Azimuthal dependence of collective expansion for symmetric heavy-ion collisions

Detailed studies of the azimuthal dependence of the mean fragment and flow energies in the Au+Au and Xe+CsI systems are reported as a function of incident energy and centrality. Comparisons between data and model calculations show that the flow energy values along different azimuthal directions could be viewed as snapshots of the fireball expansion with different exposure times. For the same number of participating nucleons more transversally elongated participant shapes from the heavier system produce less collective transverse energy. Good agreement with Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck calculations is obtained for a soft nuclear equation of state.     

Low-lying electronic states and dissociation energies of the monochlorides of Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni

Published equilibrium data involving the gaseous monochlorides of Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni have been re-examined by thermochemical analysis, using more recent information on the low-lying electronic states, yielding D degrees 0 values in kcal mol-1 of CrCl (90.0), MnCl (79.8), FeCl (79.3), CoCl (81.3), and NiCl (88.1). Although this revised approach is believed to yield more reliable values of the FeCl, CoCl, and NiCl dissociation energies, results show that use of M+ electronic levels in place of the adopted MCl values leads to alternate D degrees 0(MCl) values agreeing within 1.6 kcal mol-1, providing a useful check on electronic-level contributions to the thermochemical calculations.     

Measurements and simulation of in-cylinder UV-absorption in spark ignition and Diesel engines

Spatially and spectrally resolved in-cylinder absorption measurements were performed in spark-ignited internal combustion engines and in Diesel engines. With UV-broadband illumination it was shown that the UV attenuation occurs throughout the burned gas area with roughly homogeneous absorption cross-sections. Model calculations based on the absorption properties of CO₂ at elevated temperatures show that this species gives the main contribution to in-cylinder UV absorption. A previously suggested technique of assessing UV absorption using O₂ laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) as probe light is successfully applied to in-cylinder measurements of the light absorption inside a fired heavy-duty Diesel engine. Even in this environment, the comparison with model calculations shows that CO₂ is the main contributor to UV light absorption. Since the O₂-LIF absorption technique is based on the identical geometry used for LIF concentration measurements, the results can directly be used for correcting LIF signal data such as that obtained from NO imaging. Received: 20 April 2001 / Published online: 18 July 2001     

Quasi-fission — The mass-drift mode in heavy-ion reactions

The binary and ternary products from reactions of ²³⁸U beams with targets of ¹⁶O, ²⁷Al, ⁴⁸Ca, ⁴⁵Sc, ⁴⁸Ti, ⁵⁸Fe, ⁶⁴Ni and ⁸⁹Y have been recorded at 6.0 MeV/u bombarding energy with four position-sensitive avalanche detectors, operated in coincidence. A few runs at 5.4 MeV/u have also been performed. Accurate triple-differential cross sections, $\text{d}{}^3\text{σ}\text{d}\text{A}\text{d}\text{θ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>c.m.</mtext>}}\text{dTKE}$, are obtained for the binary events within the full range of mass A and total kinetic energy TKE, and within almost the full range of center-of-mass angle θ_c.m.. Similar cross sections are obtained with somewhat less accuracy for triple events stemming from the sequential fission of uranium-like products. The distributions are discussed in terms of quasielastic and strongly damped scattering, where the products have partially relaxed energies and negligible average drift in mass, as opposed to capture where the products emerge with fully relaxed energies after a more or less pronounced mass drift towards symmetry. Apart from the reaction with ¹⁶O, all the capture product distributions are dominated by the non-equilibrium quasi-fission (or fast fission) process. The central feature of this reaction mechanism is the evolution of the reaction complex towards mass symmetry. With the ²⁷Al target the evolution towards symmetry is almost complete, whereas the heavier targets show very broad mass distributions with clear evidence of dissociation taking place before symmetry is reached. At the same time, the cross section for quasi-fission diminishes as the target Z-value increases. With the ⁸⁹Y target the strongly damped scattering component dominates completely. The capture cross sections are discussed in terms of the extra-push concept, and the mass and angular distributions in quasi-fission are analyzed in terms of interaction time and mass rearrangement as functions of target Z-value and excess kinetic energy in the entrance channel.     

Mass drift in reactions between a heavy and a light nucleus

The dynamics of heavy-ion collisions is studied experimentally for metastable composite systems with interaction times between the collision time of quasi- and deep-inelastic processes and the capture time of fast-fission and compound-nucleus-fission reactions. Detailed angular, total kinetic energy and mass distributions are measured for reaction products with masses between the target and projectile masses including the symmetric masses. The mass drift is observed as a function of total kinetic energy and scattering angle.     

Vertical ionization potential of the CF2 radical

The CF₂ radical was generated in an equilibrium effusion cell by the reaction of gaseous SF₆ with carbon at 1550 K. From electron impact threshold measurements, the vertical IP of CF₂ was found to be 11.54 ± 0.10 eV. This value is lower than previous electron impact results, but it is consistent with data obtained from dissociative photoionization threshold measurements via a thermochemical cycle.     

The reaction mechanism in the system132Xe+56Fe at 5.73 MeV/u: Evidence for a new type of strongly damped collisions

We present data for the¹³²Xe+⁵⁶Fe-system at 5.73 MeV/u laboratory energy. Due to inverted kinematics, where Xe is the projectile, we were able to measure energy spectra as well as angular distributions for reaction products with 20≦Z≦60 with unitZ-resolution; i.e. target- and projectile-like fragments have been investigated. The reaction shows a well focussed quasielastic component, where charge transfer from the light to the heavy collision partner dominates. This apparent tendency towards more asymmetric fragmentation is explained by a potential energy surface which favours such charge transfer in order to minimize the asymmetry energy of the liquid drop. The strongly damped component which constitutes the major part of the reaction cross section exhibits characteristics of a fusion-fission reaction with typical fission fragment kinetic energies and 1/sinΘ _c.m. angular distributions. The maximum cross section is found for the symmetric fragmentation, no clear indication is observed for a diffusion process leading to target- and projectile-like fragments. Our data are difficult to reconcile either with the standard diffusion models or with an equilibrated compound nucleus fission picture. We tentatively conclude that an essential part of the fully damped cross section originates from partial waves for which the compound nucleus has no fission barrier.