Fragmentation of relativistic heavy ions

The “incoherent droplet model” is used to explain recent experiments on the fragmentation of ¹⁶O during high energy collision with a Be target. In the ¹⁶O rest frame the fragments have a universal iso tropic Gaussian momentum distribution, independent to the masses of the fragments. The half-width of the Gaussian is $\text{〈p〉 (}\text{A}\text{3}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{)}$, where, A is the mass number of the nucleus, n is the total number of fragments, and 〈p²〉 is the mean square momentum of individual nucleons in the fragmenting nucleus.     

Fragmentation of water by heavy ions

Absolute cross sections for fragmentation of water molecules by C3+ and O5+ ions over an energy region where the Bragg peak maximizes were measured for ionization, electron capture, and electron loss channels. A collision regime where sigmaSigmaOq+> or =sigmaH2O+ was reached for the first time, producing large abundances of H+ and O+ fragments in comparison to proton impact. Our findings have straightforward implications in the subsequent fast chemistry at the ionization site and on the O production in the first stages of water radiolysis. An unexpected channel-independent relationship between the cross sections for the fragmentation products, which is also approximately independent of the particle type, energy, and charge state, is found. A model is presented to explain such behavior allowing the cross sections of all fragmentation products to be obtained from single and double electron removal cross sections.     

Fragmentation of highly excited small neutral carbon clusters

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of fragmentation of small Cn clusters (n = 5,7,9) produced in charge transfer collisions of fast (nu = 2.6 a.u.) singly charged Cn+ clusters with He. Branching ratios for all possible fragmentation channels have been measured. Comparison with microcanonical Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations based on quantum chemistry calculations allows us to determine the energy distribution of the excited clusters just after the collision.     

Calculation of the binding energy of a highly excited electron in heavy Be-like ions

The binding energy of a highly excited electron (n=20–50, where n is the principal quantum number) in the Be-like ions Au⁷⁵⁺, Pb⁷⁸⁺, Bi⁷⁹⁺, and U⁸⁸⁺ is calculated in order to determine the energy of the 2p _1/2-2s transition from experiments on dielectronic recombination in Li-like ions. A formula approximating the calculated data with an error not exceeding 0.04% is proposed.     

Doubly excited triplet states of highly stripped ions

Transition energies, Coulomb repulsions and effective quantum numbers have been calculated for the doubly excited Nsnp: ³P⁰ (for N = 2, n = N,?, 5n = N,\ldots, 5); Nsnd: ³D^e (for N = 2, n=N+1, ?, 5n=N+1, \ldots, 5) and Npnd: ³F⁰ (for N = 2, n=N+1, ?, 5n=N+1, \ldots, 5) states for the highly stripped ions Na⁹⁺{\rm Na^{9+}}, Mg¹⁰⁺\rm Mg^{10+}, Al¹¹⁺\rm Al^{11+}, Si¹²⁺\rm Si^{12+}, P¹³⁺\rm P^{13+} and S¹⁴⁺\rm S^{14+}. Time-dependent perturbation theory has been applied to calculate such transitions properties. A time-dependent harmonic perturbation causes simultaneous excitation of both the electrons with a change of spin state. The doubly excited energy levels and the analytic representation of their wave functions are obtained by identifying the poles of an appropriately constructed linearized variational functional with respect to driving frequency. Most of the results are new. The transition energies and effective quantum numbers of 2s2p: ³P⁰ states of all the ions agree well with the only available experimental data.     

Photon emission from channeled heavy ions excited Resonant-coherently

Abstract

The possibility of the radiative deexcitation from channeled heavy ions excited by the Okorokov Effect (Resonant coherent excitation) is discussed and the experiments on the photon emission due to the deexcitation from hydrogen-like Ne⁹⁺ and Fe⁸⁺ ions are reported.     

A statistical approach to describe highly excited heavy and superheavy nuclei

A statistical approach based on the Weisskopf evaporation theory has been developed to describe the deexcitation process of highly excited heavy and superheavy nuclei, in particular for the proton-rich nuclei. The excited nucleus is cooled by evaporating γ-rays, light particles(neutrons, protons, α etc) in competition with binary fission,in which the structure effects(shell correction, fission barrier, particle separation energy) contribute to the processes.The formation of residual nuclei is evaluated via sequential emission of possible particles above the separation energies.The available data of fusion-evaporation excitation functions in the ~(28)Si+~(198)Pt reaction can be reproduced nicely within the approach.     

Hyperfine structure of highly charged 23892U ions with rotationally excited nuclei

The hyperfine structure (hfs) of electron levels of 23892U ions with the nucleus excited in the low-lying rotational 2(+) state with an energy E(2(+)) = 44.91 keV is investigated. In hydrogenlike uranium, the hfs splitting for the 1s(1/2) ground state of the electron constitutes 1.8 eV. The hyperfine-quenched (hfq) lifetime of the 1s2p 3P0 state has been calculated for heliumlike 23892U and was found to be 2 orders of magnitude smaller than for the ion with the nucleus in the ground state. The possibility of a precise determination of the nuclear g(r) factor for the rotational 2(+) state by measurements of the hfq lifetime is discussed.     

Atomic spectroscopy of trapped, highly charged, heavy ions

For spectroscopy, the electron beam ion trap (EBIT) is of special interest, because it provides a cloud of highly charged ions that is confined to a small volume, at very low particle density, at a relatively low temperature, and without any net velocity in the laboratory rest frame. These conditions are favourable for observations at high spectral resolution and wavelength accuracy. Examples from recent work at Livermore comprise extreme ultraviolet and soft-X-ray spectra. A time-resolving multi-pixel microcalorimeter furthermore permits the study of time-dependent plasma phenomena and atomic lifetimes. Lifetime measurements at a heavy-ion storage ring can be combined with EBIT measurements to clarify isoelectronic behaviour.     

