arXiv subjects

S. E. Koonin

Publications and source records attributed to S. E. Koonin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2009

Climate Engineering Responses to Climate Emergencies

Despite efforts to stabilize CO_2 concentrations, it is possible that the climate system could respond abruptly with catastrophic consequences. Intentional intervention in the climate system to avoid or ameliorate such consequences has been proposed as one possible response, should such a scenario arise. In a one-week study, the authors of this report conducted a technical review and evaluation of proposed climate engineering concepts that might serve as a rapid palliative response to such climate emergency scenarios. Because of their potential to induce a prompt (less than one year) global cooling, this study concentrated on Shortwave Climate Engineering (SWCE) methods for moderately reducing the amount of shortwave solar radiation reaching the Earth. The study's main objective was to outline a decade-long agenda of technical research that would maximally reduce the uncertainty surrounding the benefits and risks associated with SWCE. For rigor of technical analysis, the study focused the research agenda on one particular SWCE concept--stratospheric aerosol injection--and in doing so developed several conceptual frameworks and methods valuable for assessing any SWCE proposal.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

Globally integrated measurements of the Earth's visible spectral albedo

We report spectroscopic observations of the earthshine reflected from the Moon. By applying our photometry methodology to spectroscopy, we were able to precisely determine the Earth's reflectance, and its variation as a function of wavelength through a single night as the Earth rotates. These data imply that planned regular monitoring of earthshine spectra will yield valuable, new inputs for climate models, which would be complementary to those from the more standard broadband measurements of satellite platforms. The mean spectroscopic albedo over the visible is consistent with simultaneous broadband photometric measurements. We found no evidence for an appreciable "red" or "vegetation edge" in the Earth's spectral albedo, and no evidence for changes in this spectral region (700 -740 nm) over the 40 degrees of Earth's rotation covered by our observations.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1999

Nuclear Matter on a Lattice

We investigate nuclear matter on a cubic lattice. An exact thermal formalism is applied to nucleons with a Hamiltonian that accommodates on-site and next-neighbor parts of the central, spin- and isospin-exchange interactions. We describe the nuclear matter Monte Carlo methods which contain elements from shell model Monte Carlo methods and from numerical simulations of the Hubbard model. We show that energy and basic saturation properties of nuclear matter can be reproduced. Evidence of a first-order phase transition from an uncorrelated Fermi gas to a clustered system is observed by computing mechanical and thermodynamical quantities such as compressibility, heat capacity, entropy and grand potential. We compare symmetry energy and first sound velocities with literature and find reasonable agreement.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1999

Calculation of exciton densities in SMMC

We develop a shell-model Monte Carlo (SMMC) method to calculate densities of states with varying exciton (particle-hole) number. We then apply this method to the doubly closed-shell nucleus 40Ca in a full 0s-1d-0f-1p shell-model space and compare our results to those found using approximate analytic expressions for the partial densities. We find that the effective one-body level density is reduced by approximately 22% when a residual two-body interaction is included in the shell model calculation.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1999

Shell Model Monte Carlo Investigation of Rare Earth Nuclei

We utilize the Shell Model Monte Carlo (SMMC) method to study the structure of rare earth nuclei. This work demonstrates the first systematic ``full oscillator shell plus intruder'' calculations in such heavy nuclei. Exact solutions of a pairing plus quadrupole hamiltonian are compared with mean field and SPA approximations in several Dysprosium isotopes from A=152-162, including the odd mass A=153. Basic properties of these nuclei at various temperatures and spin are explored. These include energy, deformation, moments of inertia, pairing channel strengths, band crossing, and evolution of shell model occupation numbers. Exact level densities are also calculated and, in the case of 162 Dy, compared with experimental data.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1998

Shell Model Monte Carlo studies of neutron-rich nuclei in the 1s-0d-1p-0f shells

We demonstrate the feasibility of realistic Shell-Model Monte Carlo (SMMC) calculations spanning multiple major shells, using a realistic interaction whose bad saturation and shell properties have been corrected by a newly developed general prescription. Particular attention is paid to the approximate restoration of translational invariance. The model space consists of the full sd-pf shells. We include in the study some well-known T=0 nuclei and several unstable neutron-rich ones around N=20,28. The results indicate that SMMC can reproduce binding energies, B(E2) transitions, and other observables with an interaction that is practically parameter free. Some interesting insight is gained on the nature of deep correlations. The validity of previous studies is confirmed.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1998

