S. V. Khlebnikov

Breakthrough in pulse-shape based particle identification with silicon detectors

Identification of charged particles is an important method in nuclear spectroscopy. We have achieved a major breakthrough that makes the pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) method with a single solid-state detector comparable to and sometimes better than the traditional telescope technique. By using rear-side injection in over-biased surface barrier n-type Si detectors made from homogeneously doped n-TD silicon, and extracting the pulse-shape information already at the preamplifier level we have reached improved Z and even A discrimination over a wide dynamic range. Previously good separation with the PSD technique required a major degradation of time resolution and inferior energy resolution. Currently we have pushed down the dynamical time range to below 35 ns and reached time resolution of about 200 ps fwhm while maintaining good energy resolution characteristic of silicon detectors. The lowest energy threshold for Z separation of intermediate mass fragments (IMF) achieved with a 250 /spl mu/m thick detector is equivalent to a range of about 20 /spl mu/m in silicon. For IMFs with ranges higher than 80 /spl mu/m of silicon we got full isotope separation. Details of this study are presented, and the application of our method in recent nuclear physics experiments is briefly discussed.

New indications of collinear tripartition in 252Cf(sf) studied at the modified FOBOS setup

An attempt has been made to search for collinear tripartition in spontaneous fission of 252Cf by using the FOBOS setup coupled with the neutron detector belt. A group of rare events were detected characterized by reduced total kinetic energy and total nuclear charge gated by the large neutron multiplicity measured. This fact is considered to be an experimental indication of collinear tripartition in 252Cf. The theoretical indication of the possible existence of the collinear cluster tripartition valley was obtained for the first time.

α + 12C scattering at 110 MeV: Has exotic 7.65 MeV Hoyle’s state signatures “alpha-condensate” structure?

We present new measurements of the α + 12C elastic and inelastic (to the states 4.44, 7.65, and 9.64 MeV) scattering at Elab = 110 MeV in the wide angular range from ∼10° to 175°, which enable us to examine the condensate and cluster properties of the low-lying excited states in 12C. We present the diffraction-radius analysis of our data together with a considerable amount of the existing data. The magnitudes of the diffraction radii for the ground and the first excited (4.44 MeV) states are found to be equal, whereas they appear to be enhanced by ∼0.6 fm both for 7.65 and 9.64 MeV states. This result shows that the radius of the Hoyle’s 02+, 7.65 MeV state in 12C is by a factor of ∼1.2–1.3 larger than that of the ground state. It is demonstrated that the direct transfer mechanism of 8Be dominates at the largest angles in all four reactions reported here. The configuration corresponding to the transfer of 8Be in its ground state (Iπ = 0+) with L = 0 turns out to be the most important for the 7.65 MeV state of 12C. Evidence of existence of some features of α-condensed structure of the Hoyle’s 02+ state in 12C was obtained: its enhanced radius and large contribution of α-particle configuration with L = 0.

Study of rlastic and inelastic 11B +α scattering and search for cluster states of enlarged radius in 11B

The differential cross sections for elastic and inelastic 11B + α scattering were measured at the alpha-particle energy of 65 MeV, the inelastic-scattering processes leading to the excitation of known states of 11B up to excitation energies of about 14 MeV. Data on elastic scattering were analyzed together with those that were published earlier for lower energies. The cross sections for inelastic scattering were analyzed on the basis of the distorted-wave method. A modified diffractionmodel was used to determine the root-mean-square radii of excited states. The radii of states whose excitation energies were below about 7MeV were found to agree with radius of the ground state to within 0.1 to 0.15 fm. This result complieswith the traditional idea that the low-lying states of 11B have a shell structure. The possibility that these states belong to the predicted rotational bands, which, if any, are truncated to three states, cannot be ruled out either. The majority of the observed highly excited states are distributed among four rotational bands. The moments of inertia of these bands are close; for the band based on the 3/2− state at E* = 8.56 MeV, they are even higher than those of the Hoyle state in the 12C nucleus. The measured radii of states associated with these bands of 11B are larger than the ground-state radius by 0.7 to 1.0 fm and are also close to the radius of the Hoyle state. The results of the present study agree with the existing predictions that the cluster structure of the 11B nucleus is diverse at high excitation energies. The hypothesis that the 11B nucleus features a “giant” state of size commensurate with those in heavy nuclei was not confirmed.

