A PSDPF interaction to describe the 1 ?ω intruder states in sd shell nuclei

In the level schemes of sd shell nuclei, there is generally at relatively low excitation energies, coexistence of normal 0 ?ω positive parity states and of intruder 1 ?ω negative parity states. The aim of the present work is to describe these intruder states in the full p-sd-pf model space with a ⁴He core allowing one nucleon jump between the major shells. To construct our PSDPF interaction, we first modified the p-sd and sd-pf cross-monopole terms and then applied a fitting procedure to adjust all PSDPF parameters by comparing an extended set of experimental and calculated excitation energies. Results obtained with the new interaction have been finally compared with experimental data for nuclei throughout the sd shell.     

Nuclear shell structure in the systematics of nuclear properties

Existing experimental data allow us to study the behavior of nuclear shell structure by analyzing characteristics of different nature. In this work, one of the most striking phenomena of nuclear dynamics is examined: nucleon pairing. Nucleon pairing for different nuclei chains as a function of the number of protons or neutrons in a nucleus explains why high numbers of states with positive parity in even-odd nuclei are observed for excitation energies E* < 4 MeV that form the multiplet of a nucleus’s ground state.     

Analysis of fissionability data at high excitation energies

A level density formula that takes into account the smoothed volume, surface and curvature dependence of the single particle level density at the Fermi surface using the results of Balian and Bloch, is shown to be compatible with the level spacings found in neutron resonance data if complemented by a simple Ansatz for shell effects (due to Ignatyuk) and pairing effects. The three parameters involved, a scaling parameter, a shell damping energy and a pairing energy shift are compatible, respectively, with known nuclear radii, microscopic level density calculations and odd-even mass fluctuations. At excitation energies on the order of the neutron binding energy no evidence for an absolute level density problem or a different behaviour of level densities (collective contributions) for deformed nuclei as opposed to spherical nuclei is found. The proposed level density formula allows to calculate a priori macroscopic ratios of level densities, e.g. at the groundstate and at the saddle point, removing this important parameter from the analysis of fissionability data. As a first application, the fissionability of a number of actinide nuclei at excitation energies a few MeV above the fission barrier is analysed.     

Theoretical Study on N = 126 Shell Evolution

The nuclei around magic number N = 126 are investigated in the deformed relativistic mean field (RMF) model with effective interactions TMA. We focus investigations on the N = 126 isotonic chain. The N = 126 shell evolution is studied by analyzing the variations of two-neutron (proton) separation energies, quadruple deformations, single particle levels etc. The good agreement of two-neutron separation energies between experimental data and calculated values is reached. The RMF theory predicts that the sizes of N = 126 shell become smaller and smaller with the increasing of proton number Z. However, the N = 126 shell exists in our calculated region all along. According to the calculated two-proton separation energies, the RMF theory suggests ²²⁰Pu is a two-proton drip-line nucleus in the N = 126 isotonic chain.     

同位旋对断前粒子发射的壳结构依赖性

用扩散模型研究了壳对幻数附近的核,即²⁰⁴Pb,²⁰⁸Pb,²¹²Pb和¹²⁸Sn,¹³²Sn,¹³⁶Sn,在裂变过程中蒸发轻粒子多重性的影响.发现壳能够影响粒子发射的同位旋依赖性,并且该影响的大小与复合系统的自旋和激发能有关.计算表明角动量在壳影响同位旋相关的粒子发射中起到了显著的作用,而高激发能弱化了壳的影响.     

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.     

Neutrino-induced fission of neutron-rich nuclei

We calculate neutrino-induced fission cross sections for selected nuclei with Z=84-92. We show that these reactions populate the daughter nucleus at excitation energies where shell effects are significantly washed out, effectively reducing the fission barrier. If the r process occurs in the presence of a strong neutrino fluence, and electron neutrino average energies are sufficiently high, perhaps as a result of matter-enhanced neutrino flavor transformation, then neutrino-induced fission could lead to significant alteration in the r-process flow in slow outflow scenarios.     