Effect of the source charge on charged-beam interferometry

We investigate quantal perturbations of the interferometric correlations of charged bosons by the Coulomb field of an instantaneous, charged source. The source charge increases the apparent source size by weakening the correlation at non-zero relative momenta. The effect is strongest for pairs with a small total momentum and is stronger for kaons than for pions of the same momenta. The experimental data currently available are well described by this effect without invoking Pratt's exploding source model. A simple expression is proposed to account for the effect.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1997

Gamow-Teller strength distributions in fp-shell nuclei

We use the shell model Monte Carlo method to calculate complete 0f1p-shell response functions for Gamow-Teller (GT) operators and obtain the corresponding strength distributions using a Maximum Entropy technique. The approach is validated against direct diagonalization for 48Ti. Calculated GT strength distributions agree well with data from (n,p) and (p,n) reactions for nuclei with A=48-64. We also calculate the temperature evolution of the GT+ distributions for representative nuclei and find that the GT+ distributions broaden and the centroids shift to lower energies with increasing temperature.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1997

Spin-Polarization Response Functions in High-Energy (e,e'p) Reactions

Spin-polarization response functions are examined for high-energy $(\vec{e},e'\vec{p})$ reaction by computing the full 18 response functions for the proton kinetic energy $T_{p'}=$ 0.515 GeV and 3.179 GeV with an 16O target. The Dirac eikonal formalism is applied to account for the final-state interactions. The formalism is found to yield the response functions in good agreement with those calculated by the partial-wave expansion method at 0.515 GeV. We identify the response functions that depend on the spin-orbital potential in the final-state interactions, but not on the central potential. Dependence on the Dirac- or Pauli-type current of the nucleon is investigated in the helicity-dependent response functions, and the normal-component polarization of the knocked-out proton, $P_n$, is computed.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1997

Results from Shell Model Monte Carlo Studies

We review results obtained using Shell Model Monte Carlo (SMMC) techniques. These methods reduce the imaginary-time many-body evolution operator to a coherent superposition of one-body evolutions in fluctuating one-body fields; the resultant path integral is evaluated stochastically. After a brief review of the methods, we discuss a variety of nuclear physics applications. These include studies of the ground-state properties of pf-shell nuclei, Gamow-Teller strength distributions, thermal and rotational pairing properties of nuclei near N=Z, $γ$-soft nuclei, and $ββ$-decay in ^{76}Ge. Several other illustrative calculations are also reviewed. Finally, we discuss prospects for further progress in SMMC and related calculations.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1997

Monte Carlo Simulation of Quantum Computation

The many-body dynamics of a quantum computer can be reduced to the time evolution of non-interacting quantum bits in auxiliary fields by use of the Hubbard-Stratonovich representation of two-bit quantum gates in terms of one-bit gates. This makes it possible to perform the stochastic simulation of a quantum algorithm, based on the Monte Carlo evaluation of an integral of dimension polynomial in the number of quantum bits. As an example, the simulation of the quantum circuit for the Fast Fourier Transform is discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv1996

Pairing correlations in N~Z pf-shell nuclei

We perform Shell Model Monte Carlo calculations to study pair correlations in the ground states of $N=Z$ nuclei with masses A=48-60. We find that $T=1$, $J^π=0^+$ proton-neutron correlations play an important, and even dominant role, in the ground states of odd-odd $N=Z$ nuclei, in agreement with experiment. By studying pairing in the ground states of $^{52-58}$Fe, we observe that the isovector proton-neutron correlations decrease rapidly with increasing neutron excess. In contrast, both the proton, and trivially the neutron correlations increase as neutrons are added. We also study the thermal properties and the temperature dependence of pair correlations for $^{50}$Mn and $^{52}$Fe as exemplars of odd-odd and even-even $N=Z$ nuclei. While for $^{52}$Fe results are similar to those obtained for other even-even nuclei in this mass range, the properties of $^{50}$Mn at low temperatures are strongly influenced by isovector neutron-proton pairing. In coexistence with these isovector pair correlations, our calculations also indicate an excess of isoscalar proton-neutron pairing over the mean-field values. The isovector neutron-proton correlations rapidly decrease with temperatures and vanish for temperatures above $T=700$ keV, while the isovector correlations among like nucleons persist to higher temperatures. Related to the quenching of the isovector proton-neutron correlations, the average isospin decreases from 1, appropriate for the ground state, to 0 as the temperature increases.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1996

