Manual for the use of borosilicate Raschig rings as a fixed nuclear poison /

"U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Contract AT(29-1)-1106."

Computer simulation of H and He effects in fusion reactor materials

Fusion power is an appealing source of clean and abundant energy. The radiation resistance of reactor materials is one of the greatest obstacles on the path towards commercial fusion power. These materials are subject to a harsh radiation environment, and cannot fail mechanically or contaminate the fusion plasma. Moreover, for a power plant to be economically viable, the reactor materials must withstand long operation times, with little maintenance. The fusion reactor materials will contain hydrogen and helium, due to deposition from the plasma and nuclear reactions because of energetic neutron irradiation. The first wall divertor materials, carbon and tungsten in existing and planned test reactors, will be subject to intense bombardment of low energy deuterium and helium, which erodes and modifies the surface. All reactor materials, including the structural steel, will suffer irradiation of high energy neutrons, causing displacement cascade damage. Molecular dynamics simulation is a valuable tool for studying irradiation phenomena, such as surface bombardment and the onset of primary damage due to displacement cascades. The governing mechanisms are on the atomic level, and hence not easily studied experimentally. In order to model materials, interatomic potentials are needed to describe the interaction between the atoms. In this thesis, new interatomic potentials were developed for the tungsten-carbon-hydrogen system and for iron-helium and chromium-helium. Thus, the study of previously inaccessible systems was made possible, in particular the effect of H and He on radiation damage. The potentials were based on experimental and ab initio data from the literature, as well as density-functional theory calculations performed in this work. As a model for ferritic steel, iron-chromium with 10% Cr was studied. The difference between Fe and FeCr was shown to be negligible for threshold displacement energies. The properties of small He and He-vacancy clusters in Fe and FeCr were also investigated. The clusters were found to be more mobile and dissociate more rapidly than previously assumed, and the effect of Cr was small. The primary damage formed by displacement cascades was found to be heavily influenced by the presence of He, both in FeCr and W. Many important issues with fusion reactor materials remain poorly understood, and will require a huge effort by the international community. The development of potential models for new materials and the simulations performed in this thesis reveal many interesting features, but also serve as a platform for further studies.

Mass measurements of some proton-rich nuclei

The Q values and 0^o cross sections of (He³, n) reactions forming seven proton-rich nuclei have been measured with accuracies varying from 6 to 18 keV. The Q values (in keV) are: Si²⁶ (85), S³⁰ (-573), Ar³⁴ (-759), Ti⁴² (-2865), Cr⁴⁸ (5550), Ni⁵⁶ (4513) and Zn⁶⁰ (818). At least one excited state was found for all but Ti⁴². The first four nuclei complete isotopic spin triplets; the results obtained agree well with charge-symmetry predictions. The last three, all multiples of the α particle, are important in the α and e-process theories of nucleo-synthesis in stars. The energy available for β decay of these three was found by magnetic spectrometer measurements of the (He³, p) Q values of reactions leading to V⁴⁸, Co⁵⁶, and Cu⁶⁰. Many excited states were seen: V⁴⁸ (3), Co⁵⁶ (15), Cu⁶⁰ (23). The first two states of S³⁰ are probably 0⁺ and 2⁺ from (He³, n) angular distribution measurements. Two NaI γ-ray measurements are described: the decay of Ar³⁴ (measured ^Ƭ1/2 = 1.2 ± 0.3s) and the prompt γ-ray spectrum from Fe⁵⁴(He³, nγ)Ni⁵⁶. Possible collective structure in Ni⁵⁶ and Ca⁴⁰, both doubly magic, is discussed.

The (He³, n) neutron energy and yield measurements utilized neutron-induced nuclear reactions in a silicon semiconductor detector. Cross sections for the most important detection processes, Si²⁸ (n, α) Mg²⁵ and Si²⁸ (n, p) Al²⁸, are presented for reactions leading to the first four states of both residual nuclei for neutron energies from 7.3 to 16.4 MeV. Resolution and pulse-height anomalies associated with recoil Mg²⁵ and Al²⁸ ions are discussed. The 0^o cross section for Be⁹ (α, n) C¹², used to provide calibration neutrons, has been measured with a stilbene spectrometer for n_o (5.0 ≤ E_α ≤ 12 MeV), n₁ (4.3 ≤ E_α ≤ 12.0 MeV) and n₂ (6.0 ≤ E_α ≤ 10.1 MeV). Resonances seen in the n_o yield may correspond to nine new levels in C¹³.

