Schottky Mass Measurements of Cooled Exotic Nuclei

Projectile fragments of a ²⁰⁹Bi beam were separated in flight with the fragment separator FRS and injected into the experimental storage ring ESR. In the ESR a beam containing up to about 100 different isotopes was cooled to a relative velocity spread of δv/v=10⁻⁶ by means of the electron cooler. The image currents of the ions induced in a Schottky pick-up probe at each turn were recorded. A subsequent Fast Fourier Transformation of these signals yields the revolution frequencies of the different isotopes stored in the ESR. Unknown masses of more than 150 neutron-deficient nuclides in the element range of 52≤Z≤85 have been measured directly by Schottky Mass Spectrometry and in addition more than 60 new masses have been obtained from α-decay chains. These new mass data allow the location of the one-proton dripline and the prediction of the two-proton dripline for heavy nuclides. The experimental masses are compared with different theoretical predictions. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Nanostructured TiO2 cavitation agents for dual-modal sonophotocatalysis with pulsed ultrasound

Current sonochemical methods rely on spatially uncontrolled cavitation for radical species generation to promote chemical reactions. To improve radical generation, sonosensitizers have been demonstrated to be activated by cavitation-based light emission (sonoluminescence). Unfortunately, this process remains relatively inefficient compared to direct photocatalysis, due to the physical separation between cavitation event and sonosensitizing agent. In this study, we have synthesized nanostructured titanium dioxide particles to couple the source for cavitation within a photocatalytic site to create a sonophotocatalyst. In doing so, we demonstrate that site-controlled cavitation from the nanoparticles using pulsed ultrasound at reduced acoustic powers resulted in the sonochemical degradation methylene blue at rates nearly three orders of magnitude faster than other titanium dioxide-based nanoparticles by conventional methods. Sonochemical degradation was directly proportional to the measured cavitation produced by these sonophotocatalysts. Our work suggests that simple nanostructuring of current sonosensitizers to enable on-site cavitation greatly enhances sonochemical reaction rates.     

Measurements on diproton emission from the break-up channels of ~(23)Al and ~(22)Mg

Two-proton relative momentum distributions from the break-up channels 23Al→p+p+21Na and 22Mg→p+p+20Ne at an energy of 60-70 A MeV have been measured together with two-proton opening angles at the projectile fragment separator beamline (RIPS) in the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron Facility. The results demonstrate the existence of diproton emission component from single-step 2He for highly excited 23Al and 22Mg.     

Density functional theory for reactions of astrophysical interest

For astrophysical processes nuclear reactions close to the particle emission threshold are of particular importance. As representative examples we investigate pairing resonances and new low-energy multipole modes in light and heavy exotic nuclei with a large charge asymmetry. As a common theoretical background, density functional theory and Fermi Liquid Theory are used. In particular, we consider the spectroscopy particle unstable systems, carrying the properties of open quantum systems. Results for the continuum spectroscopy of ¹⁰Li, the neutron-rich carbon isotopes, and the electromagnetic response of Sn-isotopes ¹³⁸Ba are presented.     

Low-lying resonances in F and B

In a simple potential model, we have computed energies and widths of low-lying resonances of ¹⁴F and have compared them with recent experimental results. Consequences for ¹⁴B are summarized.     

The effect of density dependent Av18 effective interaction on the ground state properties of heavy closed shell nuclei

The channel-dependent Argonne Av₁₈ effective two-body interactions (CDEI) which are generated through the lowest order constrained variational (LOCV) calculation for asymmetric nuclear matter with the charge-dependent Av₁₈ bare nucleon–nucleon potential are used to calculate the ground state properties of heavy closed shell nuclei such as ⁴⁸Ca, ⁹⁰Zr, ¹²⁰Sn and ²⁰⁸Pb. The harmonic oscillator basis, and the local density approximation (LDA) are applied to create the relative and the center of mass dependent effective two-body potential. We get more binding with respect to the similar calculation with the Reid types potentials. It is tried to omit the LDA and perform full calculation with the Av₁₈CDEI for light nuclei. The results indicate that the LDA works quite well. It is also shown that in case of heavy closed shell nuclei and unlike our previous report with Reid68Day   interaction, the contributions of higher partial waves (J>2$J>2$) are very important for the calculations with Av₁₈ potential and we get reasonable agreement between our calculated binding energies and RMS radii, with those predicated by the others methods, and the experimental data. Finally, the various aspects of channel and density dependent two-body effective interactions are discussed.     

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.