Pre-equilibrium dipole excitation and γ-ray fragment angular correlation in the 32S +74Ge reaction

We report on the results obtained from the study of the ³²S +⁷⁴Ge deep inelastic reaction at incident energy E= 320 MeV. High-energy γ-rays were detected in an array of 6 seven-pack BaF₂ clusters. Coincidence with complex fragments detected in 12 three-stage telescopes ensured the selection of peripheral reaction events. In order to investigate the pre-equilibrium dipole strength excitation two independent analyses were performed. In the first analysis the energy spectra of the γ-rays were evaluated in the statistical model framework while in the second one the γ-ray fragment angular correlation with respect to the nuclear spin vector of the composite system was studied. Both methods indicate the excitation of dipole strength in the highly deformed dinucleus and provide dipole resonance parameter sets that are in good agreement with each other. Received: 24 March 1999 / Revised version: 17 May 1999     

Excitation of the giant dipole resonance in the scattering of isoscalar projectiles

The excitation of the giant dipole resonance in nuclei with N > Z by isoscalar projectiles α and d is discussed within a simple collective model for isoscalar dipole excitations. Calculations have been performed for ²⁰⁸Pb; they are compared to recent data on the excitation of the new giant resonance at E_x = 13.8 MeV. For α scattering the effect of dipole excitation is quite weak but significant contributions are obtained for d scattering.     

Coulomb excitation of double giant dipole resonances

We implement the Brink–Axel hypothesis for the excitation of the double giant dipole resonance (DGDR): the background states which couple to the one-phonon giant dipole resonance are themselves capable of dipole absorption. These states (and the ones which couple to the two-phonon resonance) are described in terms of the gaussian orthogonal ensemble of random matrices. We use second-order time-dependent perturbation theory and calculate analytically the ensemble-averaged cross section for excitation of the DGDR. Numerical calculations illuminate the mechanism and the dependence of the cross section on the various parameters of the theory, and are specifically performed for the reaction ²⁰⁸Pb + ²⁰⁸Pb at a projectile energy of 640 MeV/nucleon. We show that the contribution of the background states to the excitation of the DGDR is significant. We find that the width of the DGDR, the energy-integrated cross section and the ratio of this quantity over the energy-integrated cross section for the single giant dipole resonance, all agree with experiment within experimental errors. We compare our approach with that of Carlson et al. who have used a similar physical picture.     

Individual and center-of-mass resonances in the motional spectrum of an electron cloud in a Penning trap

We have examined experimentally the motional spectrum of an electron cloud confined in a Penning trap. When the axial oscillation is excited by a radio frequency field the resonance exhibits a double structure. Both components depend differently on the number of trapped electrons and have different shape and width. We conclude that one of them corresponds to the excitation of the individual electrons while the other is the center-of-mass mode of the cloud. The threshold behaviour of the center-of-mass resonance suggests that it is a parametric instability of a Mathieu type equation of motion. Received 11 July 2001 and Received in final form 12 November 2001     

Enhanced excitation of giant pairing vibrations in heavy-ion reactions induced by weakly bound projectiles

The use of radioactive ion beams is shown to offer the possibility to study collective pairing states at high excitation energy, which are not usually accessible with stable projectiles because of large energy mismatch. In the case of two-neutron stripping reactions induced by ⁶He, we predict a population of the giant pairing vibration in ²⁰⁸Pb or ¹¹⁶Sn with cross-sections of the order of a millibarn, dominating over the mismatched transition to the ground state. Received: 30 November 2001 / Accepted: 25 February 2002     

Collisional damping of giant monopole and quadrupole resonances

Collisional damping widths of giant monopole and quadrupole excitations for ¹²⁰Sn and ²⁰⁸Pb at zero and finite temperatures are calculated within Thomas-Fermi approximation by employing the microscopic in-medium cross-sections of Li and Machleidt and the phenomenological Skyrme and Gogny forces, and are compared with each other. The results for the collisional widths of giant monopole and quadrupole vibrations at zero temperature as a function of the mass number show that the collisional damping of giant monopole vibrations accounts for about 30 - 40% of the observed widths at zero temperature, while for giant quadrupole vibrations it accounts for only 20 - 30% of the observed widths at zero temperature. Received: 9 January 2001 / Accepted: 29 March 2001     

Resonance and composition effects on the Raman scattering from silver-gold alloy clusters