Influence of in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section on the isoscaling parameter alpha

The influence of in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section on the isoscaling parameter a is investigated for two couples of central nuclear reactions Ca-40 + Ca-40 and Ca-60 + Ca-40; Sn-112 + Sn-112 and Sn-124 + Sn-124 within the isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics. The calculated result shows that the influence of the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section on the isoscaling parameter a is mainly determined by the corresponding number of collisions, both for isospin dependent and isospin independent parameterizations. The mechanisms behind the effects of the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross sections on the alpha are investigated in more details.

Probing the medium effect and isospin dependence of the in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section in heavy ion collisions

Probing in-medium nucleon-nucleon (NN) cross section sigma(1)(NN)(alpha) in heavy ion collisions has been investigated by means of the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (IQMD) with the isospin- and momentum- dependent interaction (IMDI(tau)). It is found that there are the very obvious medium effect and the sensitive isospin- dependence of nuclear stopping R on the in-medium NN cross section sigma(1)(NN)(alpha) in the nuclear reactions induced by halo-neutron projectile and the same-mass stable projectile. However, R induced by the neutron-halo projectile is obviously lower than that induced by the corresponding stable projectile. In particular, there is a very obvious dependence of R on the medium effect of sigma(1)(NN)(alpha) in the whole beam energy region for the above two kinds of projectiles. Therefore, the comparison between the results of R's in the reactions induced by the neutron-halo projectile and the corresponding same-mass stable projectile is a more favourable probe for extracting the information of sigma(1)(NN)(alpha) because of adding a new judgement.

Isoscaling parameter a as a possible probe of medium effect of nucleon-nucleon cross section

The medium effect of nucleon-nucleon cross section sigma(med)(NN) (alpha(m)) on the isoscaling parameter a is investigated for two central nuclear reactions Ca-40+Ca-40, Ca-60+Ca-60. within isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics at beam energies from 40 to 50 MeV/nucleon. It is found that there is the very obvious medium effects of nucleon-nucleon cross section sigma(med)(NN)(alpha(m)) on the isoscaling parameters a. In this case the isoscaling parameter a is a possible probe of the medium effect of nucleon-nucleon cross section sigma(med)(NN)(alpha(m)) in the heavy ion collisions. The mechanism of the above-mentioned properties is studied and discussed.

Medium effect of nucleon-nucleon cross section on the isoscaling parameter alpha

The medium effect of in-medium nucleon-nucleon cross section sigma(med)(NN) (alpha(m)) on the isoscaling parameter a is investigated for two couples of central nuclear reactions Ca-40 + Ca-48 and Ca-60 + Ca-48; Sn-112 + Sn-112 and Sn-124 + Sn-124 at beam energy region from 40 to 60 MeV/nucleon with isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics. It is found that there is the obvious medium effect of sigma(med)(NN) (alpha(m)) on the isoscaling parameters alpha. The mechanism for the medium effect of sigma(med)(NN) (alpha(m)) on a is investigated.

The Main Path to C, N, O Elements in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

The production of C, N, O elements in a standard big bang nucleosynthesis scenario is investigated. Using the up-to-date data of nuclear reactions in BBN, in particular the Li-8 (n, gamma) Li-9 which has been measured in China Institute of Atomic Energy, a full nucleosynthesis network calculation of BBN is carried out. Our calculation results show that the abundance of C-12 is increased for an order of magnitude after addition of the reaction chain Li-8(n, gamma) Li-9(alpha, n) B-12(beta) C-12, which was neglected in previous studies. We find that this sequence provides the main channel to convert the light elements into C, N, O in standard BBN.

