H-transfer rates in ion-neutral complexes versus those in intact aliphatic ions

The relative rates of H-transfer between partners in ion-neutral complexes were compared with those in intramolecular rearrangements using results of first differential photoionization mass spectrometry measurements. Complex-mediated H-transfers are inferred to have rates of the same order as those for intramolecular hydrogen rearrangements, suggesting a similar range of motion of the reactive sites in both types of reactions. It is also concluded that at their fastest H-transfers take place between the partners in ion-neutral complexes within at most the time of several rotations of the partners in the complexes. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Momentum transfer in collisions induced by 12C beams at intermediate energies (30–84 MeV/u)

Linear momentum transfers have been determined for C induced reactions at intermediate energies (30 to 84 MeV/u). On heavy targets, the angular correlation distributions of fission fragments indicate a limitation of the transferred momentum at 2 GeV/c in this energy range. Charged-particles emitted in coincidence with a fission fragment provide information on the prefission stage. The angular distribution of low-energy protons emitted by the heavy residues from the C + Ni reaction shows the same limitation of the transferred momentum at 2 GeV/c. Comparison of the proton and α-spectra with the results from an intranuclear cascade code including sequential cooling down of the residual partners is also given.     

Evidence for spinodal decomposition in nuclear multifragmentation

Multifragmentation of a "fused system" was observed for central collisions between 32 MeV/nucleon 129Xe and (nat)Sn. Most of the resulting charged products were well identified due to the high performances of the INDRA 4pi array. Experimental higher-order charge correlations for fragments show a weak but nonambiguous enhancement of events with nearly equal-sized fragments. Supported by dynamical calculations in which spinodal decomposition is simulated, this observed enhancement is interpreted as a "fossil" signal of spinodal instabilities in finite nuclear systems.     

Neutron-multiplicity in deep inelastic collisions: 365 MeV Cu+Au system

Neutrons have been detected in coincidence with the two outgoing fragments in deep inelastic reactions of⁶³Cu on¹⁹⁷Au at 365 MeV. Most of these neutrons are evapored from the fully accelerated fragments. An additionnal low energy contribution appears.     

Disentangling the effects of phonation and articulation: Hemispheric asymmetries in the auditory N1m response of the human brain

Background  

The cortical activity underlying the perception of vowel identity has typically been addressed by manipulating the first and second formant frequency (F1 & F2) of the speech stimuli. These two values, originating from articulation, are already sufficient for the phonetic characterization of vowel category. In the present study, we investigated how the spectral cues caused by articulation are reflected in cortical speech processing when combined with phonation, the other major part of speech production manifested as the fundamental frequency (F0) and its harmonic integer multiples. To study the combined effects of articulation and phonation we presented vowels with either high (/a/) or low (/u/) formant frequencies which were driven by three different types of excitation: a natural periodic pulseform reflecting the vibration of the vocal folds, an aperiodic noise excitation, or a tonal waveform. The auditory N1m response was recorded with whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) from ten human subjects in order to resolve whether brain events reflecting articulation and phonation are specific to the left or right hemisphere of the human brain.