Search results for " NEUTRON"

Experimental evidence for a liquid-liquid crossover in deeply cooled confined water.

2014

International audience; In this work we investigate, by means of elastic neutron scattering, the pressure dependence of mean square displacements (MSD) of hydrogen atoms of deeply cooled water confined in the pores of a three-dimensional disordered SiO 2 xerogel; experiments have been performed at 250 and 210 K from atmospheric pressure to 1200 bar. The " pressure anomaly " of supercooled water (i.e., a mean square displacement increase with increasing pressure) is observed in our sample at both temperatures; however, contrary to previous simulation results and to the experimental trend observed in bulk water, the pressure effect is smaller at lower (210 K) than at higher (250 K) temperatur…

The boson peak of deeply cooled confined water reveals the existence of a low-temperature liquid-liquid crossover.

2014

International audience; The Boson peak of deeply cooled water confined in the pores of a silica xerogel is studied by inelastic neutron scattering at different hydration levels to separate the contributions from matrix, water on the pore surfaces and "internal" water. Our results reveal that at high hydration level, where the contribution from internal water is dominant, the temperature dependence of the Boson peak intensity shows an inflection point at about 225 K. The complementary use of differential scanning calorimetry to describe the thermodynamics of the system allows identifying the inflection point as the signature of a water liquid-liquid crossover.

The NEXT Project: Towards Production and Investigation of Neutron-Rich Heavy Nuclides

2022

The heaviest actinide elements are only accessible in accelerator-based experiments on a one-atom-at-a-time level. Usually, fusion–evaporation reactions are applied to reach these elements. However, access to the neutron-rich isotopes is limited. An alternative reaction mechanism to fusion–evaporation is multinucleon transfer, which features higher cross-sections. The main drawback of this technique is the wide angular distribution of the transfer products, which makes it challenging to catch and prepare them for precision measurements. To overcome this obstacle, we are building the NEXT experiment: a solenoid magnet is used to separate the different transfer products and to focus those of …

Micelles in Mixtures of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate and a Bolaform Surfactant

2006

Mixtures composed of water, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and a bolaform surfactant with two aza-crown ethers as polar headgroups (termed Bola C-16) were investigated by modulating the mole ratios between the components. The two surfactants have ionic and nonionic, but ionizable, headgroups, respectively. The ionization is due to the complexation of alkali ions by the aza-crown ether unit(s). Structural, thermodynamic, and transport properties of the above mixtures were investigated. Results from surface tension, translational self-diffusion, and small angle neutron scattering ( SANS) are reported and discussed. Interactions between the two surfactants to form mixed micelles result in a com…

Measurement of the α ratio and (n,γ) cross section of 235U from 0.2 to 200 eV at n_TOF

2020

We measured the neutron capture-to-fission cross-section ratio (α ratio) and the capture cross section of 235U between 0.2 and 200 eV at the n_TOF facility at CERN. The simultaneous measurement of neutron-induced capture and fission rates was performed by means of the n_TOF BaF2 Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC), used for detection of γ rays, in combination with a set of micromegas detectors used as fission tagging detectors. The energy dependence of the capture cross section was obtained with help of the 6Li(n, t) standard reaction determining the n_TOF neutron fluence ; the well-known integral of the 235U(n, f) cross section between 7.8 and 11 eV was then used for its absolute normalizat…

Nanocomposites based on block copolymers and inorganic nanoparticles. Structural and thermal properties

2009

Preparation of Nd:YAG Nanopowder in a Confined Environment

2007

Nanopowder of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG, Y3Al5O12) doped with neodymium ions (Nd:YAG) was prepared in the water/cetyltrimethylammonium bromide/1-butanol/n-heptane system. Aluminum, yttrium, and neodymium nitrates were used as starting materials, and ammonia was used as a precipitating agent. Coprecipitate hydroxide precursors where thermally treated at 900 degrees C to achieve the garnet phase. The starting system with and without reactants was characterized by means of the small-angle neutron scattering technique. The system, without reactants, is constituted by a bicontinuous structure laying near the borderline with the lamellar phase region. The introduction of nitrates stabilizes th…

GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral

2017

On August 17, 2017 at 12-41:04 UTC the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors made their first observation of a binary neutron star inspiral. The signal, GW170817, was detected with a combined signal-to-noise ratio of 32.4 and a false-alarm-rate estimate of less than one per 8.0×104 years. We infer the component masses of the binary to be between 0.86 and 2.26 M, in agreement with masses of known neutron stars. Restricting the component spins to the range inferred in binary neutron stars, we find the component masses to be in the range 1.17-1.60 M, with the total mass of the system 2.74-0.01+0.04M. The source was localized within a sky region of 28 deg2 (90% probabili…

New orbital ephemerides for the dipping source 4U 1323-619: Constraining the distance to the source

2016

4U 1323-619 is a low mass X-ray binary system that shows type I X-ray bursts and dips. The most accurate estimation of the orbital period is 2.941923(36) hrs and a distance from the source that is lower than 11 kpc has been proposed. We aim to obtain the orbital ephemeris, the orbital period of the system, as well as its derivative to compare the observed luminosity with that predicted by the theory of secular evolution. We took the advantage of about 26 years of X-ray data and grouped the selected observations when close in time. We folded the light curves and used the timing technique, obtaining 12 dip arrival times. We fit the delays of the dip arrival times both with a linear and a quad…

First evidence of multiple β-delayed neutron emission for isotopes with a > 100

2017

The β-delayed neutron emission probability, Pn, of very neutron-rich nuclei allows us to achieve a better understanding of the nuclear structure above the neutron separation energy, Sn. The emission of neutrons can become the dominant decay process in neutron-rich astrophysical phenomena such as the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). There are around 600 accessible isotopes for which β-delayed one-neutron emission (β1n) is energetically allowed, but the branching ratio has only been determined for about one third of them. β1n decays have been experimentally measured up to the mass A ∼ 150, plus a single measurement of 210Tl. Concerning two-neutron emitters (β2n), ∼ 300 isotopes are …