Some contributions from SSNTD towards nuclear science: from multifragmentation towards accelerator driven systems (ADS)

Three examples are chosen to show the importance of SSNTD as one of the essential tools in nuclear science:

(1) Multifragmentation into more than two heavy reaction products: Starting with the observation of three heavy reaction products in the interaction of relativistic protons or 414 MeV ⁴⁰Ar with actinides in the early 1960s, up to the observation of five heavy reaction products in the interaction of 2400 MeV ²³⁸U with uranium, SSNTD had a leading role in this research.

(2) In the search for superheavy elements (SHE: Z around 114): Many different techniques are used. However, SSNTD are exclusively decisive in the possible observation of SHE within the heavy element component of galactic cosmic rays.

(3) Accelerator driven systems: They are increasingly important in the discussion of energy producing nuclear power stations and in the corresponding ability to transmute long-lived poisonous radioactive materials (above all plutonium) into shorter lived fission fragments or stable nuclides. SSNTDs play an important role in the determination of the energy dependent neutron fluence in small volumes (≈cm³) or in the exact beam profile determinations of the primary proton beams.

This contribution ends with an outlook into possible future fields of physics research: With the advent of a new generation of relativistic heavy ion accelerators, such as the NUCLOTRON at the JINR in Dubna, Russia, and RHIC in Brookhaven in the United States, one can continue to study (and finally confirm or disprove) all phenomena mentioned already, as well as additional controversial phenomena, such as “enhanced nuclear cross-sections over short distances”, called colloquially “anomalons”. Again SSNDT can be used in at least a twofold manner as an important tool: (a) the enhanced neutron production with ¹²C ions or heavier ions in thick targets at energies above approximately 50 GeV and (b) the reduced “mean-free-path” of secondary fragments produced by the same heavy and energetic ions.     

Isotopic dependence of the caloric curve

Isotopic effects in projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies have been studied with the ALADIN forward spectrometer at SIS. Stable and radioactive Sn and La beams with an incident energy of 600 MeV per nucleon have been used in order to explore a wide range of isotopic compositions. Chemical freeze-out temperatures are found to be nearly invariant with respect to the A/Z ratio of the produced spectator sources, consistent with predictions for expanded systems. Consequences for the proposed interpretation of chemical breakup temperatures as representing the limiting temperatures predicted by microscopic models are discussed.     

Multifragmentation and the phase transition: A systematic study of the multifragmentation of 1A GeV Au, La and Kr

A systematic analysis of the multifragmentation (MF) in fully reconstructed events from 1A GeV Au, La and Kr collisions with C has been performed. Detailed comparisons of the various fragment properties are presented as a function of excitation energy, E*_th. The charged particle multiplicity from MF stage shows a saturation beyond E*_th ∼ 8 MeV/nucleon for Kr. The universal behavior of intermediate mass fragment yields and of the size of the largest fragment is observed only for Au and La when scaled with size of the system. The Kr data are found to lack this property. Moments of the fragment size distribution show that the Kr MF is different than the MF of Au and La. A power law behavior is observed for Au and La with exponent τ>2, while for Kr τ<2. The results are compared with the statistical multifragmentation model (SMM). A single value of all the parameters of the model fits the data for all the three systems. The breakup of Au and La is consistent with a continuous phase transition. The data indicate that both E*_th and the isotope ratio temperature T _Hc-DT decrease with increase in system size at the critical point. The breakup temperature obtained from SMM also shows the same trend as seen in data. This trend is attributed primarily to the increasing Coulomb energy with finite size effects playing a smaller role. The percolation and Ising model studies for finite size neutral matter show behavior which is opposite to the one seen in the present work. EOS Collaboration     

中能重离子碰撞中的涨落和中间质量碎片发射的机制

在ＱＭＤ模型的基础上，系统研究了４０Ｃａ＋４０Ｃａ中心碰撞系统的中间质量碎片随能量和时间的演化以及它们的动力学起源．集中讨论了反应机制的跃迁，动力学过程中密度涨落和平均中间质量碎片的关系以及碎裂的时间尺度．发现中间质量碎片随能量的上升和下降伴随着涨落的上升和下降．并预言对所研究的反应，当入射能量为６５ＭｅＶ／ｕ时，彻底解体可能发生．碎裂的时间尺度大约为１４０ｆｍ／ｃ，且随能量的增大，此时间尺度不再减小，达到饱和．     

On the sensitivity of the energy of vanishing flow towards mass asymmetry of colliding nuclei

We demonstrate the role of the mass asymmetry in the energy of vanishing flow by studying asymmetric reactions throughout the periodic table and over entire colliding geometry. Our results, which are almost independent of the system size and as well as of the colliding geometries indicate a sizable effect of the asymmetry of the reaction on the energy of vanishing flow.     

Multifragmentation induced by GeV He beams

Multifragmentation of ^natAg and ¹⁹⁷Au induced by 7 and 14.4 GeV ⁴He has been investigated by using CR-39 plastic track detectors. Since our experimental technique enables the determination of the multiplicity of intermediate mass fragments (IMFs) with uncertainty of only a few percent, the results obtained pointed out the inconsistency in the data regarding the quantity reported by other authors. We have also studied the behavior of characteristics of IMFs dependent on the reaction parameters (incident energy, atomic number of the target). From this analysis, we made some conclusions about the reaction mechanism of multifragmentation.     

Characteristics of multifragmentation of Au induced by 7 and 14.4 GeV He

The multifragmentation reaction channel has been investigated in the 7 and 14.4 GeV ⁴He interactions with Au target by using the CR-39 plastic track detector. Our experimental technique enabled an event-by-event analysis of the events. It has been observed that the multiplicity of events is not scaling with excitation energy. Also, an attempt has been made to reveal the scenario of multifragmentation by using angular correlations of fragments.     

Nuclear multifragmentation and phase transition for hot nuclei

This review article is focused on the tremendous progress realized during the last fifteen years in the understanding of multifragmentation and its relationship to the liquid-gas phase diagram of nuclei and nuclear matter. The explosion of the whole nucleus, early predicted by Bohr [N. Bohr, Nature 137 (1936) 351], is a very complex and rich subject which continues to fascinate nuclear physicists as well as theoreticians who extend the thermodynamics of phase transitions to finite systems.     

Effect of secondary decay on isoscaling: Results from the canonical thermodynamical model

The projectile fragmentation reactions using ⁵⁸Ni and ⁶⁴Ni beams at 140 MeV/n on targets ⁹Be and ¹⁸¹Ta are studied using the canonical thermodynamical model coupled with an evaporation code. The isoscaling property of the fragments produced is studied using both the primary and the secondary fragments and it is observed that the secondary fragments also respect isoscaling though the isoscaling parameters α and β changes. The temperature needed to reproduce experimental data with the secondary fragments is less than that needed with the primary ones. The canonical model coupled with the evaporation code successfully explains the experimental data for isoscaling for the projectile fragmentation reactions.