Characteristics of high energy interactions II. Production spectra of Gamma-rays in graphite

Twenty high energy nuclear interactions produced in the graphite units of an emulsion chamber were recorded. The emulsion chamber was exposed to cosmic rays at an atmospheric depth of 10 g cm⁻² for about 7 hr over Hyderabad, India. Fourteen interactions which radiated energyΣ E _r⩾1000 GeV in the form ofγ-rays were analysed in detail. The median energy 〈Σ E _r〉 of the interactions was 1600 GeV. Results concerning the multiplicity, the transverse and longitudinal momentum distributions, and the fractional energy distribution ofγ-rays in these interactions are presented. The average transverse momentum ofπ ⁰—mesons <pt _π ⁰> is found to increase very slowly with the primary energyE ₀ and it can be approximated by the function <pt _π ⁰>=0·238E ₀ ^0.06 .     

Study of isotope shifts,isotone shifts and nuclear compressibility from the analysis of muonic x-ray transitions

Muonic x-ray transitions in various spherical nuclei in the region 13?Z?83 have been analysed and the isotope and isotone shifts in charge radiusR are investigated. AssumingR=r ₀ A ^1/3, the isotopic and isotonic behaviour of the parameterr ₀ (=RA ^?1/3) is also studied. The variation ofr ₀ with mass numberA reveals the variation of average nucleon density, which in turn sheds light on the compressibility of nuclear matter. The isotope and isotone shifts inR exhibit the shell effects in the vicinity of magic neutron and proton numbers: 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126. The results indicate that neutron-proton interaction is maximum at the beginning of a major neutron shell and decreases gradually as the shell gets filled up. The behaviour of parameterr ₀ clearly suggests that low-Z nuclei are highly compressible while high-Z nuclei are more or less incompressible. The parameterr ₀ too is observed to exhibit profound shell effects.     

Dynamics of α-clusters in N = Z nuclei

The systematics for binding energies per α-particle in N = Z nuclei, E _Bα/N _α, are studied up to ¹⁶⁴Pb. It is shown that, although a geometrical model can be used to explain the systematics for light nuclei, the binding energy per α-particle exhibits structures which are due to the well-known shells of the mean field of nucleons in nuclei. The overall dependence of E _Bα/N _α on N _α in N = Z nuclei (for the ground-state masses) can be described in a liquid-drop model of α-particles. Conditions for a phase change with the formation of an α-particle condensate, a dilute Bose gas in excited compound nuclei are discussed for E _Bα/N _α = 0, at the thresholds. This is achieved when the binding energy per nucleon in nuclei is equal to or smaller than in the α-cluster. At somewhat smaller excitation energies the appearance of a Bose gas with a closed-shell core (N = Z, e.g. of ⁴⁰Ca) is proposed within the same concept. The experimental observation of the decay of such condensed α-particle states is proposed with the coherent emission of several correlated α-particles not described by the Hauser-Feshbach approach for compound-nucleus decay. This decay will be observed by the emission of unbound resonances in the form of ⁸Be and ¹²C ^* (0⁺ ₂) clusters.     

Characteristics of high energy interactions I. High energy gamma-ray spectra near the top of the atmosphere

An emulsion chamber was used to study the characteristics of high energy nuclear interactions from the production spectra ofγ-rays. The emulsion chamber, which comprised of two parts, namely the detector and the graphite producer unit, was exposed to cosmic rays for about 7 hr at an atmospheric depth of 10 g cm⁻² at Hyderabad (geomagnetic latitude 7·6°N). 720 electromagnetic cascades due toγ-rays were recorded in the detector. These cascades were classified into three groups; (a)γ-rays from nuclear interactions in the detector (b)γ-rays from nuclear interactions in the producer unit and (c)γ-rays of atmospheric origin. The energies of the cascades were determined using photometric method. The spectra ofγ-rays from groups (a) and (c) were determined and compared with similar spectra obtained at greater atmospheric depths. The spectra were found to obey a power law. The spectrum ofγ-rays of atmospheric origin was found to steepen at high energies,E _r>2200 GeV.     

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     

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.     

Photospallation of51V at intermediate energies

The yields of⁵¹V(, xpyn) reactions have been measured at maximum bremsstrahlung energies from 75 to 800 MeV. Mean cross sections have been deduced, compared to Monte-Carlo calculations and analysed with a semiempirical Rudstam formula. Total isobaric mean cross sections and anN/Z dispersion curve in the mass regionA = 42–48 have been obtained. The results are in agreement with cascade-evaporation theory and with earlier data obtained with photons and protons.     

Binding energies and radii of α-cluster-type nuclei from calculations based on the strictly restricted dynamics model

The properties of α-cluster-type nuclei with 4≤A≤80 are studied by employing the microscopic strictly restricted dynamics model (SRDM). The SRDM parameter set found via a fit to the experimental and theoretical values of nuclear binding and excited-level energies, classified according to the ground-state SU ₃ configurations, includes a nuclear-radius parameter r ₀ entering into the expression R=r ₀ A ^1/3 [fm], as well as the parameters of the effective central NN-interaction potential. The use of the microscopic SRDM allows one to obtain additional information about nuclei along the Z=N line, including binding energies, radii, and spectra of low-lying levels. The calculated nuclear binding energies and nuclear root-mean-square radii 〈r ²〉^1/2 are in reasonable agreement with their experimental counterparts.     