Phase Transitions in Quantum Dots

We perform Hartree-Fock calculations to show that quantum dots (i.e. two dimensional systems of up to twenty interacting electrons in an external parabolic potential) undergo a gradual transition to a spin-polarized Wigner crystal with increasing magnetic field strength. The phase diagram and ground state energies have been determined. We tried to improve the ground state of the Wigner crystal by introducing a Jastrow ansatz for the wavefunction and performing a variational Monte Carlo calculation. The existence of so called magic numbers was also investigated. Finally, we also calculated the heat capacity associated with the rotational degree of freedom of deformed many-body states.

cond-mat↗

arXiv1996

Shell Model Monte Carlo Methods

We review quantum Monte Carlo methods for dealing with large shell model problems. These methods reduce the imaginary-time many-body evolution operator to a coherent superposition of one-body evolutions in fluctuating one-body fields; the resultant path integral is evaluated stochastically. We first discuss the motivation, formalism, and implementation of such Shell Model Monte Carlo (SMMC) methods. There then follows a sampler of results and insights obtained from a number of applications. These include the ground state and thermal properties of {\it pf}-shell nuclei, the thermal and rotational behavior of rare-earth and $γ$-soft nuclei, and the calculation of double beta-decay matrix elements. Finally, prospects for further progress in such calculations are discussed.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1996

Temperature Dependence of Pair Correlations in Nuclei in the Iron-Region

We use the shell model Monte Carlo approach to study thermal properties and pair correlations in $^{54,56,58}$Fe and in $^{56}$Cr. The calculations are performed with the modified Kuo-Brown interaction in the complete $1p0f$ model space. We find generally that the proton-proton and neutron-neutron $J=0$ pairing correlations, which dominate the ground state properties of even-even nuclei, vanish at temperatures around 1 MeV. This pairing phase transition is accompanied by a rapid increase in the moment of inertia and a partial unquenching of the M1 strength. We find that the M1 strength totally unquenches at higher temperatures, related to the vanishing of isoscalar proton-neutron correlations, which persist to higher temperatures than the pairing between like nucleons. The Gamow-Teller strength is also correlated to the isoscalar proton-neutron pairing and hence also unquenches at a temperature larger than that of the pairing phase transition.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1996

Electron screening in molecular fusion reactions

Recent laboratory experiments have measured fusion cross sections at center-of-mass energies low enough for the effects of atomic and molecular electrons to be important. To extract the cross section for bare nuclei from these data (as required for astrophysical applications), it is necessary to understand these screening effects. We study electron screening effects in the low-energy collisions of Z=1 nuclei with hydrogen molecules. Our model is based on a dynamical evolution of the electron wavefunctions within the TDHF scheme, while the motion of the nuclei is treated classically. We find that at the currently accessible energies the screening effects depend strongly on the molecular orientation. The screening is found to be larger for molecular targets than for atomic targets, due to the reflection symmetry in the latter. The results agree fairly well with data measured for deuteron collisions on molecular deuterium and tritium targets.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1995

SMMC method for two-neutrino double beta decay

Shell Model Monte Carlo (SMMC) techniques are used to calculate two-neutrino double beta decay matrix elements. We validate the approach against direct diagonalization for $^{48}$Ca in the complete $pf$-shell using the KB3 interaction. The method is then applied to the decay of $^{76}$Ge in the $(0f_{5/2},1p,0g_{9/2})$ model space using a newly calculated realistic interaction. Our result for the matrix element is $0.13\pm0.05$ MeV$^{-1}$, in agreement with the experimental value.

nucl-th↗

arXiv1995

Monte Carlo Methods for Nuclear Structure

Quantum Monte Carlo methods find fruitful application in large shell model problems. These methods reduce the imaginary-time many-body evolution operator to a coherent superposition of one-body evolutions in a fluctuating one-body field; the resultant path integral is evaluated stochastically. After a brief review of the capabilities and general strategy of Shell Model Monte Carlo methods, I discuss results and insights obtained from a number of applications. These include the ground state and thermal properties of {\it pf}-shell nuclei, the thermal and rotational behavior of rare-earth and $γ$-soft nuclei, and the calculation of double beta-decay matrix elements. Prospects for further progress in such calculations are also discussed.

nucl-th↗