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.
119438146
The discovery of the heaviest elements
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.
16408480
Effective Kaon energy from a novel chiral SU(3) model
Abstract A new chiral SU(3) Lagrangian is proposed to describe the properties of kaons and anti-kaons in the nuclear medium, The saturation properties of nuclear matter are reproduced as well as the results of the Dirac-Briickner theory, After introducing the coupling between the omega meson and the kaon, our results for effective kaon and anti-kaon energy are quite similar as calculated in the one-boson-exchange model.
201093324
Proton Radioactivity
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.
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.
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.
119430795
The Casimir effect in the presence of compactified universal extra dimensions
Abstract The Casimir force in a system consisting of two parallel conducting plates in the presence of compactified universal extra dimensions (UXD) is analyzed. The Casimir force with UXDs differs from the force obtained without extra dimensions. A new power law for the Casimir force is derived. By comparison to experimental data the size R of the universal extra dimensions can be restricted to R ⩽10 nm for one extra dimension.
121734598
Thermal decoupling of WIMPs from first principles
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are arguably the most natural dark matter candidates from a particle physics point of view. After their number density has frozen out in the early universe, thereby setting their relic density today, WIMPs are still kept very close to thermal equilibrium by scattering events with standard model particles. The complete decoupling from the thermal bath happens as late as at temperatures of around ~1−10 MeV and provides an important cosmological scale that can directly be translated into a small scale cut-off of the spectrum of matter density fluctuations. We present here a full analytic treatment of the kinetic decoupling process from first principles. This allows an exact determination of the decoupling scale, for arbitrary WIMP candidates and any scattering amplitude. As an application, we consider the situation of the lightest supersymmetric particle as well as the lightest Kaluza–Klein particle that arises in theories with universal extra dimensions; furthermore, we show that our formalism can also easily be applied to, e.g., the evolution of the non-relativistic electrons into the recombination regime. Finally, we comment on the impacts for the smallest gravitationally bound structures and the prospects for the indirect detection of dark matter.
119207510
Consistency of relevant cosmological deformations on all scales
Using cosmological perturbation theory we show that the most relevant deformation of gravity is consistent at the linear level. In particular, we prove the absence of unitarity violating negative norm states in the weak coupling regime from sub- to super-Hubble scales. This demonstrates that the recently proposed classical self-protection mechanism of deformed gravity extends to the entire kinematical domain.