Square-well nuclear-potential depths and bound energy states from neutron scattering data

Using the neutron scattering lengths b determined experimentally for a majority of isotopes in last decades, one can in principic extract systematic information on some nuclear properties of elements. A significant “scatter” of experimental values of the (related to b) nuclear radius R around the “classical” dependence R = r ₀ A ^1/3, where A is the mass number, is intriguing and requires a special attention. In this work, on extending the use of known formulas of the theory of neutron scattering on nucleus represented by a rectangular radial symmetry potential well (or barrier), we have determined the depths V ₀ of the potential well and for many isotopes the position of the bound-state energy level E _b in the well. The “scatter” mentioned above can be in part attributed to the four types of the s-type wave functions of slow neutron interacting with nucleus, which appear in this model. In several cases the bound-state energy level is close to the Fermi E _F level of the free-nucleon model of nuclear matter of the constant density, independent of A.     

A model for multiparticle production in high energy hadronic collisions

A model for multiparticle production process in high-energy hadronic collisions is proposed. In the centre of mass (CM) system of colliding particles the target and the projectile are assumed to pass through each other sharing energies allowed by kinematical constraints. Thus in app collision the energy associated with each is √S/2 (S being the square of the CM energy) which is taken to be the real variable that governs the number of particles produced. In the case of hadronnucleus collisions the projectile and the target ofv nucleons lying in a (Lorentz contracted) tube pass through each other sharing energies ⋍ √S _A2, whereS _A ⋍vS. Before the final state particles emerge from these systems, the constituents of the target, i.e.,v nucleons share equally (= √S _A2v) the total energy associated with the target and become the centres from which final state particles stem out. Several results have been discussed.     

原子核电荷分布半径及结合能

从分析各方面实验结果(高能电子被核散射,μ—介原子的X谱)表明原子核电荷分布半径R_p很接近于和z^1/3成正比(R_p=r_opz^1/3。按照这看法修改了原子核结合能半经验公式(Bethe-Weizs?cker公式),把原来公式中库仑能项3/5 (z²e²)/r_pA^1/3)=a₃z²/A^1/3换成3/5 (z²e²)/r_opz^1/3) =a′₃z^5/3,结果改进了公式与实验符合的程度,并且按照新公式可以很正确地计算各元素中对β衰变最稳定的同位素的质量数。     

Off-shell variation in the binding energy of triton

Phase-shift-equivalent potentials are used to study the sensitivity of triton binding energy (E _T) to the off-shell behaviour of two-nucleonT matrix in a translationally-invariant basis of harmonic oscillator wavefunction. For a smaller value of inverse range parameterλ (1.95 fm⁻¹), which is close to the attractive range of our model potential, a 21% variation in the triton binding energy is obtained. For the other value ofλ an off-shell variation of about 28% inE _T is obtained.     

Fine structure of strength functions for beta decays of atomic nuclei

The β transition strength function S _β(E) is the nuclear excitation energy distribution of moduli squared of the β-decay-type matrix elements. The function S _β(E) determines the characteristics of β decay, the spectra of accompanying radiation, and the probabilities of delayed processes following the β decay. Until recently, tools widely used for experimental investigation of the S _β(E) structure have been total absorption gamma spectrometers and total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy (TAGS) which could not provide high energy resolution. Development of experimental techniques allows nuclear spectroscopy methods with high energy resolution to be used for studying the fine structure of S _β(E). A thorough investigation of this kind has been carried out for a number of nuclei produced at the YASNAPP-2 facility in Dubna. In this review, studies involving works on measuring the fine structure of S _β(E) in spherical and deformed nuclei are analyzed. Modern nuclear spectroscopy methods made it possible to identify the splitting of peaks from nuclear deformation in S _β(E) for Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions. The resonance nature of S _β(E) for first-forbidden (FF) transitions in both spherical and deformed nuclei is experimentally proven. It is shown that for some nuclear excitation energies, FF transitions can be comparable in intensity with GT transitions. Criteria for verifying the completeness of nuclear decay schemes are considered. The S _β(E) functions obtained by TAGS and by the high-resolution spectroscopy are compared.     

A search for colour van der Waals interaction

It is suggested that the strength of nuclear colour van der Waals interaction, if present, can be determined by measuring deviations from Rutherford scattering of charged hadrons from nuclei, at energies well below the Coulomb barrier. Experimental limit on the strength of such a potential is obtained asλ<50, when the colour van der Waals potential is given byV(r)=λ(hc/r ₀)(r ₀/r)⁷, withr ₀, the scaling length, taken as 1 fm. This limit is obtained from an analysis of existing experiments and by performing scattering experiments of 3–4.6 MeV protons from a²⁰⁸Pb target.     

