Studies of Heavy-Ion Reactions and Transuranic Nuclei

Schroeder, W. Udo¹ 

[1] Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry. Dept. of Physics

关键词: Heavy-Ion Reactions;    Fusion-Fission;    L-window;    Microcanonical;    thermodynamics;    Spinodal instability;    Nuclear phase transition;    Neck dynamic;    Nuclear cluster;    Scintillator material;    Neutron detector;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1275496
RP-ID  :  DOE-Rochester-WUS--40414
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1275496

学科分类：核物理和高能物理

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

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.