Nuclear stopping from 0.09A to 1.93A GeV and its correlation to flow

We present a complete systematics (excitation functions and system-size dependences) of global stopping and side flow for heavy ion reactions in the energy range between 0.09A and 1.93A GeV. For the heaviest system, Au+Au, we observe a plateau of maximal stopping extending from about 0.2A to 0.8A GeV with a fast drop on both sides. The degree of stopping, which is shown to remain significantly below the expectations of a full stopping scenario, is found to be highly correlated to the amount of side flow.     

Nuclear deformations from inelastic α-scattering on rare earth nuclei at energies near the Coulomb barrier

Alpha particles in the energy range of 10–20 MeV and scattered at various angles were used to excite the 0⁺, 2⁺, 4⁺ members in the ground state bands of ¹⁵²Sm, ¹⁵⁴Sm and ¹⁸⁶W. The measured excitation probabilities for bombarding energies below the Coulomb barrier were analyzed in the framework of Coulomb excitation theory. The resulting matrix elements of the E2 and E4 multipole operators were interpreted in terms of charge deformation parameters β^cλ = 2, 4. The cross sections for higher energies were analyzed in terms of the deformed optical potential and resulted in potential deformation parameters β^pλ = 2, 4. The two sets of deformation parameters show the same general trend of variation with target mass number. Still, significant differences are observed in some particular cases.     

Energy loss and nucleon exchange in the reaction of 86Kr with 166Er

Projectile-like products from the reaction ⁸⁶Kr on ¹⁶⁶Er at 8.18 MeV/amu have been measured using a large-area position-sensitive ionization chamber. The observed element distributions for a given energy loss are found to be asymmetric. An analysis of the data in terms of the residual kinetic energy above the Coulomb barrier, however, yields symmetric and Gaussian-shaped element distributions. At large energy losses, the centroids of these Gaussian distributions exhibit a drift towards symmetric mass splits. The correlation between the variance of the element distribution σ_z² and the number of exchanged nucleons N_ex is discussed. The exchange mechanism, as described by a simple one-body dissipation model, can account for a large portion of the measured energy loss.     

Elastic and inelastic scattering of 12C by 12C in the energy range between 10 and 37.6 MeV

The elastic and inelastic scattering of ¹²C by ¹²C has been measured over a wide angular range employing a kinematical analysis with the help of position-sensitive detectors. The bombarding energy was varied in 200 keV steps between 10 and 37.6 MeV. The cross sections are analysed in the framework of compound fluctuations and the direct reaction model.     

Excitation of theΔ (1232)-resonance in proton-nucleus collisions

The excitation of theΔ resonance is observed in proton collisions on C, Nb and Pb targets at 0.8 and 1.6 GeV incident energies. The mass E₀ and widthΓ of the resonance are determined from the invariant mass spectra of correlated (p, π^±)-pairs in the final state of the collision: The mass E₀ is smaller than that of the free resonance, however by comparing to intra-nuclear cascade calculations, this reduction is traced back to the effects of Fermi motion, NN scattering and pion reabsorption in nuclear matter.