119392837
Fission-Fragment Mass Distribution and Particle Evaporation at low Energies
Fusion-fission dynamics is investigated with a special emphasis on fusion reactions at low energy for which shell effects and pairing correlations can play a crucial role leading in particular to multi-modal fission. To follow the dynamical evolution of an excited and rotating nucleus we solve a 2-dimensional Langevin equation taking explicitly light-particle evaporation into account. The confrontation theory-experiment is demonstrated to give interesting information on the model presented, its qualities as well as its shortcomings.
55265914
Transfer reactions in inverse kinematics: An experimental approach for fission investigations
Inelastic and multinucleon transfer reactions between a U-238 beam, accelerated at 6.14 MeV/u, and a C-12 target were used for the production of neutron-rich, fissioning systems from U to Cm. A Si telescope, devoted to the detection of the targetlike nuclei, provided a characterization of the fissioning systems in atomic and mass numbers, as well as in excitation energy. Cross sections and angular and excitation-energy distributions were measured for the inelastic and transfer channels. Possible excitations of the targetlike nuclei were experimentally investigated for the first time, by means of gamma-ray measurements. The decays from the first excited states of 12C, B-11, and Be-10 were observed with probabilities of 0.12-0.14, while no evidence for the population of higher-lying states was found. Moreover, the fission probabilities of U-238, Np-239 and Pu-240,Pu-241,Pu-242 and Cm-244 were determined as a function of the excitation energy.
15709360
New signatures on dissipation from fission induced by relativistic heavy-ion collisions
Fissile nuclei with small shape distortion relative to the ground-state deformation and with low angular momentum were produced in peripheral heavy-ion collisions. Under the conditions of small shape distortions and low angular momentum, the theoretical description of the fission process can be considerably simplified, and the relevant information on dissipation can be better extracted than in conventional experiments based on fusion-fission reactions. In addition, this experimental approach induces very high excitation energies, a condition necessary to observe transient effects. The experimental data were taken at GSI using a set-up especially conceived for fission studies in inverse kinematics. This set-up allowed determining three observables whose sensitivity to dissipation was investigated for the first time: the total fission cross sections of 238U at 1 A GeV as a function of the target mass, and, for the reaction of 238U at 1 A GeV on a (CH2)n target, the partial fission cross sections and the partial charge distributions of the fission fragments. The comparison of the new experimental data with a reaction code adapted to the conditions of the reactions investigated leads to clear conclusions on the strength of dissipation at small deformation where the existing results are rather contradictory.
116938056
Observation of the lowest energy gamma-ray in any superdeformed nucleus : 196Bi
New results on the superdeformed $^{196}$Bi nucleus a re reported. We have observed with the EUROBALL IV $\gamma$-ray spectrometer array a superdeformed trans ition of 124 keV which is the lowest observed energy $\gamma$-ray in any superdeformed nucleus. We have de velopped microscopic cranked Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations using the SLy4 effective force and a realistic surface p airing which strongly support the $K^\pi=2^-$($\pi$[651]1/2$\otimes \nu$[752]5/2) assignment of this su perdeformed band.
5034444
Study of the multi-nucleon transfer reactions of 136Xe + 198Pt for producing exotic heavy nuclei
The feasibility of the multi-nucleon transfer (MNT) reaction in the 136 Xe + 198 Pt system was investigated for synthesizing neutron-rich heavy nuclei around mass number A 200 of astrophysical interest. Identification of the projectile-like fragments (PLF's) was successfully performed by using VAMOS++ spectrometer. The isotopic distributions of the PLF's produced by two-proton stripping and pickup reactions were compared with each other, demonstrating the properties of the MNT reactions observed in the present system. The two-proton pickup channels strongly populated than the two- proton stripping channels were observed. The isotopic distributions for di erent total kinetic energy loss (TKEL) ranges are also discussed. The overall enhancement of the strength of the two-proton pickup compared with the two-proton stripping appears to be related to the MNT reactions with relatively moderate energy dissipation.
53558861
Critical insight into the influence of the potential energy surface on fission dynamics
The present work is dedicated to a careful investigation of the influence of the potential energy surface on the fission process. The time evolution of nuclei at high excitation energy and angular momentum is studied by means of three-dimensional Langevin calculations performed for two different parametrizations of the macroscopic potential: the Finite Range Liquid Drop Model (FRLDM) and the Lublin-Strasbourg Drop (LSD) prescription. Depending on the mass of the system, the topology of the potential throughout the deformation space of interest in fission is observed to noticeably differ within these two approaches, due to the treatment of curvature effects. When utilized in the dynamical calculation as the driving potential, the FRLDM and LSD models yield similar results in the heavy-mass region, whereas the predictions can be strongly dependent on the Potential Energy Surface (PES) for medium-mass nuclei. In particular, the mass, charge, and total kinetic energy distributions of the fission fragments are found to be narrower with the LSD prescription. The influence of critical model parameters on our findings is carefully investigated. The present study sheds light on the experimental conditions and signatures well suited for constraining the parametrization of the macroscopic potential. Its implication regarding the interpretation of available experimental data is briefly discussed.