Studies of neonL-shell excitation by impact of highly ionized heavy ions

Passage of foil-excited 1.4 MeV/A S and 1.1 MeV/A Cl ions of neon charge state ～ 12⁺ through neon gas targets at pressure ～100 mTorr has been found to be accompanied by copious production of Ne II–VIII excited states. Comparable excitation cross-sections ～10^?18 cm² are found for a large number of levels belonging to all of these charge states and corresponding to principal quantum numbersn=2, 3, 4. Vacancy distributions very similar to those found in beam-foil excitation of ～1MeV neon beams are found. Because the Ne recoil velocities are small compared to the fast beam velocities characteristic of the beam-foil source, it is possible to reduce both Doppler shifts and spreads by 3–4 order of magnitude for equivalent collimation. It has also been found that there is an excitation cross-section change of a factor ～5 for a corresponding projectile charge state change from 6⁺ to 12⁺, that efforts to classifyK x-ray satellite spectra byLshell vacancy labels (KL ⁰,KL ¹,...) are probably inaccurate due to extensive population ofn≧3 spectator levels, that both the recoil ion and beam-foil spectra exhibit few lines withn≧4, and that for the allowed transitions studied here, collisional excited states quenching effects due to the ～100mTorr target gas pressures used are negligible.     

Recombination of electrons with highly charged heavy ions at very low energies

Recombination of highly charged ions with free electrons is studied in merged-beams experiments at the UNILAC accelerator in Darmstadt and at the heavy-ion storage ring TSR in Heidelberg. Unexpected high recombination rates are observed for a number of ions at very low energiesE _cm in the electron-ion center-of-mass frame. In particular, theoretical estimates for radiative recombination are dramatically exceeded by the experimental recombination rates of U²⁸⁺ ions nearE _cm=0 eV. The observations point to a general phenomenon in electron ion recombination depending onE _cm, on the ion charge state, and possibly also on electron density, electron beam temperature, and strength of external magnetic fields.     

Radial excited heavy mesons

In this study, the first radial excited heavy pseudoscalar and vector mesons (\begin{document}$\eta_c(2S)$\end{document}, \begin{document}$\psi(2S)$\end{document}, \begin{document}$B_c(2S)$\end{document}, \begin{document}$B^*_c(2S)$\end{document}, \begin{document}$\eta_b(2S)$\end{document}, and \begin{document}$\varUpsilon(2S)$\end{document}) are investigated using the Dyson-Schwinger equation and Bethe-Salpeter equation approach. It is shown that the effective interactions of the radial excited states are harder than those of the ground states. With the interaction well determined by fitting the masses and leptonic decay constants of \begin{document}$\psi(2S)$\end{document} and \begin{document}$\varUpsilon(2S)$\end{document}, the first radial excited heavy mesons could be quantitatively described in the rainbow ladder approximation. The masses and leptonic decay constants of \begin{document}$\eta_c(2S)$\end{document}, \begin{document}$B_c(2S)$\end{document}, \begin{document}$B^*_c(2S)$\end{document}, and \begin{document}$\eta_b(2S)$\end{document} are predicted.     

Evidence for strong Breit interaction in dielectronic recombination of highly charged heavy ions

Resonant strengths have been measured for dielectronic recombination of Li-like iodine, holmium, and bismuth using an electron beam ion trap. By observing the atomic number dependence of the state-resolved resonant strength, clear experimental evidence has been obtained that the importance of the generalized Breit interaction (GBI) effect on dielectronic recombination increases as the atomic number increases. In particular, it has been shown that the GBI effect is exceptionally strong for the recombination through the resonant state [1s2s(2)2p(1/2)](1).     

Structural modifications induced in Bayfol polycarbonate due to heavy highly energetic ions irradiations

The effects of 28 GeV ⁵⁶Fe and 13.72 GeV ²⁸Si ion irradiation on the structural properties of two types of Bayfol, namely DPF 5023 and CR 1–4 polycarbonates, have been investigated. It is worth mentioning that this report is almost the first one dealing with the topic of material changes in such a high energy range. Samples from each type of Bayfol were classified into two groups. The first group has been exposed to Fe ion fluences at levels between 2000 and 8000 ion/cm². The second group has been exposed to Si ions with similar fluences. The total energy deposited is between 27.44 and 224 E12 eV. The modifications induced in Bayfol samples due to ion irradiation have been studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. The results indicate that the Fe ion irradiation causes crosslinking in Bayfol DPF 5023, reflected as a decrease in the ordering character. Also, the tendency of Bayfol CR 1–4 to crosslinking due to Fe ion irradiation is lower than that of Bayfol DPF 5023. On the other hand, the Si ion irradiation causes mainly chain scission at the carbonate site of both types of Bayfol associated with the formation of hydroxyl group.     

Effective stopping of fast heavy highly charged structure ions in collisions with complex atoms

The nonperturbative theory of the energy losses of fast heavy highly charged structure ions colliding with neutral complex atoms is developed with allowance for simultaneous excitations of the electron shells of an ion and an atom. Formulas for effective stopping that are similar to the Bethe-Bloch formulas have been derived. As an example, the energy losses of partially stripped uranium ions colliding with argon atoms are calculated.     

Estimate of the second order electron self energy corrections in highly charged heavy ions

An estimate for the last unknown gauge-invariant set of QED corrections of order α², the second-order self-energy correction, is presented utilizing the so-called sign approximation. This is able to reduce the present uncertainties in Lamb-shift predictions considerably. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.