nuclear structure; (2) the energetically allowed transitions are suppressed (exhaust a small part of all the strength); (3) since in some mechanisms the intermediate particles are very heavy one must cope with the short distance behavior of the transition operators (thus novel effects, like the double-beta decay of pions in flight between nucleons, have to be considered; in SUSY models, this mechanism is more important than the standard two-nucleon mechanism; and (4) the intermediate momenta involved are quite high (about 100 MeV/c). Thus one has to take into account possible momentum-dependent terms of the nucleon current, like modification of the axial current due to PCAC, weak magnetism terms, etc. We find that, for the mass mechanism, such modifications of the nucleon current for light neutrinos reduce the nuclear matrix elements by about 25%, almost regardless of the nuclear model. In the case of heavy neutrino, the effect is much larger and model-dependent. Taking the above effects into account, the needed nuclear matrix elements have been obtained for all the experimentally interesting nuclei A=76, 82, 96, 100, 116, 128, 130, 136, and 150. Then, using the best presently available experimental limits on the half-life of the 0νββ decay, we have extracted new limits on the various lepton-violating parameters. In particular, we find 〈m _ν〉 < 0.3 eV/c ², and, for reasonable choices of the parameters of SUSY models in the allowed SUSY parameter space, we get a stringent limit on the R-parity-violating parameter λ′₁₁₁<4.0×10^?4.     

Techniques to Treat the Continuum Applied to Electromagnetic Transitions in 8Be

Bremsstrahlung emission in collisions between charged nuclei is equivalent to nuclear gamma decay between continuum states. The way the continuum spectrum can be treated is not unique, and efficiency and accuracy of cross section calculations depend on the chosen method. In this work we describe, relate, and compare three different methods in practical calculations of inelastic cross sections, that is, by (i) treating the initial and final states as pure continuum states on the real energy axis, (ii) discretizing the continuum states on the real energy axis with a box boundary condition, and (iii) complex rotation of the hamiltonian (complex scaling method). The electric quadrupole transitions, 2⁺ → 0⁺ and 4⁺ → 2⁺, in α + α scattering are taken as an illustration.     

Nature of halo in light nuclei

A feature peculiar to light neutron-rich nuclei is that their lowest decay thresholds are only slightly above their ground states. Among them, ⁶He and ¹¹Li are two most striking examples. The energy needed to break ⁶He (¹¹Li) into an alpha particle (⁹Li) and two neutrons is about 1 MeV (300 keV). So small a value prompts one to construct their theory by analogy with the zero-range-nuclear-force approximation previously applied to the deuteron. A more detailed analysis shows, however, that the simple version of this approximation applied to systems that decay through a three-particle channel does not take into account some important features of these systems and requires significant improvements. First, with increasing distance between three particles, the potential energy decreases, in contrast to what is observed for binary systems, in inverse proportion to the hyperradius cubed. Second, the Pauli exclusion principle adds complexity even in the asymptotic domain, and we meet its demands in constructing the ⁶He and ¹¹Li wave functions in the continuum. An approach is proposed to analyze weakly bound three-cluster systems that takes into account the aforementioned features and which describes correctly the experimentally observed structure of bound and unbound states above the threshold for three-particle decay.     

A QCD model for jet fragmentation including soft gluon interference

A new model for hadronic jet fragmentation in hard processes is presented. It is based on a QCD parton branching mechanism with correct treatment of leading collinear and infra-red singularities (i.e. including soft gluon interference). Hadronization occurs via preconfinement of colour singlet clusters, which decay according to a simple phase-space scheme. Although tightly constrained, the model gives a good account of existing e⁺ e^? annihilation data. It predicts significant differences between quark and gluon jets. Comparisons with datadata on the CERN p?p collider jets suggest that a large fraction of them are gluon jets. The model predicts soft gluon interference effects in hadron distributions which are probably not yet observable for pions but should be clear for kaons and baryons.     

Alpha induced reactions

A comprehensive model forα particle induced reactions, recently proposed by two of the authors, has been improved and utilised in the analysis of proton andα particle spectra, angular distributions, excitation functions, spectra of neutrons emitted in the decay of continuum states on nuclei with 50<A<230 atα energies varying from 50 to 160 MeV. A unique set of average parameters has been used in all the calculations. Most of them were the same utilised in previous analyses of nucleon andπ ^? induced reactions. The energy and mass dependence (which turns out to be quite weak) of the additional parameters which are needed to describe theα particle induced reactions has been determined. The comparison with experimental data shows that the model discussed allows one to reproduce successfully the cross sections ofα particle induced reactions with an accuracy comparable to the one already gained in the analysis of nucleon andπ ^? reactions with the Exciton Model.     

Persistent threshold effects characterizing dimuon and hadron distributions due to charmed particle production by neutrinos

If massive charmed particles are being produced in current νN scattering experiments, their semi-leptonic decay leads to dimuon states. The production and decay of such particles in this process is examined in a parton model which has been modified to realistically incorporate the threshold due to the large mass of the charmed particle.The model then predicts threshold scaling violations which are unexpectedly large, and persist out to several hundred GeV in neutrino energy. These effects are particularly striking in the distributions of the charmed particle and its decay products, whose naive-scaling violations are so extreme as to be better described in terms of new anomalous scaling “laws”.The resultant dimuon and hadron distributions are qualitatively consistent with all trends observed in the recent dimuon experiments. Comparative tests between charm and other mechanisms for dimuon production are proposed. An important feature of these tests is their reliance on the persistent threshold effects predicted above. The present data on the muonic energy asymmetry β as a function of incoming neutrino energy is in agreement with the anomalous scaling predicted in the above model.     