Equivalence between local Fermi gas and shell models in inclusive muon capture from nuclei

Motivated by recent studies of inclusive neutrino nucleus processes and muon capture within a correlated local Fermi gas model (LFG), we discuss the relevance of nuclear finite-size effects in these reactions at low energy, in particular for muon capture. To disentangle these effects from others coming from the reaction dynamics we employ here a simple uncorrelated shell model that embodies the typical finite-size content of the problem. The integrated decay widths of muon atoms calculated with this shell model are then compared for several nuclei with those obtained within the uncorrelated LFG, using in both models exactly the same theoretical ingredients and parameters. We find that the two predictions are in quite good agreement, within 1-7%, when the shell model density and the correct energy balance is used as input in the LFG calculation. The present study indicates that, despite the low excitation energies involved in the reaction, integrated inclusive observables, like the total muon capture width, are quite independent of the fine details of the nuclear wave functions. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Influence of Isotope on Shell Effects of Pre-scission Particle Evaporation

The shell effects on the particle evaporation prior to fission for three Pb isotopes, 204pb, 20sPb, and 212pb,as well as three Sn isotopes, 128Sn, 132Sn, and 136Sn, are explored by a diffusion model. Calculations show that the magnitude of shell effects in the emission of particles changes with the neutron-to-proton ratio N/Z of these fissioning nuclei, and this change is affected significantly by the spin and excitation energy of the system. It is shown that high angular momentum enhances the dependence of shell effects on the N/Z while high excitation energy weakens such a dependence.     

Heavy deformed nuclei in the shell model Monte Carlo method

We extend the shell model Monte Carlo approach to heavy deformed nuclei using a new proton-neutron formalism. The low excitation energies of such nuclei necessitate low-temperature calculations, for which a stabilization method is implemented in the canonical ensemble. We apply the method to study a well-deformed rare-earth nucleus, 162Dy. The single-particle model space includes the 50-82 shell plus 1f_{7/2} orbital for protons and the 82-126 shell plus 0h_{11/2}, 1g_{9/2} orbitals for neutrons. We show that the spherical shell model reproduces well the rotational character of 162Dy within this model space. We also calculate the level density of 162Dy and find it to be in excellent agreement with the experimental level density, which we extract from several experiments.     

Manifestation of pairing effects in the cross section for 238Pu fission induced by neutrons

The cross section for ²³⁸Pu fission induced by neutrons with energies between 1 keV and about 5 MeV is described within the statistical model. It is shown that the stepwise structure observed above the fission threshold (at incident-neutron energies of Es>1 MeV) is due to the step in the level density of the fissile ²³⁹Pu nucleus at deformations corresponding to the inner fission barrier. In turn, the step in the level density of the odd nucleus ²³⁹Pu is associated with the excitation of internal single-and three-quasiparticle states. The level density is described with allowance for collective, pairing, and shell effects.     

Influence of Isotope on Shell Effects of Pre-scission Particle Evaporation

The shell effects on the particle evaporation prior to fission for three Pb isotopes, ^204Pb, ^208Pb, and ^212pb,as well as three Sn isotopes, ^128Sn, ^132Sn, and ^136Sn, are explored by a diffusion model. Calculations show that the magnitude of shell effects in the emission of particles changes with the neutron-to-proton ratio N/Z of these fissioning nuclei, and this change is affected significantly by the spin and excitation energy of the system. It is shown that high angular momentum enhances the dependence of shell effects on the N/Z while high excitation energy weakens such a dependence.     

Fission experiments with secondary beams

Nuclear fission from excitation energies around 11 MeV was studied at GSI, Darmstadt for 76 neutron-deficient actinides and pre-actinides by use of relativistic secondary beams. The characteristics of multimodal fission of nuclei around ²²⁶Th are systematically investigated and related to the influence of shell effects on the potential-energy and on the level density between saddle point and scission. A systematic view on the large number of elemental yields measured gave rise to a new interpretation of the enhanced production of even elements in nuclear fission and allowed for a new understanding of pair breaking in fission.     

Meson-exchange currents and energetic particle emission from μ− capture

We consider corrections to the impulse approximation calculation of the excitation function generated by muon capture in complex nuclei, in the form of captures on pairs of nucleons induced via meson-exchange currents. Within the Fermi gas model for the nucleus, these multinucleon captures are found to account for 4–8% of the experimental muon capture rates and to produce high excitation energies. The emission of pre-equilibrium protons with energies between 40 and 90 MeV is calculated for several nuclei using the hybrid exciton model. The agreement with experiment on emission spectra and rates is generally good. The emission of neutrons at these energies is also discussed.     