放射性核素引起反应中同位素分布的同位旋效应及19Na产生截面的ya研究

本论文介绍了放射性核束物理研究的现状以及当前常用的几种同位旋相关的重离子微观输运理论，对传统的 Boltzmann-Langevin 方程（BLE）考虑了同位旋相关的平均场、核子-核子碰撞截面和泡里阻塞，面且在初始化相空间的抽样中区分了中子和质子，并合模型也考虑了同位旋效应，建立了同位旋相关的 Boltzmann-Langevin 方程（IBLE）。利用IBLE对放射性核引起反应中的同位素分布，~(19)Na 的产生截面，以及中能重离子碰撞中的径向膨胀流进行了系统的研究，并对超重核的合成进行了一些初步的讨论。利用 IBLE 分别研究了不同弹核 ~(14)O，~(16)O 和 ~(18)O 在入射能量为 28.7MeV/u 下轰击不同靶核~7Be 和 ~9Be的反应，计算生成碎片的产生截面，发现用丰中子（缺中子）炮弹或丰中子（缺中子）靶进行反应，所得到的产物均有丰中子（缺中子）的碎片出现。同位素分布宽度和峰位入射体系密切相关，产生碎片的电荷数越接近于入射弹核的电荷数，则同位素分布的宽度越大，峰位偏离β稳定线值越远，其同位旋效应越明显。在28.7 MeV/u入射能量下，对反应系统 ~(17-20,22)Ne + ~(12)C 和 ~(20)Ne + ~9 进行了研究。对核素 ~(19)Na 产生截面进行计算和比较后，发现缺中子核引起的反应，具有更大~(19)Na的产生截面。通过研究反应系统 ~(40)Ca + ~(58)Ni 和 ~(40)Ca + ~(58)Fe 的径向膨胀流随入射能量的变化关系，发现径向膨胀流存在着强烈的同位旋相关性。利用径向膨胀流随入射能量的变化关系和拟和结果，从理论上证实了存在使径向膨胀流为零的特定入射能量，发现对于不同的反应体系这个能量是不同的，它随同位旋自由度的变化而变化。

八单元一维位置灵敏雪崩室

In the experiment of nuclear reaction, it is important to measure the mass, charge, energy and emitted direction of particles. For multiparameter measurement, we must use a detector or a group of detectors which can give the time, energy, and position information. The Large Area position sensitive Ionization Chamber(LAIC) is one of the eight experiment terminals of HIRFL. It is built for researching nuclear reactions from low energy to intermediate energy. It is an excellent equipment for energy measurements and atomic number identification of emitted fragments in this energy region. It is also designed to give the time and position information of the emitted fragments by itself. Obviously, an IC can not supply a good timing signal. Moreover, the mechanical installation is different from the original design by some other reasons. In this case, it is not enough to obtain the correct direction information of the emitted fragments. To obtain good timing signals and the correct direction information, some modifications must be made. It is well known that a PPAC can give us excellent timing signals. It also can be easily built as a position sensitive detector. For this reason, a specially designed PPAC is installed in the entrance of the LAIC. For the different purposes, two types of PPACs were designed and tested. Both are OCTPSACs (OCTunit one dimension Position Sensitive Avalanche Counter). In this paper, both OCTPSACs will be introduced. Based on the requirements of the LAIC, the OCTPSACs consist of eight position sensitive PPACs. Each PPAC has an anode and a cathode. In both cases, the sizes are same. But different type of cathodes are used. In one type of OCTPSAC, its cathode is made of wire plane. It consists of gold-plated tungsten wires with the diameter of 20μm, spaced 0.5 mm apart from each other. The anode is a mylar foil which was evaporated by gold layer with the thickness of 50μg/cm~2 mounted on a printed plate in the shape of rectangle. the thickness of mylar foil is 1.5μm. The gap between anode and cathode is 3mm. The performance of the OCTPSAC has been tested by using a ~(252)Cf source in flowing isobutylene gas at the pressure of 3.4mb. The intrinsic time resolution of 289ps and position resolution of 2 mm have been obtained. In another type of OCTPSAC, the cathode is made of mylar foil, which is composed of gold strip by vacuume evaporation method with a special mask on the mylar foil. The thickness and the width of the gold strip is 50μg/cm~2 and 1.7mm. The strips are spaced 0.3 mm apart from each other. The anode is the same as the former type. We have obtained the time resolution of 296ps and position resolution of 2mm by using ~(241)Am-a source when the gas pressure is 6 mb and high voltage is 600V. The working gas is heptane

The s-process nucleosynthesis

Theoretical as well as observational aspects of the s-process nucleosynthesis are reviewed. The classical site-independent s-process model as well as the s-process in massive stars are shortly described. A special attention is paid to the nucleosynthesis taking place in AGB stars and the extra-mixing invoked to explain the production of neutrons in the C-rich layers during the interpulse. We also discuss the nucleosynthesis found in hot AGB stars for which the s-process during the interpulse phase is inhibited, but the one resulting from the large temperatures in the thermal pulse is boosted. We comment on the uncertainties affecting our understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible for a successful s-process. Finally, various types of spectroscopic observations of s-process elements are discussed. © 2005 International Astronomical Union.

