13153867
Mass measurements of very neutron-deficient Mo and Tc isotopes and their impact on rp process nucleosynthesis.
The masses of ten proton-rich nuclides, including the N=Z+1 nuclides ⁸⁵Mo and ⁸⁷Tc, were measured with the Penning trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP. Compared to the Atomic Mass Evaluation 2003 a systematic shift of the mass surface by up to 1.6 MeV is observed causing significant abundance changes of the ashes of astrophysical x-ray bursts. Surprisingly low α separation energies for neutron-deficient Mo and Tc are found, making the formation of a ZrNb cycle in the rp process possible. Such a cycle would impose an upper temperature limit for the synthesis of elements beyond Nb in the rp process.
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.
123051492
The velocity filter ship, a separator of unslowed heavy ion fusion products
The velocity filter SHIP installed at the UNILAC (GSI Darmstadt) is described. It is used for the investigation of neutron deficient nuclei generated by heavy ion induced fusion. The two stage filter separates unretarded reaction products emerging from a thin target with high efficiency and low background of primary beam particles. For reaction products covering an angular range of 3° in horizontal and vertical directions and a velocity range of 10% the transmission is between 30% and 60%. The separation time is of the order of 10−6s. High suppression of primary particles by factors of 107-1011 permits the investigation of reaction products in the direction of the primary beam. α-active reaction products have been implanted into a surface barrier detector and identified by their decay. 
 
A description of the ion optical principles, technical details and the performance of SHIP is given.
120695709
Strong influence of the entrance channel on the formation of compound nuclei Th216,222* and their evaporation residues
The dynamical effects of the entrance channel on the formation of the evaporation residues are studied by analyzing the $^{40}\mathrm{Ar}+^{176}\mathrm{Hf}$, $^{86}\mathrm{Kr}+^{130,136}\mathrm{Xe}$, $^{124}\mathrm{Sn}+^{92}\mathrm{Zr}$, and $^{48}\mathrm{Ca}+^{174}\mathrm{Yb}$ reactions leading to the $^{216}\mathrm{Th}{}^{*}$ and $^{222}\mathrm{Th}{}^{*}$ compound nuclei. We find that the difference between the evaporation residue cross sections for the reactions leading to the same compound nucleus is caused by the different angular momentum distributions of the partial fusion cross sections ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{fus}}^{\ensuremath{\ell}}({E}_{c.m.})$. The strong dependence of the fusion angular momentum distribution on the mass (charge) asymmetry and shell structure of reactants is demonstrated. The effect of the $A/Z$ ratio for the $^{86}\mathrm{Kr}+^{130,136}\mathrm{Xe}$ reactions is discussed. The dynamical conditions of capture affect the competition between complete fusion and quasifission and, consequently, the shape of the angular momentum distribution of the compound nucleus. By this way the peculiarities of the entrance channel also affect the fission-evaporation competition of the excited intermediate nuclei along the deexcitation cascade of the compound nucleus and, consequently, the evaporation residue formation.
117172489
alpha decay of At-194
Detailed {alpha}-decay studies of the neutron-deficient isotope {sup 194}At have been performed in the complete fusion reaction {sup 56}Fe+{sup 141}Pr{yields}{sup 194}At+3n at the velocity filter SHIP. Two {alpha}-decaying isomeric states with half-lives of T{sub 1/2}({sup 194}At{sup m1})=310(8) ms and T{sub 1/2}({sup 194}At{sup m2})=253(10) ms were identified in this nucleus. Their complex decays to the states in the daughter nucleus {sup 190}Bi are discussed in the article. We propose that similar to the case of the neighboring {sup 191,192,193,195}At isotopes, the oblate-deformed configurations based on the proton 1/2{sup +}[440] and/or 7/2{sup -}[514] Nilsson orbitals become important in {sup 194}At. A new isomeric state with the half-life of 175(8) ns was observed in {sup 190}Bi.
119438146
The discovery of the heaviest elements
119280123
Brane Induced Gravity: From a No-Go to a No-Ghost Theorem
Numerous claims in the literature suggest that gravity induced on a higher co-dimensional surface violates unitarity in the weak coupling regime. However, it remained unclear, why a conserved source localized on this surface and giving rise to an induced gravity term at low energies would absorb and emit the associated ghost, given a consistent source-free theory. In this article it is shown that the appearance of the induced Einstein Hilbert term does not threaten the unitarity of the theory. The physics arguments behind this statement are presented in a semi-covariant language, but the detailed proof is given using Dirac's constraint analysis. It is shown that the would-be ghost highlighted in previous works is non-dynamical and therefore not associated with a state in the Hilbert space. As a result of these investigations, brane induced gravity goes without a ghost, opening an exciting window of opportunity for consistent deformations of gravity at the largest observable distances.
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.
1364874
The First wimpy halos
Dark matter direct and indirect detection signals depend crucially on the dark matter distribution. While the formation of large scale structure is independent of the nature of the cold dark matter (CDM), the fate of inhomogeneities on subgalactic scales, and hence the present day CDM distribution on these scales, depends on the microphysics of the CDM particles. We study the density contrast of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) on subgalactic scales. We calculate the damping of the primordial power spectrum due to collisional damping and free streaming of WIMPy CDM and show that free streaming leads to a CDM power spectrum with a sharp cut-off at about 10(-6) M-circle dot. We also calculate the transfer function for the growth of the inhomogeneities in the linear regime, taking into account the suppression in the growth of the CDM density contrast after matter-radiation equality due to baryons and show that our analytic results are in good agreement with numerical calculations. Combining the transfer function with the damping of the primordial fluctuations we produce a WMAP normalized primordial CDM power spectrum, which can serve as an input for high resolution CDM simulations. We find that the smallest inhomogeneities typically have comoving radius of about 1 pc and enter the nonlinear regime at a red-shift of 60 +/- 20. We study the effect of scale dependence of the primordial power spectrum on these numbers and also use the spherical collapse model to make simple estimates of the properties of the first generation of WIMP halos to form. We find that the very first WIMPy halos may have a significant impact on indirect dark matter searches.
118249724
Newtonian N-body simulations are compatible with cosmological perturbation theory
Contrary to recent claims in the literature, Newtonian N-body simulations of collisionless Dark Matter in a LambdaCDM background are compatible with general relativity and are not invalidated by general relativistic effects at the linear level. This verdict is based on four facts. (1) The system of linearized Einstein equations and conservation laws is well-posed in the gauge invariant formulation and physically meaningful. (2) Comparing general relativity with its Newtonian approximation at a given order in perturbation theory is only meaningful at the level of observables. (3) The dynamics of observables describing a dust fluid in general relativity and its Newtonian approximation agree at the linear level. Any disagreement for observables on the lightcone are well-known, of which the most dominant is gravitational lensing. (4) Large fluctuations in the Hubble parameter contribute significantly only to gravitational lensing effects. Therefore, these fluctuations are not in conflict with Newtonian N-body simulations beyond what has already been carefully taken into account using ray tracing technology.
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.