SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

George Bertsch

Publications and source records attributed to George Bertsch.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Generation, dynamics, and correlations of the fission fragments' angular momenta

The generation of angular momentum in fissioning nuclei is not well understood. The predictions of different models disagree, particularly concerning the correlation between the fragments' angular momenta. In this article, a time-dependent collective Hamiltonian model is proposed to treat the generation of the angular momentum in the fission fragments due to the quantum uncertainty principle as well as the dynamics of the collective wave function during and after scission. The model is constructed in the framework of the frozen Hartree-Fock approximation using a Skyrme energy functional to extract deformations of the fission fragments as well as the interactions in a derived collective Hamiltonian. The fission reactions studied are $^{240}$Pu $\rightarrow$ $^{132}$Sn+$^{108}$Ru and $^{240}$Pu $\rightarrow$ $^{144}$Ba+$^{96}$Sr. The model can account for a large part of the angular momentum found in experimental data. The orientation of the angular momentum of each fragment is found to be mainly in the plane perpendicular to the fission axis, in agreement with the experiment. The magnitudes of the angular momenta in the two fragments are nearly uncorrelated, in agreement with the recent experimental data of Wilson et al., Nature (London) 590, 566 (2021). Some of the conclusions of the traditional collective vibration model are supported by the present model but some are not. Surprisingly, it is found that the angular momenta of the fragments are slightly correlated positively as in a wriggling mode. It is also found that the presence of an octupole deformation in a fragment can significantly increase the generated angular momentum.

nucl-th

Future of Nuclear Fission Theory

There has been much recent interest in nuclear fission, due in part to a new appreciation of its relevance to astrophysics, stability of superheavy elements, and fundamental theory of neutrino interactions. At the same time, there have been important developments on a conceptual and computational level for the theory. The promising new theoretical avenues were the subject of a workshop held at the University of York in October 2019; this report summarises its findings and recommendations.

nucl-th

Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov Theory of Polarized Fermi Systems

Condensed Fermi systems with an odd number of particles can be described by means of polarizing external fields having a time-odd character. We illustrate how this works for Fermi gases and atomic nuclei treated by density functional theory or Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) theory. We discuss the method based on introducing two chemical potentials for different superfluid components, whereby one may change the particle-number parity of the underlying quasiparticle vacuum. Formally, this method is a variant of non-collective cranking, and the procedure is equivalent to the so-called blocking. We present and exemplify relations between the two-chemical-potential method and the cranking approximation for Fermi gases and nuclei.

cond-mat.supr-con

First Order Phase Transitions in Neutron star Matter: Droplets and Coherent Neutrino Scattering

A first order phase transition at high baryon density implies that a mixed phase can occupy a significant region of the interior of a neutron star. In this article we investigate the effect of a droplet phase on neutrino transport inside the core. Two specific scenarios of the phase transition are examined, one having a kaon condensate and the other having quark matter in the high density phase. The coherent scattering of neutrinos off the droplets greatly increases the neutrino opacity of the mixed phase. We comment on how the existence of such a phase will affect a supernova neutrino signal.

nucl-th

Breakup reactions of the halo nuclei Be11 and B8

We calculate the nuclear induced breakup of Be11 and B8 using a more realistic treatment of the diffraction and stripping processes than in previous work. The breakup is treated in the eikonal approximation with a profile function calculated from a realistic optical potential at low energies and from free nucleon-nucleon cross sections at high energies. This treatment gives a good description of measured breakup cross sections, as well as the longitudinal momentum distribution of the core-like fragments, which is narrower than predicted in the transparent limit. The real part of the potential is found to be significant and enhances the diffractive breakup at low energies.

nucl-th