Ballistic aggregation for one-sided Brownian initial velocity

We study the one-dimensional ballistic aggregation process in the continuum limit for one-sided Brownian initial velocity (i.e. particles merge when they collide and move freely between collisions, and in the continuum limit the initial velocity on the right side is a Brownian motion that starts from the origin x=0). We consider the cases where the left side is either at rest or empty at t=0. We derive explicit expressions for the velocity distribution and the mean density and current profiles built by this out-of-equilibrium system. We find that on the right side the mean density remains constant whereas the mean current is uniform and grows linearly with time. All quantities show an exponential decay on the far left. We also obtain the properties of the leftmost cluster that travels towards the left. We find that in both cases relevant lengths and masses scale as t² and the evolution is self-similar.     

Part II. Algebraic tails in three-dimensional quantum plasmas

We review various exact results concerning the presence of algebraic tails in three-dimensional quantum plasmas. First, we present a solvable model of two quantum charges immersed in a classical plasma. The effective potential between the quantum charges is shown to decay as 1/r ⁶ at large distances r. Then, we mention semiclassical expansions of the particle correlations for charged systems with Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics and short-ranged regularization of the Coulomb potential. The quantum corrections to the classical quantities, from orderh ⁴ on, also decay as 1/r ⁶. We also give the result of an analysis of the charge correlation for the one-component plasma in the framework of the usual many-body perturbation theory; some Feynman graphs beyond the random phase approximation display algebraic tails. Finally, we sketch a diagrammatic study of the correlations for the full many-body problem with quantum statistics and pure 1/r interactions. The particle correlations are found to decay as 1/r ⁶, while the charge correlation decays faster, as 1/r ¹⁰. The coefficients of these tails can be exactly computed in the low-density limit. The absence of exponential screening arises from the quantum fluctuations of partially screened dipolar interactions.     

Constraints to the radiative lifetime of a light neutral fermion in the galactic halo from IUE

Summary We present the negative result of a search for the radiative decay of a light neutral fermion, that might be the neutrino (if massive) or the photino, gravitationally bounded to our Galaxy. The limit obtained for the radiative lifetime of a particle of mass between 12.5 and 21.5 eV is ≈10¹⁸ years. These new data on UV background in the range (1250÷2000) ? show the presence of continuum emission and diffuse lines emission at high galactic latitude (|b ^II|>45°). The lines are identifiable with C IV, λ-1549 ? and N III, λ=1749 ?. The continuum level sharply rises at 1680 ? to the level of (314±136) photons/(cm²s sr ?) and remains nearly constant up to 2000 Å. Below 1680 Å we found no emission with an upper limit of ≈100 units. These new data are briefly discussed in comparison with the results of previous experiments and theoretical expectations. Paper presented at the Congress ?Galactic and Extragalactic Dark Matter?, Roma, 28 to 30 June 1983.     

Time-dependent magnetization in fine-particle ferromagnetic systems

A new theory is presented to describe the time-dependent decay of the isothermal remanent magnetization of a fine-particle ferromagnetic system. Analytical expressions are obtained for a model based on the summation of relaxation times over a very narrow range of the particle size distribution. The model predicts the well established ln t decay of magnetization for small t but a t^-1-dependence for large t. The results are compared with precise experimental data taken on a frozen Co fine-particle magnetic fluid. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is found over a large measurement time-scale.     

The possibility of a (c,s) vector current and D→K1ℓν

The properties of the K¹ and charged lepton from the charmed particle decay $\text{D→K}{}_{\mathrm{1?\nu }}$ are used to give some model-independent tests for the presence of a purely vector (c, s) weak current. Present data on the electron energy spectrum may suggest that the (c, s) current is not purely vector. Models for the decay and general analysis techniques are also discussed.     

Few-body Decay and Recombination in Nuclear Astrophysics

Three-body continuum problems are investigated for light nuclei of astrophysical relevance. We focus on three-body decays of resonances or recombination via resonances or the continuum background. The concepts of widths, decay mechanisms and dynamic evolution are discussed. We also discuss results for the triple ?? decay in connection with 2⁺ resonances and density and temperature dependence rates of recombination into light nuclei from ??-particles and neutrons.     

Isospin violation in τ → 3πντ

Isospin violating signals in the τ^? → (3π)^?ν_τ decay mode are discussed. For the τ^? → π^?π^?π⁺ν_τ decay mode, isospin violation arises from the vector current contribution in the τ^? → ωπ^?ν_τ decay with the subsequent isospin violating ω decay into π⁺π^?. We demonstrate that such effects may be observed in presently available data through the measurement of the interference effects of these vector current contributions with the dominating axial vector current,i. e. through a measurement of the structure functionsW _F, WG, WH andW _I. In the case of the τ^? → π⁰π⁰π^?ν_τ decay mode, a vector current contribution is generated by ηπ⁰ mixing in the decay chain τ^? → η?^?ν_τ → π⁰π⁰π^?ν_τ. We find that this effect is rather small, the magnitude of the associated interference terms being too low for present statistics.     

Multiple light scattering from disordered media. The effect of brownian motion of scatterers

We have measured the time autocorrelation function of the light intensity multiply scattered from turbid aqueous suspensions of submicron size polystyrene spheres in directions near backscattering. It is found strongly non-exponential at short times revealing the very fast decay of coherence in extended scattering loops due to the thermal motion of the many spheres involved; the longest living decay time is found remarkably close to the single particle backscattering relaxation time even under conditions of interparticle interactions. These features are only weakly affected by the particular interference effect between time-reversed pairs of loops giving rise to the coherent backscattering enhancement. A simple argument is presented which accounts for these observations.Dedicated to Prof. Klaus Dransfeld on the occasion of his 60^th birthday