Low-frequency Raman scattering experiments have been performed on thin films consisting of pure gold or gold-silver alloy clusters embedded in alumina matrix. It is clearly shown that the quadrupolar vibrational modes are observed by Raman scattering because of the effect of resonance with the excitation of the electronic surface dipolar plasmon. This is due to the strong coupling between the collective electronic dipolar excitation and the quadrupolar vibrational modes. This effect of resonance does not exist with the core electron excitations. The mixing of the conduction electron dipolar excitation (surface plasmon) with the core electrons leads to the quenching of the resonant Raman scattering. Received 16 November 2000     

Evidence for multiphonon giant resonances in electromagnetic fission of 238U

Differential cross sections for electromagnetic fission of 238U projectiles (500 MeV/u) in C, Sn, and Pb targets are measured and analyzed in terms of single- and multiphonon giant resonance excitations as doorway states to fission. A novel experimental method exploits the linear relationship between neutron multiplicity and the primary 238U excitation energy. Multiphonon states contribute up to 20% of the cross section; a component at high excitation energies is indicated that may arise from three-phonon dipole and two-phonon GDR x GQRiv giant resonance excitations.     

Role of anharmonicities and nonlinearities in heavy ion collisions A microscopic approach

Using a microscopic approach beyond RPA to treat anharmonicities, we mix two-phonon states among themselves and with one-phonon states. We also introduce nonlinear terms in the external field. These nonlinear terms and the anharmonicities are not taken into account in the “standard” multiphonon picture. Within this framework we calculate Coulomb excitation of ²⁰⁸Pb and ⁴⁰Ca by a ²⁰⁸Pb nucleus at 641 and 1000 MeV/A. We show with different examples the importance of the nonlinearities and anharmonicities for the excitation cross section. We find an increase of 10% for ²⁰⁸Pb and 20% for ⁴⁰Ca of the excitation cross section corresponding to the energy region of the double giant dipole resonance with respect to the “standard” calculation. We also find important effects in the low-energy region. The predicted cross section in the DGDR region is found to be rather close to the experimental observation.     

Coulomb excitation of the giant dipole resonance in hadron scattering

The excitation of the isovector giant dipole resonance by the Coulomb force is investigated within a DWBA approach using analytic forms for the asymptotic Coulomb integrals. Scattering of d, ³He and α-particles from ²⁰⁸Pb is discussed for which recently small-angle data have been published. For most scattering systems dipole excitation is small; the inclusion of nuclear form factors gives rise to a large interference between Coulomb and nuclear excitation. A strong increase of Coulomb excitation at higher incident energies is obtained.     

Electromagnetic cross sections of double giant dipole resonances in 136Xe and 208Pb within the phonon damping model

The electromagnetic cross sections of the double giant dipole resonances (DGDR) in 136Xe and 208Pb are calculated using the strength functions obtained within the phonon damping model. The parameters of the model have been selected to describe reasonably well the single giant dipole resonance in these nuclei. The results are found in an overall agreement with the recent experimental data for the DGDR cross sections in exclusive measurements at near-relativistic energies.     

Discrete structures in fusion-barrier distributions for vibrational nuclei

We obtain a closed-form expression for the distribution of fusion barriers for vibrational nuclei using a generalization of Dasso, Landowne, and Winther's model, which represents the nuclear surface vibrations as a number of harmonic oscillators, and allows the excitation of an arbitrary number of phonons in the target and/or projectile. We find that this expression is in reasonable agreement with the average trends of the empirical distributions for the fusion of ¹⁶O with ⁹²Zr, ¹⁴⁴Sm and ²⁰⁸Pb, but fails to reproduce the double peaking of the distribution for the ¹⁴⁴Sm target. Only when we restrict the number of excited phonons to a limited number, we are able to reproduce such discrete structures. We show that limiting the number of coupled channels, particularly in the case of strong coupling, increases the spacings between the channel eigenvalues that determine the positions of the peaks of the barrier distribution and modifies their heights. Received: 6 March 2000 / Accepted: 31 January 2001     

Microscopic study of Gamow-Teller and spin-dipole states in 208Bi

Gamow-Teller (GT) and spin-dipole (SD) states in ²⁰⁸Bi are studied by using self-consistent Hartree-Fock + Tamm-Dancoff approximation taking into account the coupling to the continuum. Most of SD strength is found at the excitation energy E _x≈ 25MeV with a very broad width, which agrees with recent experimental observations. It is shown that Landau damping effect is responsible for the large width of SD peak, while the escape width is found to be at most 1MeV. We study also electric dipole (E1) transitions between GT and SD states in ²⁰⁸Bi. Main E1 transitions for 0^- and 1^- states are found near excitation energy expected from Brink's hypothesis in which SD states are considered as E1 resonances built on the GT state. Calculated E1 transition strengths between GT and SD states are compared with the analytic sum rules within one-particle one-hole (1p-1h) configuration space and within both 1p-1h and 2p-2h model space. Received: 11 April 2000 / Accepted: 30 August 2000     

