118647223
Interpretation of the Weyl tensor
According to folklore in general relativity, the Weyl tensor can be decomposed into parts corresponding to Newton-like, incoming and outgoing wavelike field components. It is shown here that this one-to-one correspondence does not hold for space-time geometries with cylindrical isometries. This is done by investigating some well-known exact solutions of Einstein's field equations with whole-cylindrical symmetry, for which the physical interpretation is very clear, but for which the standard Weyl interpretation would give contradictory results. For planar or spherical geometries, however, the standard interpretation works for both, static and dynamical space-times. It is argued that one reason for the failure in the cylindrical case is that for waves spreading in two spatial dimensions there is no local criterion to distinguish incoming and outgoing waves already at the linear level. It turns out that Thorne's local energy notion, subject to certain qualifications, provides an efficient diagnostic tool to extract the proper physical interpretation of the space-time geometry in the case of cylindrical configurations.
29630378
Cosmological classicalization: maintaining unitarity under relevant deformations of the Einstein-Hilbert action.
Generic relevant deformations of Einstein's gravity theory contain additional degrees of freedom that have a multifaceted stabilization dynamics on curved spacetimes. We show that these relevant degrees of freedom are self-protected against unitarity violations by the formation of classical field lumps that eventually merge to a new background geometry. The transition is heralded by the massive decay of the original vacuum and evolves through a strong coupling regime. This process fits in the recently proposed classicalization mechanism and extends it further to free field dynamics on curved backgrounds.
1452681
FORMATION OF SMALL-SCALE STRUCTURE IN SUSY CDM
The lightest supersymmetric particle, most likely the lightest neutralino, is one of the most prominent particle candidates for cold dark matter (CDM). We show that the primordial spectrum of density fluctuations in neutralino CDM has a sharp cut-off, induced by two different damping mechanisms. During the kinetic decoupling of neutralinos, non-equilibrium processes constitute viscosity effects, which damp or even absorb density perturbations in CDM. After the last scattering of neutralinos, free streaming induces neutralino flows from overdense to underdense regions of space. Both damping mechanisms together define a minimal mass scale for perturbations in neutralino CDM, before the inhomogeneities enter the nonlinear epoch of structure formation. We find that the very first gravitationally bound neutralino clouds ought to have masses above 10 −6 M⊙, which is six orders of magnitude above the mass of possible axion miniclusters.
118464550
Self-protection of massive cosmological gravitons
Relevant deformations of gravity present an exciting window of opportunity to probe the rigidity of gravity on cosmological scales. For a single-graviton theory, the leading relevant deformation constitutes a graviton mass term. In this paper, we investigate the classical and quantum stability of massive cosmological gravitons on generic Friedman backgrounds. For a Universe expanding towards a de Sitter epoch, we find that massive cosmological gravitons are self-protected against unitarity violations by a strong coupling phenomenon.
37247936
Degravitation of the cosmological constant and graviton width
We study the possibility of decoupling gravity from the vacuum energy. This is effectively equivalent to promoting Newton's constant to a high-pass filter that degravitates sources of characteristic wavelength larger than a certain macroscopic (super) horizon scale L. We study the underlying physics and the consistency of this phenomenon. In particular, the absence of ghosts, already at the linear level, implies that in any such theory the graviton should either have a mass 1/L, or be a resonance of similar width. This has profound physical implications for the degravitation idea.
37255447
A Quantum Bound-State Description of Black Holes
A relativistic framework for the description of bound states consisting of a large number of quantum constituents is presented, and applied to black-hole interiors. At the parton level, the constituent distribution, number and energy density inside black holes are calculated, and gauge corrections are discussed. A simple scaling relation between the black hole mass and constituent number is established.
23093560
Signatures of the Z = 82 shell closure in α-decay process.
In recent experiments at the velocity filter Separator for Heavy Ion reaction Products (SHIP) (GSI, Darmstadt), an extended and improved set of α-decay data for more than 20 of the most neutron-deficient isotopes in the region from lead to thorium was obtained. The combined analysis of this newly available α-decay data, of which the (186)Po decay is reported here, allowed us for the first time to clearly show that crossing the Z = 82 shell to higher proton numbers strongly accelerates the α decay. From the experimental data, the α-particle formation probabilities are deduced following the Universal Decay Law approach. The formation probabilities are discussed in the framework of the pairing force acting among the protons and the neutrons forming the α particle. A striking resemblance between the phenomenological pairing gap deduced from experimental binding energies and the formation probabilities is noted. These findings support the conjecture that both the N = 126 and Z = 82 shell closures strongly influence the α-formation probability.
