Background: The formation of superheavy elements (SHEs) by fusion of two massive nuclei is severely inhibited by the competing quasifission process. Lowexcitation energies favor SHE survival against ...fusion-fission competition. In "cold" fusion with spherical target nuclei near Pb-208, SHE yields are largest at beam energies significantly below the average capture barrier. In "hot" fusion with statically deformed actinide nuclei, this is not the case. Here the elongated deformation-aligned configurations in sub-barrier capture reactions inhibits fusion (formation of a compact compound nucleus), instead favoring rapid reseparation through quasifission. Purpose: To determine the probabilities of fast and slow quasifission in reactions with prolate statically deformed actinide nuclei, through measurement and quantitative analysis of the dependence of quasifission characteristics at beam energies spanning the average capture barrier energy. Methods: The Australian National University Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility and CUBE fission spectrometer have been used to measure fission and quasifission mass and angle distributions for reactions with projectiles from C to S, bombarding Th and U target nuclei. Results: Mass-asymmetric quasifission occurring on a fast time scale, associated with collisions with the tips of the prolate actinide nuclei, shows a rapid increase in probability with increasing projectile charge, the transition being centered around projectile atomic number ZP = 14. For mass-symmetric fission events, deviations of angular anisotropies from expectations for fusion fission, indicating a component of slower quasifission, suggest a similar transition, but centered around ZP similar to 8. Conclusions: Collisions with the tips of statically deformed prolate actinide nuclei show evidence for two distinct quasifission processes of different time scales. Their probabilities both increase rapidly with the projectile charge. The probability of fusion can be severely suppressed by these two quasifission processes, since the sub-barrier heavy element yield is likely to be determined by the product of the probabilities of surviving each quasifission process.
Microstructural evolution during the early stages of ageing (less than one hour) in a Ni–Cr–Fe based superalloy Inconel 718 (IN718) has been investigated using Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS). ...The effects of precipitate kinetics on the precipitate size distribution are compared indirectly with SAXS measurements by using Vickers microhardness data. The microhardness increased after 4min of ageing at a temperature of 760°C, although the recorded SAXS data did not reveal the precipitate size distribution. This indicates that the precipitates had not evolved enough to be detected, but still a small number of precipitates increased the yield strength. After ageing the alloy for the shortest period for which data were available, 8min, clear evidence of precipitates could be found from the SAXS data, showing that the γ″- precipitates are about 6nm in width and 3nm in height.
New 125 I atomic decay emission data of medical interest are presented. The calculations are based on two atomic structure codes that implement the multi-configuration Dirac-Hartree-Fock method. ...Radiative and non-radiative ransition rates are calculated in this method and then used to generate the atomic deexcitation cascade. Subshell transition rates, level widths and fluorescence yields are compared to the Evaluated Atomic Data Library. Coster-Kronig and Auger electron emission yields are also compared with results from other authors. The comparison with the experimental electron emission spectrum shows that the new calculations can reproduce very well the structure of the K-LL Auger electron peaks and improve the description of the M Auger peaks below 300 eV. The 125 I dose-point kernel is also simulated using the new data, resulting in higher values below 10 nm when compared those obtained with the Evaluated Atomic Data Library.
Relativistic configuration interaction (RCI) calculations are performed for 291 states belonging to the configurations 1s22s22p, 1s22s2p2, 1s22p3, 1s22s23l, 1s22s2p3l, 1s22p23l, 1s22s24l′, ...1s22s2p4l′, and 1s22p24l′ (l = 0,1,2 and l′ = 0,1,2,3) in boron-like ions Si X and Ti XVIII to Cu XXV. Electron correlation effects are represented in the wave functions by large configuration state function (CSF) expansions. States are transformed from jj-coupling to LS-coupling, and the LS-percentage compositions are used for labeling the levels. Radiative electric dipole transition rates are given for all ions, leading to massive data sets. Calculated energy levels are compared with other theoretical predictions and crosschecked against the Chianti database, NIST recommended values, and other observations. The accuracy of the calculations are high enough to facilitate the identification of observed spectral lines.
An energy correction method is described to account for the Breit and QED effects on Auger electrons and X-ray energies in the recently developed atomic relaxation model BrIccEmis. The results are ...compared with literature and new experimental data for Z = 52. Overall this improves the agreement of the calculated energies with the literature values. A new atomic radiation database NS_Radlist, will contain atomic transition energies from the BrIccEmis program with these energy corrections.
The anisotropy parameter (v(2)), the second harmonic of the azimuthal particle distribution, has been measured with the PHENIX detector in Au+Au collisions at roots(NN)=200 GeV for identified and ...inclusive charged particle production at central rapidities (eta<0.35) with respect to the reaction plane defined at high rapidities (eta=3-4 ). We observe that the v(2) of mesons falls below that of (anti)baryons for p(T)>2 GeV/c, in marked contrast to the predictions of a hydrodynamical model. A quark-coalescence model is also investigated.
The PHENIX experiment has measured midrapidity transverse momentum spectra (0.4<p(T)<4.0 GeV/c) of single electrons as a function of centrality in Au+Au collisions at roots(NN) = 200 GeV. ...Contributions from photon conversions and Dalitz decays of light neutral mesons are measured by introducing a thin (1.7% X-0) converter into the PHENIX acceptance and are statistically removed. The subtracted nonphotonic electron spectra are primarily due to the semileptonic decays of hadrons containing heavy quarks, mainly charm at lower p(T). For all centralities, the charm production cross section is found to scale with the nuclear overlap function, T-AA. For minimum-bias collisions the charm cross section per binary collision is N-c (c) over bar/T-AA=622+/-57(stat)+/-160(syst) mub.
Transverse momentum spectra of neutral pions in the range 1<p(T)<10 GeV/c have been measured at midrapidity by the PHENIX experiment at BNL RHIC in Au+Au collisions at roots(NN)=200 GeV. The pi(0) ...multiplicity in central reactions is significantly below the yields measured at the same roots(NN) in peripheral Au+Au and p+p reactions scaled by the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. For the most central bin, the suppression factor is similar to2.5 at p(T)=2 GeV/c and increases to similar to4-5 at p(T)approximate to4 GeV/c. At larger p(T), the suppression remains constant within errors. The deficit is already apparent in semiperipheral reactions and increases smoothly with centrality.
The invariant differential cross section for inclusive neutral-pion production in p+p collisions at roots=200 GeV has been measured at midrapidity (eta<0.35) over the range 1<p(T)less than or similar ...to14 GeV/c by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Predictions of next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations are consistent with these measurements. The precision of our result is sufficient to differentiate between prevailing gluon-to-pion fragmentation functions.
Transverse single-spin asymmetries to probe the transverse-spin structure of the proton have been measured for neutral pions and nonidentified charged hadrons from polarized proton-proton collisions ...at midrapidity and root s = 200 GeV. The data cover a transverse momentum (pT) range 1.0-5.0 GeV/c for neutral pions and 0.5-5.0 GeV/c for charged hadrons, at a Feynman-x value of approximately zero. The asymmetries seen in this previously unexplored kinematic region are consistent with zero within errors of a few percent. In addition, the inclusive charged hadron cross section at midrapidity from 0.5 < P-T < 7.0 GeV/c is presented and compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD ( pQCD) calculations. Successful description of the unpolarized cross section above similar to 2 GeV/c suggests that pQCD is applicable in the interpretation of the asymmetry results in the relevant kinematic range.