Proton excitation of the isovector giant quadrupole resonance in 208Pb

The angular distribution of γ-rays from fast proton capture in ²⁰⁸Pb has been examined in detail by the direct-semidirect model. The interference of the dipole, quadrupole and octupole amplitudes was considered. The excitation of the isovector giant quadrupole resonance was assumed to occur at the excitation energy of 22.5 MeV, having the width of 5 MeV. The excitation of this resonance strongly influences the asymmetry of the angular distribution but the major part of the asymmetry is a consequence of the direct capture of the incident proton. Several groups of optical-model parameters were used in the calculation in order to see how they affect the results. The complex interaction coupling between the incident proton and the quadrupole giant resonance is essential to obtain good fits to the experimental asymmetry of the angular distribution of γ-rays.     

Contribution of the σ meson exchange to pionic double charge exchange reaction

The contribution of the σ meson exchange to the pionic double charge exchange (DCX) reaction is investigated. A concrete calculation on the forward excitation function of the low energy DCX reaction ¹⁴C(π⁺, π⁻)¹⁴O has been performed. It shows that the contribution of the σ meson exchange can reproduce well the resonance like excitation function of low energy DCX reaction. Received: 5 August 1998     

Investigation of giant E3 resonances by (N, γ) reactions

Effects related to the presence of giant E3 resonances are investigated by nucleon radiative capture according to the direct-semidirect model. The γ-ray angular distributions from the ²⁰⁸Pb(N, γ₀) reactions are calculated in the energy region above the giant dipole resonance and the influence of the E1–E3 and E2–E3 interferences is discussed. The results provide indications of an appreciable effect on the 90° photon emission when a collective isovector E3 excitation is present.     

Weak e+e− lines from internal pair conversion observed in collisions of 238U with heavy nuclei

We present the results of a Doppler-shift correction to the measured e⁺e⁻–sum-energy spectra obtained from e⁺e⁻–coincidence measurements in ²³⁸U +²⁰⁶Pb and ²³⁸U +¹⁸¹Ta collisions at beam energies close to the Coulomb barrier, using an improved experimental setup at the double-Orange spectrometer of GSI. Internal-Pair-Conversion (IPC) e⁺e⁻ pairs from discrete nuclear transitions of a moving emitter have been observed following Coulomb excitation of the 1.844 MeV (E1) transition in ²⁰⁶Pb and neutron transfer to the 1.770 MeV (M1) transition in ²⁰⁷Pb. In the collision system ²³⁸U +¹⁸¹Ta, IPC transitions were observed from the Ta-like as well as from the U-like nuclei. In all systems the Doppler-shift corrected e⁺e⁻–sum-energy spectra show weak lines at the energies expected from the corresponding γ–ray spectra with cross sections being consistent with the measured excitation cross sections of the γ lines and the theoretically predicted IPC coefficients. No other than IPC e⁺e⁻–sum-energy lines were found in the measured spectra. The transfer cross sections show a strong dependence on the distance of closest approach (R_min), thus signaling also a strong dependence on the bombarding energy close to the Coulomb barrier. Received: 22 July 1997 / Revised version: 15 October 1997     

The directed flow maximum near cs = 0

We investigate the excitation function of quark-gluon plasma formation and of directed in-plane flow of nucleons in the energy range of the BNL-AGS and for the E ^kin _Lab = 40A GeV Pb + Pb collisions performed recently at the CERN-SPS. We employ the three-fluid model with dynamical unification of kinetically equilibrated fluid elements. Within our model with first-order phase transition at high density, droplets of QGP coexisting with hadronic matter are produced already at BNL-AGS energies, E ^kin _Lab≃ 10A GeV. A substantial decrease of the isentropic velocity of sound, however, requires higher energies, E ^kin _Lab≃ 40A GeV. We show the effect on the flow of nucleons in the reaction plane. According to our model calculations, kinematic requirements and EoS effects work hand-in-hand at E ^kin _Lab = 40A GeV to allow the observation of the dropping velocity of sound via an increase of the directed flow around midrapidity as compared to top BNL-AGS energy. Received: 7 May 2000 / Accepted: 2 August 2000     

Simulation of photodisintegration of heavy nuclei

A comparative study of the results of the simulations of the photodisintegration of heavy nuclei in the energy range corresponding to the giant dipole resonance by the TALYS software package and by a combined model of is carried out. The cross sections of photoabsorption, photoneutron, and photoproton reactions and of the excitation of isomeric states for Hg and ²⁰⁸Pb isotopes are calculated. The results of the calculations are compared with the known experimental data.