球形平均场加四极-四极和对力模型在单j壳内的量子相交叉行为(英文)

介绍了单j壳的球形平均场加几何四极-四极和标准对力模型的量子相交叉行为。在单j=15/2的壳内,计算了随模型控制参数变化的多个物理量如低激发能级、激发态间重叠积分、低激发态间的B（E2）比值和电四极矩比值。结果显示,在类转动到对激发相的演化中,多个物理量在交叉区存在非常明显的变化,如B（E2;4₁ → 2₁）/B（E2;2₁ → 0_g）,B（E2;4₂ → 2₁）/B（E2;2₁ → 0_g）等,并且这些变化在核子数达到半满壳时尤为显著。此外,尽管当j较小时,由几何四极-四极相互作用得到的低激发能级不满足转动谱规律,但当j值足够大时,这些低激发能级满足转动谱规律。The analysis of the quantum phase crossover behavior in the spherical shell model mean-field plus the geometric quadrupole-quadrupole (Q·Q) and standard pairing model within a single-j shell is reported. Several quantities, such as low-lying excitation energies, the overlaps of excited states, ratios of some B(E2) and electric quadrupole moments of some low-lying states as functions of the control parameter of the model in a j=15/2 shell are calculated. The results show that there are noticeable changes in the crossover region of the rotational-like to the pair-excitation phase transition, such as B(E2;4₁ → 2₁)/B(E2;2₁ → 0_g) and B(E2;4₂ → 2₁)/B(E2;2₁ → 0_g), especially in the half-filling case. Though the low-lying excitation energies generated from the geometric quadrupole-quadrupole interaction not satisfy the pattern of a rotational spectrum when j is small, these energies follow the pattern of a rotational spectrum when j is sufficiently large.     

Transition fission states for heated nuclei

Induced fission reactions of fissioning compound nuclei that result from the capture of various incident particles (nucleons, γ rays, multiply charged ions) by target nuclei are investigated using the generalized nucleus model and the Wigner random matrix method. The effect produced on the fission widths of the compound nucleus by the competition between the excitation energies of its collective vibrational degrees of freedom that lead to its scission into fission fragments and its rotational and multi-quasiparticle states is analyzed. Bohr’s concept of transition fission states developed for near-barrier nuclear fission is generalized to the induced fission of nuclei with the excitation energies noticeably higher than the fission barriers. The temperature of the fissioning nucleus in the vicinity of the point of its scission into fission fragments is estimated.     

Baryon number violating nuclear decay

The expressions for baryon number violating nuclear partial decay widths are derived from the interactions as predicted by grand unified theories. Theory predicts that the baryon number violating proton decay inside the nucleus is hindered relative to the free proton decay rate. In the case of closed shell nuclei, the meson spin-isospin dependence of the partial width is the same as that for the nucleon decay. The branching ratios of decay amplitudes depend on the nuclear binding energies. Nuclear structure introduces lepton energy spread of ±49.5 MeV for light closed shell nuclei, while it does not affect the back to back emission of lepton-meson pair.     

Probing Shell Correction at High Spin by Neutron Emission of Doubly Magic Nuclei 208pb and 132Sn

Shell effects in particle emission for two doubly magic nuclei 132 Sn and 208 Pb were studied in the framework of Smoluchowski equation taking into account temperature and spin-dependent shell correction. It is shown that the shell effects in the enission of pre-scission neutrons are sensitive to the spin dependence of the shell correction at a moderate excitation energy. Therefore, we propose to use neutron multiplicity as an observable to probe the shell correction at high spins.     

Allowance for the shell structure of colliding nuclei in the fusion-fission process

The motion of two nuclei toward each other in fusion-fission reactions is considered. The state of the system of interacting nuclei is specified in terms of three collective coordinates (parameters). These are the distance between the centers of mass of the nuclei and the deformation parameter for each of them (the nose-to-nose orientation of the nuclei is assumed). The evolution of collective degrees of freedom of the system is described by Langevin equations. The energies of the Coulomb and nuclear (Gross-Kalinovsky potential) interactions of nuclei are taken into account in the potential energy of the system along with the deformation energy of each nucleus with allowance for shell effects. The motion of nuclei toward each other are calculated for two reaction types: reactions involving nuclei that are deformed (₄₂¹⁰⁰Mo + ₄₂¹⁰⁰Mo → ₈₄²⁰⁰Po) and those that are spherical (₈₂²⁰⁸Pb + ₈¹⁸O → ₉₀²²⁶Th) in the ground state. It is shown that the shell structure of interacting nuclei affects not only the fusion process as a whole (fusionbarrier height and initial-reaction-energy dependence of the probability that the nuclei involved touch each other) but also the processes occurring in each nucleus individually (shape of the nuclei and their excitation energies at the point of touching).