The production of neutron beams having short temporal duration is studied using ultraintense laser pulses. Laser-accelerated protons are spectrally filtered using a laser-triggered microlens to ...produce a short duration neutron pulse via nuclear reactions induced in a converter material (LiF). This produces a ∼3 ns duration neutron pulse with 10(4) n/MeV/sr/shot at 0.56 m from the laser-irradiated proton source. The large spatial separation between the neutron production and the proton source allows for shielding from the copious and undesirable radiation resulting from the laser-plasma interaction. This neutron pulse compares favorably to the duration of conventional accelerator sources and should scale up with, present and future, higher energy laser facilities to produce brighter and shorter neutron beams for ultrafast probing of dense materials.
Carbon burning powers scenarios that influence the fate of stars, such as the late evolutionary stages of massive stars 1 (exceeding eight solar masses) and superbursts from accreting neutron ...stars2,3. It proceeds through the 12C + 12C fusion reactions that produce an alpha particle and neon-20 or a proton and sodium-23-that is, 12C(12C, α)20Ne and 12C(12C, p)23Na-at temperatures greater than 0.4 × 109 kelvin, corresponding to astrophysical energies exceeding a megaelectronvolt, at which such nuclear reactions are more likely to occur in stars. The cross-sections 4 for those carbon fusion reactions (probabilities that are required to calculate the rate of the reactions) have hitherto not been measured at the Gamow peaks 4 below 2 megaelectronvolts because of exponential suppression arising from the Coulomb barrier. The reference rate 5 at temperatures below 1.2 × 109 kelvin relies on extrapolations that ignore the effects of possible low-lying resonances. Here we report the measurement of the 12C(12C, α0,1)20Ne and 12C(12C, p0,1)23Na reaction rates (where the subscripts 0 and 1 stand for the ground and first excited states of 20Ne and 23Na, respectively) at centre-of-mass energies from 2.7 to 0.8 megaelectronvolts using the Trojan Horse method6,7 and the deuteron in 14N. The cross-sections deduced exhibit several resonances that are responsible for very large increases of the reaction rate at relevant temperatures. In particular, around 5 × 108 kelvin, the reaction rate is boosted to more than 25 times larger than the reference value 5 . This finding may have implications such as lowering the temperatures and densities 8 required for the ignition of carbon burning in massive stars and decreasing the superburst ignition depth in accreting neutron stars to reconcile observations with theoretical models 3 .
Abstract
Different reactions channels induced by the
18
O +
40
Ca collisions at 275 MeV incident energy are simultaneously measured and analysed consistently within the same reaction and structure ...frameworks within the NUMEN project. The project aims to provide data-driven information for the determination of the nuclear matrix elements involved in the neutrinoless double beta decay. In particular, the elastic and inelastic scattering, one- and two-proton transfer, one-neutron transfer, and single charge exchange reactions are explored. The full quantum-mechanical calculations, performed by including microscopic nuclear structure inputs, describe well all the experimental data, giving support to a multi-channel strategy for the analysis of heavy-ion induced direct reactions.
The study of heavy-ions induced double charge-exchange (HI-DCE) nuclear reactions is a promising way to access data-driven information on neutrino-less double-beta decay nuclear matrix elements. In ...the following, particular attention is given to the (18O,18Ne) and (20Ne,20O) HI-DCE reactions as tools for β+β+ and β−β− decays, respectively. The experiments are performed in Catania at the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN-LNS). The MAGNEX magnetic spectrometer is used to momentum analyse the ejectiles of a large network of nuclear reactions. New preliminary experimental data for the 76Se(18O,18F)76As and 76Ge(20Ne,20F)76As single charge exchange (SCE) and for the 76Se(18O,18Ne)76Ge and 76Ge(20Ne,20O)76Se DCE nuclear reactions were also investigated.