118470196
Production of medium-mass neutron-rich nuclei in reactions induced by Xe 136 projectiles at 1 A GeV on a beryllium target
Production cross sections of medium-mass neutron-rich nuclei obtained in the fragmentation of {sup 136}Xe projectiles at 1 A GeV have been measured with the FRagment Separator (FRS) at GSI. The measured cross sections are compared to {sup 238}U fission yields and model calculations to determine the optimum reaction mechanism to extend the limits of the chart of the nuclides around the r-process waiting point at N=82.
120436865
Pair and single neutron transfer with Borromean 8He
Abstract Direct observation of the survival of 199 Au residues after 2 n transfer in the He 8 + Au 197 system and the absence of the corresponding 67 Cu in the He 8 + Cu 65 system at various energies are reported. The measurements of the surprisingly large cross sections for 199 Au, coupled with the integral cross sections for the various Au residues, is used to obtain the first model-independent lower limits on the ratio of 2 n to 1 n transfer cross sections from 8 He to a heavy target. A comparison of the transfer cross sections for 6,8 He on these targets highlights the differences in the interactions of these Borromean nuclei. These measurements for the most neutron-rich nuclei on different targets highlight the need to probe the reaction mechanism with various targets and represent an experimental advance towards understanding specific features of pairing in the dynamics of dilute nuclear systems.
118688563
Isotopic fission fragment distributions as a deep probe to fusion-fission dynamics
During the fission process, the atomic nucleus deforms and elongates up to the two fragments inception and their final separation at the scission deformation. The evolution of the nucleus energy with deformation defines a potential energy landscape in the multidimensional deformation space. It is determined by the macroscopic properties of the nucleus, and is also strongly influenced by the single-particle structure of the nucleus, which modifies the macroscopic energy minima. The fission fragment distribution is a direct consequence of the deformation path the nucleus has encountered, and therefore is the most genuine experimental observation of the potential energy landscape of the deforming nucleus. Very asymmetric fusion-fission reactions at energy close to the Coulomb barrier, produce well-defined conditions of the compound nucleus formation, where processes such as quasi-fission, pre-equilibrium emission and incomplete fusion are negligible. In the same time, the excitation energy is sufficient to reduce significantly structural effects, and mostly the macroscopic part of the potential is responsible for the formation of the fission fragments. We use inverse kinematics combined with a spectrometer to select and identify the fission fragments produced in 238U+12C at a bombarding energy close to and well-above the Coulomb barrier. For the first time, the isotopic yields are measured over the complete atomic-number distribution, between Z=30 and Z=63. In the experimental set-up, it is also possible to identify transfer-induced reactions, which lead to low-energy fission
85503224
HEROICA: an underground facility for the fast screening of germanium detectors
HEROICA (Hades Experimental Research Of Intrinsic Crystal Appliances) is an infrastructure to characterize germanium detectors and has been designed and constructed at the HADES Underground Research Laboratory, located in Mol (Belgium). Thanks to the 223 m overburden of clay and sand, the muon flux is lowered by four orders of magnitude. This natural shield minimizes the exposure of radio-pure germanium material to cosmic radiation resulting in a significant suppression of cosmogenic activation in the germanium detectors. The project has been strongly motivated by a special production of germanium detectors for the GERDA experiment. GERDA, currently collecting data at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, is searching for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge. In the near future, GERDA will increase its mass and sensitivity by adding new Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detectors. The production of the BEGe detectors is done at Canberra in Olen (Belgium), located about 30 km from the underground test site. Therefore, HADES is used both for storage of the crystals over night, during diode production, and for the characterization measurements. A full quality control chain has been setup and tested on the first seven prototype detectors delivered by the manufacturer at the beginning of 2012. The screening capabilities demonstrate that the installed setup fulfills a fast and complete set of measurements on the diodes and it can be seen as a general test facility for the fast screening of high purity germanium detectors. The results are of major importance for a future massive production and characterization chain of germanium diodes foreseen for a possible next generation 1-tonne double beta decay experiment with 76Ge.
2219103
AMANDA - first running experiment to use GRID in production
The Grid technologies are in ongoing development. Using current Grid toolkits like the Globus toolkit gives one the possibility to build up virtual organizations. Although these tookits are in still under development and do not feature all functionality, they can already now be used to set up an efficient computing environment for physics collaborations with only moderate work. We discuss in this paper the use of such a computing structure in two running experiments - the AMANDA (AMANDA = Antarctic muon and neutrino detector array) neutrino telescope and the D0 experiment at Tevatron, Fermilab. One of the main features of our approach is to avoid reprogramming of the existing software which is based on several programming languages (FORTRAN, C/C++, JAVA). This was realized with software layers around the collaboration software taking care about in- and output, user notification, tracking of running jobs, etc. A further important aspect is the resolution of library dependencies, which occur when a user runs self-compiled jobs on machines, where these libraries are not installed. These dependencies are also resolved with this layers.