121183473
Observation of rotating nuclear molecules and determination of their lifetimes
Long-living rotating nuclear molecules (or “dinuclear systems”) have been observed at the velocity filter SHIP at GSI in reactions of 64Ni + 207Pb at Coulomb barrier energies. The rotation was directly revealed by the velocity spectra of deep inelastic target-like transfer products which are formed during the lifetime of the nuclear molecule and emitted after its breakup. The corresponding rotation angles were about 180 degree pointing to long nuclear interaction times or lifetimes of the system, respectively. We deduced the lifetimes from the lines in the velocity spectra originating from two different rotation angles. Further, the unambiguous correlation of a certain transfer product with its individual velocity spectrum allowed us to study the lifetimes as a function of the number of transferred protons.
118914274
Evidence for quasifission in the sub-barrier reaction of Si-30 + U-238
Fragment mass distributions for fission after full momentum transfer were measured for the $^{30}\mathrm{Si}$$+$$^{238}\mathrm{U}$ reaction at bombarding energies around the Coulomb barrier. At energies above the Bass barrier, the mass distributions were Gaussian with mass symmetry. An asymmetric fission channel with mass ${A}_{\mathrm{L}}/{A}_{\mathrm{H}}$ $\ensuremath{\approx}$ $90/178$ emerged at the sub-barrier energies, where competition between fusion and quasifission was suggested from the evaporation residue (ER) cross section produced in the fusion $^{30}\mathrm{Si}$$+$$^{238}\mathrm{U}$. We thus conclude the asymmetric channel is attributed to quasifission. It was supported by a model calculation using the Langevin equation to give the fragment mass distribution, where fusion-fission and quasifission were separated. The observed mass asymmetry for quasifission as well as the calculation is significantly smaller than those observed in actinide targets bombarded with heavier projectiles, which suggests that the system $^{30}\mathrm{Si}$$+$$^{238}\mathrm{U}$ approaches the shape of the compound nucleus before disintegrating as quasifission.
215715596
UNLAC-UPGRADE PROGRAMME FOR THE HEAVY ELEMENT RESEARCH AT GSI-SHIP
In the field of heavy-element research using the velocity separator SHIP significant achievements were made at GSI during the last 30 years. The experiences obtained of experiments clearly show that superheavyelement research was always based on efforts to extend the limits of technical possibilities of these the increase of beam intensity is one of the major contributions. This paper provides for technical information on the already planned upgrades of the present facility, which results in a significant overall increase of the experimental sensitivity. It is foreseen to build and to investigate a superconducting 28 GHz-ECR ion source, which should increase the primary beam intensities. The beam coming from the new ECR source will be delivered to the GSIHigh Charge State Injector by a second LEBT-system. An upgrade program for the rf-amplifiers and the rf-structures is intended to increase the duty factor from 30 % to 50 %. Besides the ECR-source a new Radio Frequency Quadrupole-accelerator (RFQ) and the IH structure may alternatively serve as an injector for a new advanced stand alone accelerator providing for 100 % duty factor. Two different linac-layouts will be discussed.
124901090
Evidence for hindrance in fusion between sulfur and lead nuclei
The influence of the structure of projectile and target nuclei on the capture cross sections was investigated for the reactions ${}^{34}\mathrm{S}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}+{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{204,206,208}$Pb and ${}^{36}\mathrm{S}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}+{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{204,206,208}$Pb. Capture cross sections were deduced by measuring the fission fragments using multiwire proportional counters. An enhancement of the capture cross sections relative to a one-dimensional barrier penetration model was observed for all reactions at energies below the interaction barriers. The enhancement is larger in the case of reactions with ${}^{34}$S than with ${}^{36}$S. This observation is explained by a stronger coupling to the vibrational states in the reactions with ${}^{34}$S. Comparing the capture cross sections and the evaporation-residue cross sections for the reactions ${}^{36}\mathrm{S}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}+{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{206}$Pb and ${}^{34}\mathrm{S}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}+{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{208}$Pb, both yielding the same compound nucleus ${}^{242}$Cf, it is shown that the latter reaction has a lower fusion probability.