Search

Classical novae are thermonuclear explosions in stellar binary systems, and important sources of $^{26}$Al and $^{22}$Na. While gamma rays from the decay of the former radioisotope have been observed throughout the Galaxy, $^{22}$Na remains untraceable. The half-life of $^{22}$Na (2.6 yr) would allow the observation of its 1.275 MeV gamma-ray line from a cosmic source. However, the prediction of such an observation requires good knowledge of the nuclear reactions involved in the production and destruction of this nucleus. The $^{22}$Na($p,\gamma$)$^{23}$Mg reaction remains the only source of large uncertainty about the amount of $^{22}$Na ejected. Its rate is dominated by a single resonance on the short-lived state at 7785.0(7) keV in $^{23}$Mg. In the present work, a combined analysis of particle-particle correlations and velocity-difference profiles is proposed to measure femtosecond nuclear lifetimes. The application of this novel method to the study of the $^{23}$Mg states, combining magnetic and highly-segmented tracking gamma-ray spectrometers, places strong limits on the amount of $^{22}$Na produced in novae, explains its non-observation to date in gamma rays (flux < 2.5x$10^{-4}$ ph/(cm$^2$s)), and constrains its detectability with future space-borne observatories., Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

Nuclei around doubly-closed shells play a crucial role in studying both a) the couplings between valence nucleons which provide information on the effective nucleon-nucleon interaction and, b) couplings of the valence nucleons with core excitations, which may be used as a unique test of various effective interactions used in mean-field based models, like Skyrme, Gogny etc. From a broader perspective, understanding the coupling of a single particle to vibrational motion in nuclei is of primary importance, as this coupling is responsible for the quenching of spectroscopic factors [1]; it is also the key process at the origin of the damping of giant resonances [2]. The vibrational phonons are best known from the spectroscopic studies of doubly-magic nuclei in which they appear, in general, as the lowest excited states. For example, in 208Pb, the lowest excitation (at 2615 keV) is the 3– octupole vibration with a large E3 transition strength of 34 W.u. We investigated the low-spin structures of 210Bi and 206Tl up to their neutroncapture states at 4.6 and 6.5 MeV, respectively, by using 209Bi(n,)210Bi and 205Tl(n,)206Tl reactions induced by cold neutrons at ILL Grenoble. The 210Bi nucleus (one proton and one neutron above the 208Pb core) was populated in the experiment performed at the PF1B and cold-neutron facility in which - coincidences were measured with the EXILL array consisting of 16 Ge detectors. It is the first time when such large array was employed for 209Bi(n,)210Bi reactions studies so the decay scheme could be revised and significantly extended. The analysis of the angular correlations of  rays provided information about transitions multipolarities and helped with the spin-parity assignments. The structure arising from the excitations of valence proton and neutron was compared to the shell-model calculations. Some of the observed states must come from the coupling of the valence particles excitations with the first excited state in 208Pb, that is 3– octupole vibration. The 206Tl nucleus was populated in the first (commissioning) experiment of FIPPS facility at ILL Grenoble. The  rays from the capture state at 6.5 MeV were measured by the array of 8 Ge clovers. We want to present the preliminary results of the -coincidence analysis which will allow to significantly extend the experimental information on the energy levels in 206Tl. The 206Tl nucleus, having just one proton-hole and one neutron-hole with respect to the best known doubly magic core 208Pb, is an ideal system for testing old and developing new shell model interactions in the south-west quadrant of the nuclear chart with respect to 208Pb.

We investigate the properties of nuclear matter at the first-order phase transitions (FOPT) such as liquid-gas phase transition, kaon condensation, and hadron-quark phase transition. As a general feature of the FOPT of matter consisting of many species of charged particles, there appears a mixed phases with regular structures called "pasta" due to the balance of the Coulomb repulsion and the surface tension between two phases. The equation of state (EOS) of mixed phase is different from those obtained by a bulk application of Gibbs conditions or by the Maxwell construction due to the effects of the non-uniform structure. We show that the charge screening and strong surface tension make the EOS close to that of the Maxwell construction., Proceedings for the 6th Japan-Italy symposium on Heavy Ion Physics, Tokai, Japan, 11-15th Nov. 2008. to appear on AIP Conference Proceedings

Effects of nuclear orientation on fission fragment mass distributions in the reaction of 30Si+238U were investigated. The mass distributions showed a Gaussian shape in the above barrier region, having a character of fusion‐fission. At the sub‐barrier energies, the asymmetric fission component around AL/AH≈90/178 appears, representing quasifision. The measured evaporation residue cross sections for 30Si+238U in [1] have also suggested the competition between fusion and quasifission at sub‐barrier region, whereas the fusion is the main process in the above barrier region. These results suggest an influence of orientation effects of the deformed target nuclei on the reaction. Discussion will be given on the difference in the mass distributions between 30Si+238U and 36S+238U.