Fission fragment angular distribution in alpha-particle-induced fission of actinide elements

Using Lexan polycarbonate plastic as the fission fragment track detectors, the fragment angular distributions have been measured in the cases of fission of²³²Th and²³⁸U induced by alpha particles of various energies ranging from 40 to 70MeV obtained from the 88″ variable energy cyclotron at Calcutta. The center-of-mass angular distributions have been calculated and fitted by a series of Legendre polynomials. TheW(10°)/W(90°) ratios (defined as anisotropy) were measured at several energies for both the targets. These data are utilized in calculation of the energy dependence ofK ₀ ² , the standard deviation of the distribution in the angular momentum projection on the nuclear symmetry axis at the saddle point. Values of Γ _f /Γ _η , i.e. the ratio of the fission width to neutron emission width have been determined for²³²Th and²³⁸U nuclei. The integral cross-section for alpha induced fission in each target was determined by numerical integration of the respective center-of-mass angular differential cross-sections. The results were compared with similar data available in the literature which served to resolve some of the discrepancies observed in earlier measurements. The results were also compared with theoretical cross-sections.     

Coulomb breakup of neutron-rich isotopes of light nuclei

The effects of higher order multipole transitions, in particular, E2 and E1–E2 interference, in the Coulomb dissociation of neutron-rich nuclei ¹¹Be, ¹⁴B, ¹⁵C, and ¹⁹C on Pb targets at energies of 72, 86, 550, and 77 A MeV, respectively, within the framework of the eikonal-approximation approach are studied. The main steps involved in the derivation of the explicit expressions corresponding to dipole, quadrupole, and dipole-quadrupole-interference terms are outlined. The calculations reveal that the contribution of E2 transitions to the total cross section is finite but small, while that ofE1–E2 interference is nil.Nevertheless, the E1–E2 interference term introduces small distortions in the peak of the relative-energy spectrum. The calculated results are compared with the corresponding data and the comparison favors a value of 0.530 MeV as the ground-state binding energy of ¹⁹C. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Atmospheric gamma rays in the energy region 40–1000 GeV

A large stack of lead-emulsion sandwich detector assembly was flown over Hyderabad, India. High energy gamma rays at the float altitude were unambiguously identified from the cascades they induced, and their energies reliably determined by improved methods. From an analysis of 163 gamma rays of energy ≳ 30 GeV, it is found that the differential energy spectrum is represented by the power lawJ _r (E)= 129·4E ^{−2·62±0·12} photons m⁻² sr⁻¹sec⁻¹ GeV⁻¹ at an effective atmospheric depth of 14·3 g cm⁻²; this is the first reliable balloon measurement of atmospheric gamma rays in the energy range 40–1000 GeV. After correcting for the gamma rays radiated by the primary cosmic ray electrons, the production spectrum of gamma rays, resulting from the collisions of cosmic ray nuclei with air nuclei, at the top of the atmosphere isP _r (E, 0)=8·2 × 10⁻⁴ E^2.60±0.09 photons g⁻¹sr⁻¹sec⁻¹ GeV⁻¹. The atmospheric propagation of the electromagnetic component due to the cascade process is also derived from the gamma ray production spectrum.     

sdg Interacting boson model: hexadecupole degree of freedom in nuclear structure

Thesdg interacting boson model (sdgIBM), which includes monopole (s), quadrupole (d) and hexadecupole (g) degrees of freedom, enables one to analyze hexadecupole (E4) properties of atomic nuclei. Various aspects of the model, both analytical and numerical, are reviewed emphasizing the symmetry structures involved. A large number of examples are given to provide understanding and tests, and to demonstrate the predictiveness of thesdg model. Extensions of the model to include proton-neutron degrees of freedom and fermion degrees of freedom (appropriate for odd mass nuclei) are briefly described. A comprehensive account ofsdgIBM analysis of all the existing data on hexadecupole observables (mainly in the rare-earth region) is presented, includingβ ₄ (hexadecupole deformation) systematics,B(IS4; 0 _GS ⁺ →4 _γ ⁺ ) systematics that give information about hexadecupole component in γ-vibration,E4 matrix elements involving few low-lying 4⁺ levels,E4 strength distributions and hexadecupole vibrational bands in deformed nuclei. The survey of literature for this review was concluded in December 1991.     

Quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus reactions

The quasi-elastic contribution of the nuclear inclusive electron scattering model developed in [A. Gil, J. Nieves, and E. Oset: Nucl. Phys. A 627 (1997) 543] is extended to the study of electroweak charged current induced nuclear reactions at intermediate energies of interest for future neutrino oscillation experiments. The model accounts for long-range nuclear (RPA) correlations, final state interaction and Coulomb corrections. RPA correlations are shown to play a crucial role in the whole range of neutrino energies, up to 500 MeV, studied in this work. Predictions for inclusive muon capture for different nuclei, and for the reactions ¹²C(ν _μ , μ ₋)X and ¹²C(ν _e, e⁻)X near threshold are also given. Presented by M. Valverde at the Workshop on calculation of double-beta-decay matrix elements (MEDEX’05), Corfu, Greece, September 26–29, 2005.