No Arabic abstract
Heavy nuclei bombarded with protons and deuterons in the 1 GeV range have a large probability of undergoing a process of evaporation and fission; less frequently, the prompt emission of few intermediate-mass fragments can also be observed. We employ a recently developed microscopic approach, based on the Boltzmann-Langevin transport equation, to investigate the role of mean-field dynamics and phase-space fluctuations in these reactions. We find that the formation of few IMFs can be confused with asymmetric fission when relying on yield observables, but it can not be assimilated to the statistical decay of a compound nucleus when analysing the dynamics and kinematic observables: it can be described as a fragmentation process initiated by phase-space fluctuations, and successively frustrated by the mean-field resilience. As an extreme situation, which corresponds to non-negligible probability, the number of fragments in the exit channel reduces to two, so that fission-like events are obtained by re-aggregation processes. This interpretation, inspired by nuclear-spallation experiments, can be generalised to heavy-ion collisions from Fermi to relativistic energies, for situations when the system is closely approaching the fragmentation threshold.
We investigate the prompt emission of few intermediate-mass fragments in spallation reactions induced by protons and deuterons in the 1 GeV range. Such emission has a minor contribution to the total reaction cross section, but it may overcome evaporation and fission channels in the formation of light nuclides. The role of mean-field dynamics and phase-space fluctuations in these reactions is investigated through the Boltzmann-Langevin transport equation. We found that a process of frustrated fragmentation and re-aggregation is a prominent mechanism of production of IMFs which can not be assimilated to the statistical decay of a compound nucleus. Very interestingly, this process may yield a small number of IMF in the exit channel, which may even reduce to two, and be wrongly confused with ordinary asymmetric fission. This interpretation, inspired by nuclear-spallation experiments, can be generalised to heavy-ion collisions approaching the fragmentation threshold.
Fissioning nuclei and fission fragments, nuclear fragments emerging from energetic collisions, or nuclei probed with various external fields can emit one or more pre-equilibrium neutrons, protons, and potentially other heavier nuclear fragments. I describe a formalism which can be used to evaluate the pre-equilibrium neutron emission probabilities and the excitation energies of the remnant fragments.
The relativistic invariant approach is applied to analyzing the 3.3 A GeV $^{22}$Ne fragmentation in a nuclear track emulsion. New results on few-body dissociations have been obtained from the emulsion exposures to 2.1 A GeV $^{14}$N and 1.2 A GeV $^{9}$Be nuclei. It can be asserted that the use of the invariant approach is an effective means of obtaining conclusions about the behavior of systems involving a few He nuclei at a relative energy close to 1 MeV per nucleon. The first observations of fragmentation of 1.2 A GeV $^{8}$B and $^{9}$C nuclei in emulsion are described. The presented results allow one to justify the development of few-body aspects of nuclear astrophysics.
The E1(T=1) isovector dipole giant resonance (GDR) in heavy and super-heavy deformed nuclei is analyzed over a sample of 18 rare-earth nuclei, 4 actinides and three chains of super-heavy elements (Z=102, 114 and 120). Basis of the description is self-consistent separable RPA (SRPA) using the Skyrme force SLy6. The self-consistent model well reproduces the experimental data (energies and widths) in the rare-earth and actinide region. The trend of the resonance peak energies follows the estimates from collective models, showing a bias to the volume mode for the rare-earths isotopes and a mix of volume and surface modes for actinides and super-heavy elements. The widths of the GDR are mainly determined by the Landau fragmentation which in turn is found to be strongly influenced by deformation. A deformation splitting of the GDR can contribute about one third to the width and about 1 MeV further broadening can be associated to mechanism beyond the mean-field description (escape, coupling with complex configurations).
We employ new field-theoretical tools to study photons and jets in a non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma. Jet broadening and photon emission takes place through radiation which is suppressed by repeated and coherent interaction with the medium. We analyze this physics in an anisotropic plasma such as is created in the early stages of heavy-ion collisions. The anisotropy introduces an angular dependence in radiation and reduces its overall rate. This can affect phenomenological predictions of the rapidity dependence and angular flow of jets and photons.