Cluster states in the neutron excess nucleus 22Ne

High-spin states of the 22Ne nucleus in the excitation energy range of 15–30 MeV have been studied. The angular correlation method has been used to determine the spins of excited states. A number of new states with high angular momenta—20.0 MeV (9−), 20.7 MeV (11−), 21.6 MeV (9−), 22.2 MeV (12+), and 25.0 MeV (9−)—have been revealed. They are intensely populated in the reaction 14C(12C, α1)22Ne* → α2 + 18O and correspond to the rotational bands of various structures.

THE MODIFIED MINI-FOBOS SETUP

The 4π spectrometer FOBOS was proved to be a high-efficiency tool for investigation of the characteristics of multi-body decays of hot heavy nuclei produced in nuclear reactions induced by heavy ions. The time-offlight measurements of charged fragments employing the radio-frequency (RF) signal of the cyclotron U400-M to deduce the START signal require no special START detectors and, hence, the big fraction of the total solid angle is available for particle detection. The lack of the RF signal in experiments aimed at search for the exotic decay modes in spontaneous fission enforces to use an additional START detector. The complicated target station equipped by a START detector shadows a large portion of detector modules making thus no sense to use the whole powerful detection system in such experiments. Therefore, it has been decided to build a simplified facility consisting of several standard FOBOS modules only. The miniFOBOS setup, a prototype of the FOBOS spectrometer, has been chosen for that purpose. It was exploited mainly to solve various method tasks related to the construction of the FOBOS spectrometer. The general idea of the modified miniFOBOS setup (MMF) consists in using a small reaction chamber which can be then unique for each experiment and the basic universal system maintaining the detectors. The special mounting cones are used to joint detectors with the reaction chamber (Fig. 1, 2). Such cones can be used, in particular, to build the high efficiency system joining six modules in the form of 3Dcross.

Energy dependence of the total cross section for the reaction of 4He ions with silicon nuclei

Directly measured data on the total cross section for the reaction of projectile 4He ions with silicon nuclei at energies below 25 MeV/nucleon are presented. The energy dependence of the parameters of a semimicroscopic potential is determined from the measured values of this cross section. This investigation was performed at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia) and at the Department of Physics at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland).

The influence of the entrance channel on the formation and decay of the compound nucleus 250No

The mass-energy and angular distributions of binary fissionlike fragments produced in the reactions 44Ca + 206Pb and 64Ni + 186W, leading to the same compound nucleus 250No, have been measured at excitation energies of 30 and 40 MeV. The presence of the quasifission component was observed for both systems. But in the case of the 64Ni ion, the quasifission process dominates, while in the case of the 44Ca ion, the main process is the fusion-fission of compound nucleus 250No. From the angular distributions of reaction fragments, the time scales were found for quasifission and fusion-fission for both reactions.

Fragment mass distribution in superasymmetric region in proton-induced fission of U and Th

SummaryFission fragment mass distributions down to super-asymmetric mass region and both pre- and post-scission neutron multiplicity for238U(p,fission) reaction atEp = 20, 35, 50, 60 MeV and for232Th(p, fission) reaction atEp = 50, 60 MeV were measured using HENDES set-up. The results indicate enhancement for super-asymmetric mass division at intermediate excitation energies.

First observation of nuclear rainbow scattering in 16O + 40Ca system

Measurements of the differential cross section of the 16O + 40Ca elastic scattering at the 16O energy 214 MeV were performed. For the first time, nuclear rainbow scattering in the 16O + 40Ca system was observed. The analysis shows that the 45° minimum in the angular distribution could be identified as an Airy supernumerary one, probably, of the third order. It corresponds to a distance of closest approach of the colliding nuclei less than 3 fm.