Heavy-ion one-nucleon transfer reactions are promising tools to investigate single-particle configurations in nuclear states, with and without the excitation of the core degrees of freedom. An ...accurate determination of the spectroscopic amplitudes of these configurations is essential for the study of other direct reactions as well as beta-decays. In this context, the 76Se(18O,17O)77Se one-neutron transfer reaction gives a quantitative access to the relevant single particle orbitals and core polarization transitions built on 76Se. This is particularly relevant, since it provides data-driven information to constrain nuclear structure models for the 76Se nucleus.The excitation energy spectrum and the differential cross section angular distributions of this nucleon transfer reaction was measured at 275 MeV incident energy for the first time using the MAGNEX large acceptance magnetic spectrometer. The data are compared with calculations based on distorted wave Born approximation and coupled channel Born approximation adopting spectroscopic amplitudes for the projectile and target overlaps derived by large-scale shell model calculations and interacting boson-fermion model.These reactions are studied in the frame of the NUMEN project. The NUMEN (NUclear Matrix Elements for Neutrinoless double beta decay) project was conceived at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare–Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INFN-LNS) in Catania, Italy, aiming at accessing information about the nuclear matrix elements (NME) of neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) through the study of the heavy-ion induced double charge exchange (DCE) reactions on various 0νββ decay candidate targets. Among these, the 76Se nucleus is under investigation since it is the daughter nucleus of 76Ge in the 0νββ decay process.
The response of silicon–silicon–CsI(Tl) and silicon–CsI(Tl) telescopes to fragments produced in nuclear interactions has been studied. The telescopes were developed within the FAZIA collaboration. ...The capabilities of two methods are compared: (a) the standard
Δ
E
–
E
technique and (b) the digital Pulse Shape Analysis technique (for identification of nuclear fragments stopped in a single Si-layer). In a test setup, nuclear fragments covering a large range in nuclear charge, mass and energy were detected. They were produced in nuclear reactions induced by a 35A MeV beam of
129Xe impinging on various targets. It was found that the
Δ
E
–
E
correlations allow the identification of all isotopes up to
Z
∼
25
. With the digital Pulse Shape Analysis it is possible to fully distinguish the charge of stopped nuclei up to the maximum available
Z (slightly over that of the beam,
Z=54).
In equation (1) of this Letter, the closing bracket was missing; in Extended Data Fig. 1 and the accompanying legend, 'Φ(pd)' should have been 'Φ2(pd)', and in the Methods the text "Odd J assignments ...are uncertain by ±1." has been added. These errors have all been corrected online.
The
40
Ca(
18
O,
18
F)
40
K single charge exchange (SCE) reaction is explored at an incident energy of 275 MeV and analyzed consistently by collecting the elastic scattering and inelastic scattering ...data under the same experimental conditions. Full quantum-mechanical SCE calculations of the direct mechanism are performed by including microscopic nuclear structure inputs and adopting either a bare optical potential or a coupled channel equivalent polarization potential (CCEP) constrained by the elastic and inelastic data. The direct SCE mechanism describes the magnitude and shape of the angular distributions rather well, thus suggesting the suppression of sequential multi-nucleon transfer processes.
Gamma-ray and neutron spectra from the
18
O
+
76
Se
reaction at 15.3 MeV/u were measured with the EDEN array of liquid scintillators at the LNS. The results were compared to GEANT Hadrontherapy ...physics list simulations in order to assess the reliability of this model for the development of the NUMEN project. A good agreement with the shape of the experimental gamma-ray spectra and a reasonable agreement with the total count rates were obtained. The gamma spectra originated from the nuclear reactions were selected by time coincidence with the Superconducting Cyclotron radio-frequency reference signal. The random coincidence background rate was appropriately described only when the Faraday Cup, the material and geometry of the experimental hall and its contents were included in the simulation with sufficient detail. The information on the radiation spectra is important for the adequate development of the project of the detector arrays and electronic equipment for the advanced phase of NUMEN. Since orders of magnitude larger beam intensities are planned for this phase, the random coincidence rate is also of significant importance, particularly for the performance of the G-NUMEN gamma calorimeter array.
In this work we present the deposition of amorphous SiC thin films by radiofrequency dual magnetron sputtering. The dependence of the deposited films properties over the discharges electrical power ...and the effect of hydrogenous species (H2 and/or D2) addition to main discharge gas (Ar) were investigated. Accurate elemental analysis of the samples, including detection of hydrogen and deuterium, was performed by ion beam analysis (IBA) techniques: RBS (Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry) and ERDA (Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis). SiCx thin films with thicknesses between 1700 and 4500Å and C/Si ratio between 0.2/1 and 1.25/1 were obtained in different deposition conditions. The results prove that thin films of amorphous SiC with well controlled properties can be produced using radiofrequency dual magnetron sputtering.
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