Studies of Heavy-Ion Reactions and Transuranic Nuclei
- Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry. Dept. of Physics
Studies of heavy-ion reactions and transuranic nuclei performed by the University of Rochester Nuclear Science Research Group have been successful in furthering experimental systematics and theoretical understanding of the behavior of nuclear systems excited to their limits of stability. The theoretical results explain specifically the “boiling” and “vaporization” of atomic nuclei, but are more generally applicable to isolated, quantal many-particle systems which, under thermal or mechanical stresses, all disintegrate by evaporation, via surface cluster emission, or via fission-like processes. Accompanying experimental investigations by the group have demonstrated several new types of dynamical instability of nuclei: In central, “head-on” collisions, target nuclei exhibit limited ability to stop energetic projectile nuclei and to dissipate the imparted linear momentum. Substantial matter overlap (“neck”) between projectile and target nuclei, which is observed at elevated collision energies, can be stretched considerably and break at several places simultaneously. These results provide new testing grounds for microscopic theory of the cohesion of nuclear matter. This property has remained elusive, even though the elementary nucleon-nucleon forces are well known since some time. Technical R&D has resulted in a detailed characterization of a novel plastic material, which can now be used in the design of sensitive diagnostic systems for various types of radio-activity. Innovative application of powerful laser systems has produced intense, controllable sources of exotic particle radioactivity for nuclear investigations. Several students have received their Ph.D. degree in experimental nuclear science for their work on basic nuclear research or R&D projects.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-88ER40414
- OSTI ID:
- 1275496
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-Rochester-WUS-40414; TRN: US1700248
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
NUCLEAR MATTER
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
NUCLEI
DE-EXCITATION
PLASTIC SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
GAMMA DETECTION
NEUTRON DETECTION
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
EXCITATION
FISSION
LINEAR MOMENTUM
INSTABILITY
LASERS
NUCLEAR REACTION KINETICS
STABILITY
STRESSES
Heavy-Ion Reactions
Fusion-Fission
L-window
Microcanonical
thermodynamics
Spinodal instability
Nuclear phase transition
Neck dynamic
Nuclear cluster
Scintillator material
Neutron detector