Search results for "Atomic nucleus"
showing 10 items of 61 documents
Coherent π0-photoproduction from atomic nuclei
2003
Differential and total cross sections for coherent pi0-photoproduction from 12C, 40Ca, 93Nb and Pb targets have been measured throughout the region of the Delta(1232)-resonance. The experiments were performed with the TAPS-detector at the Mainz accelerator MAMI. The characteristic proportionality of the cross section to the square of the atomic mass number and to the nuclear mass form factor is clearly demonstrated. The data allow for the first time detailed tests of model predictions for this reaction. The comparison of the data to model predictions shows that the Delta-nucleus interaction saturates: it is described for heavy nuclei with the same potential parameters as for 4He.
Studies of pear-shaped nuclei using accelerated radioactive beams
2013
There is strong circumstantial evidence that certain heavy, unstable atomic nuclei are ‘octupole deformed’, that is, distorted into a pear shape. This contrasts with the more prevalent rugby-ball shape of nuclei with reflection-symmetric, quadrupole deformations. The elusive octupole deformed nuclei are of importance for nuclear structure theory, and also in searches for physics beyond the standard model; any measurable electric-dipole moment (a signature of the latter) is expected to be amplified in such nuclei. Here we determine electric octupole transition strengths (a direct measure of octupole correlations) for short-lived isotopes of radon and radium. Coulomb excitation experiments we…
A triplet of differently shaped spin-zero states in the atomic nucleus 186Pb
2000
Understanding the fundamental excitations of many-fermion systems is of significant current interest. In atomic nuclei with even numbers of neutrons and protons, the low-lying excitation spectrum is generally formed by nucleon pair breaking and nuclear vibrations or rotations. However, for certain numbers of protons and neutrons, a subtle rearrangement of only a few nucleons among the orbitals at the Fermi surface can result in a different elementary mode: a macroscopic shape change. The first experimental evidence for this phenomenon came from the observation of shape coexistence in 16O (ref. 4). Other unexpected examples came with the discovery of fission isomers and super-deformed nuclei…
Superallowed Gamow-Teller decay of the doubly magic nucleus $^{100}$Sn
2012
Expérience au GSI; The shell structure of atomic nuclei is associated with 'magic numbers' and originates in the nearly independent motion of neutrons and protons in a mean potential generated by all nucleons. During b1-decay, a proton transforms into a neutron in a previously not fully occupied orbital, emitting a positron-neutrino pair with either parallel or antiparallel spins, in a Gamow-Teller or Fermi transition, respectively. The transition probability, or strength, of a Gamow-Teller transition depends sensitively on the underlying shell structure and is usually distributed among many states in the neighbouring nucleus. Here we report measurements of the half-life and decay energy fo…
Shapes ofPb192,190ground states fromβ-decay studies using the total-absorption technique
2015
The beta decay of Pb-192,Pb-190 has been studied using the total absorption technique at the ISOLDE (CERN) facility. The beta-decay strength deduced from the measurements, combined with QRPA theoretical calculations, allow us to infer that the ground states of the Pb-192,Pb-190 isotopes are spherical. These results represent the first application of the shape determination method using the total absorption technique for heavy nuclei and in a region where there is considerable interest in nuclear shapes and shape effects.
Isospin-symmetry restoration within the nuclear density functional theory: formalism and applications
2009
Isospin symmetry of atomic nuclei is explicitly broken by the charge-dependent interactions, primarily the Coulomb force. Within the nuclear density functional theory, isospin is also broken spontaneously. We propose a projection scheme rooted in a mean field theory, that allows the consistent treatment of isospin breaking in both ground and exited nuclear states. We demonstrate that this scheme is essentially free from spurious divergences plaguing particle-number and angular-momentum restoration approaches. Applications of the new technique include excited high-spin states in medium-mass N=Z nuclei, such as superdeformed bands and many-particle-many-hole terminating states.
Fluctuating parts of nuclear ground state correlation energies
2013
Background: Heavy atomic nuclei are often described using the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) method. In principle, this approach takes into account Pauli effects and pairing correlations while other correlation effects are mimicked through the use of effective density-dependent interactions. Purpose: Investigate the influence of higher order correlation effects on nuclear binding energies using Skyrme's effective interaction. Methods: A cut-off in relative momenta is introduced in order to remove ultraviolet divergences caused by the zero-range character of the interaction. Corrections to binding energies are then calculated using the quasiparticle-random-phase approximation (QRPA) and secon…
NUCLEAR MATRIX ELEMENTS FOR DOUBLE BETA DECAY
2008
The neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay of atomic nuclei plays a key role in the search for massive Majorana neutrinos and their mass scale. To extract the necessary information from the measured data the nuclear-structure effects have to be accounted for by computation of the associated nuclear matrix elements (NME's). In this article the NME's for the light-neutrino exchange mechanism are discussed. They are computed by using the proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation (pnQRPA). Recent developments in this field relate to the handling of the nucleon-nucleon short-range correlations and independent experimental probes of the wave functions relevant for the NME's.
Low energy collective modes of deformed superfluid nuclei within the finite amplitude method
2013
Background: The major challenge for nuclear theory is to describe and predict global properties and collective modes of atomic nuclei. Of particular interest is the response of the nucleus to a time-dependent external field that impacts the low-energy multipole and beta-decay strength. Purpose: We propose a method to compute low-lying collective modes in deformed nuclei within the finite amplitude method (FAM) based on the quasiparticle random-phase approximation (QRPA). By using the analytic property of the response function, we find the QRPA amplitudes by computing the residua of the FAM amplitudes by means of a contour integration around the QRPA poles in a complex frequency plane. Metho…
High-accuracy mass spectrometry with stored ions
2006
Abstract Like few other parameters, the mass of an atom, and its inherent connection with the atomic and nuclear binding energy is a fundamental property, a unique fingerprint of the atomic nucleus. Each nuclide comes with its own mass value different from all others. For short-lived exotic atomic nuclei the importance of its mass ranges from the verification of nuclear models to a test of the Standard Model, in particular with regard to the weak interaction and the unitarity of the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa quark mixing matrix. In addition, accurate mass values are important for a variety of applications that extend beyond nuclear physics. Mass measurements on stable atoms now reach a rela…