Laser generation of proton beams for the production of short-lived positron emitting radioisotopes

Protons of energies up to 37 MeV have been generated when ultra-intense lasers (up to 10(20) W cm(-2)) interact with hydrogen containing solid targets. These protons can be used to induce nuclear reactions in secondary targets to produce P-emitting nuclei of relevance to the nuclear medicine community, namely C-11 and N-13 via (p, n) and (p, alpha) reactions. Activities of the order of 200 kBq have been measured from a single laser pulse interacting with a thin solid target. The possibility of using ultra-intense lasers to produce commercial amounts of short-lived positron emitting sources for positron emission tomography (PET) is discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Double-detonation sub-Chandrasekhar supernovae: Can minimum helium shell masses detonate the core?

The explosion of sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs via the double detonation scenario is a potential explanation for type Ia supernovae. In this scenario, a surface detonation in a helium layer initiates a detonation in the underlying carbon/oxygen core leading to an explosion. For a given core mass, a lower bound has been determined on the mass of the helium shell required for dynamical burning during a helium flash, which is a necessary prerequisite for detonation. For a range of core and corresponding minimum helium shell masses, we investigate whether an assumed surface helium detonation is capable of triggering a subsequent detonation in the core even for this limiting case. We carried out hydrodynamic simulations on a co-expanding Eulerian grid in two dimensions assuming rotational symmetry. The detonations are propagated using the level-set approach and a simplified scheme for nuclear reactions that has been calibrated with a large nuclear network. The same network is used to determine detailed nucleosynthetic abundances in a post-processing step. Based on approximate detonation initiation criteria in the literature, we find that secondary core detonations are triggered for all of the simulated models, ranging in core mass from 0.810 up to 1.385 M? with corresponding shell masses from 0.126 down to 0.0035 M?. This implies that, as soon as a detonation triggers in a helium shell covering a carbon/oxygen white dwarf, a subsequent core detonation is virtually inevitable.

Modeling Type Ia supernova explosions

Despite their astrophysical significanceas a major contributor to cosmic nucleosynthesis and as distance indicators in observational cosmologyType Ia supernovae lack theoretical explanation. Not only is the explosion mechanism complex due to the interaction of (potentially turbulent) hydrodynamics and nuclear reactions, but even the initial conditions for the explosion are unknown. Various progenitor scenarios have been proposed. After summarizing some general aspects of Type Ia supernova modeling, recent simulations of our group are discussed. With a sequence of modeling starting (in some cases) from the progenitor evolution and following the explosion hydrodynamics and nucleosynthesis we connect to the formation of the observables through radiation transport in the ejecta cloud. This allows us to analyze several models and to compare their outcomes with observations. While pure deflagrations of Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs and violent mergers of two white dwarfs lead to peculiar events (that may, however, find their correspondence in the observed sample of SNe Ia), only delayed detonations in Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs or sub-Chandrasekhar-mass explosions remain promising candidates for explaining normal Type Ia supernovae. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Supersolar Ni/Fe production in the Type IIP SN 2012ec

SN 2012ec is a Type IIP supernova (SN) with a progenitor detection and comprehensive photospheric phase observational coverage. Here, we present Very Large Telescope and Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects observations of this SN in the nebular phase. We model the nebular [O I] lambda lambda 6300, 6364 lines and find their strength to suggest a progenitor main-sequence mass of 13-15 M-circle dot. SN2012ec is unique among hydrogen-rich SNe in showing a distinct line of stable nickel [Ni II] lambda 7378. This line is produced by Ni-58, a nuclear burning ash whose abundance is a sensitive tracer of explosive burning conditions. Using spectral synthesis modelling, we use the relative strengths of [Ni II] lambda 7378 and [Fe II] lambda 7155 (the progenitor of which is Ni-56) to derive a Ni/Fe production ratio of 0.20 +/- 0.07 (by mass), which is a factor 3.4 +/- 1.2 times the solar value. High production of stable nickel is confirmed by a strong [Ni II] 1.939 mu m line. This is the third reported case of a core-collapse SN producing a Ni/Fe ratio far above the solar value, which has implications for core-collapse explosion theory and galactic chemical evolution models.