The effects of the K−K interactions on properties of the multi‐antikaonic nuclei (MKN), in which several K− mesons are embedded to form deeply bound states, are investigated based on chiral symmetry combined with the relativistic mean‐field theory. The K−K interactions originate from two contributions: One is the contact interaction between antikaons inherent in chiral symmetry, and the other is the one generated through coupling between the K− and meson mean fields. It is shown that the former leads to saturation of not only nuclear density profiles but also the strength of the K− field at the center of the MKN and that both parts of the K−K repulsive interactions have a large contribution to the ground state energy of the K− mesons and binding energy of the MKN as the number of the embedded K− mesons increases.

The structure of unstable nuclei around N = 28 is studied by large‐scale shell‐model calculations with a new effective interaction including a proper tensor force. The dominance of the tensor force is seen in several observables. The effect appears not only in the single‐hole states in K isotopes but also in the occurance of large deformation in 42Si and in the distribution of the spectroscopic factors for proton pickup from 48Ca.

CHIMERA is a 4π multidetector for charged particles available at Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INFN‐LNS). A new method to measure the time scale of the emission of nuclear fragments is described, together with some applications in the field of the isospin dynamics of heavy‐ion collisions. Competition between fusion‐like and binary reactions near the energy threshold for nuclear multifragmentation is discussed. Opportunities are pointed out to use the detector at low and intermediate energies using the kinematical‐coincidence method.

Gamma strength function is the important input parameter to determine the photodisintegration rate and neutron capture rate for astrophysics and nuclear technologies. To test the model calculation, photon‐scattering cross sections were measured for 139La up to the neutron separation energy with bremsstrahlung at an electron kinetic energy of 11.5 MeV. Scattered photons were measured with four 100% HPGe detectors, and 11B is used to determine the γ flux. The experimental data was analyzed with statistical methods to obtain the intensities of the ground‐state transitions and their branching ratios. The present 139La photon scattering cross sections are combined with 139La photoneutron cross sections.

We have succeeded to obtain in‐beam Mossbauer spectra using a short‐lived 57Mn (T1/2 = 1.45 min) probes implanted into some different types of samples, in order to study the chemical states of the excited atoms produced just after nuclear decays and/or the dynamic behaviors of isolated single atoms in a semiconductor. 57Mn was produced as a radioactive beam following a nuclear projectile‐fragmentation reaction of 58Fe21+ beams (E = 63 MeV/nucleon) with Be production target, and separated by the in‐flight isotope separator at the accelerators in RIKEN Nishina Center. From the temperature dependence of obtained Mossbauer parameters of the isomer shift (I.S.), the quadrupole splitting (Q.S.), and the linewidth (I), the chemical species and the dynamic behavior of the isolated atoms could be discussed. The in‐beam Mossbauer technique combined with a short‐lived RI beam is a very powerful tool to investigate the products after nuclear transformations and the dynamics of dilute impurities in solids.

A brief overview is given of the different lines of research developed under the INFN project “Compact Stellar Objects and Dense Hadronic Matter” (acronym CT51). The emphasis of the project is on the structure of Neutron Stars (NS) and related objects. Starting from crust, the different Nuclear Physics problems are described which are encountered going inside a NS down to its inner core. The theoretical challenges and the observational inputs are discussed in some detail.

Majorana neutrinos with a finite transition magnetic moment are expected to convert their flavors by spin precession in a strong magnetic field of a supernova. We investigate detailed dependence of the resonant spin‐flavor conversions on electron fraction Ye in the innermost region of the supernova assuming the inverted mass hierarchy. The observed supernova ve spectrum is expected to be larger in Ye>0.5 than that in Ye

Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) techniques are a powerful tool to study atmospheric aerosol composition, since they are quantitative, multi‐elemental, fast, high‐sensitivity and non‐destructive analytical methods. At the 3 MV Tandetron accelerator of the LABEC laboratory of INFN in Florence an external beam facility is fully dedicated to measurements of elemental composition of atmospheric aerosols. All the elements with Z>10 are simultaneously detectable by Particle Induced X‐ray Emission (PIXE) in few minutes of beam time, including several important tracers of peculiar aerosol sources and potentially harmful elements, with minimum detection limits ranging between 1 and 10 ng/m3. Light elements (H, C, N, O), which are the main aerosol constituents, can be detected by means of in‐vacuum Particle Elastic Scattering Analysis (PESA). The application of both PIXE and PESA allows a complete mass reconstruction of aerosol samples. Since these methods are non‐destructive, it is possible to apply complementary technique...

Neutron‐rich nuclei from A = 50 to A = 80 have been studied through multi‐nucleon transfer reactions by bombarding 208Pb and 238U targets with beams of 48Ca, 64Ni, 70Zn and 82Se. The gamma‐array CLARA coupled to the large‐acceptance magnetic spectrometer PRISMA gave unambiguous identification of prompt γ rays belonging to each nucleus. The existence of the N = 32 sub‐shell closure has been corroborated through the study of odd V isotopes, whereas a sizable gap at N = 34 has been evidenced from the spectroscopy of 51Ca and 52Sc. The evolution of the N = 50 shell closure far from stability has been studied down to Z = 31. With the 48Ca beam we have applied for the first time the Recoil Distance Dopple Shift technique to measure lifetimes of neutron‐rich nuclei populated in multi‐nucleon transfer reactions. Effective charges in the fp shell above 48Ca have been derived. The first implementation of the tracking array AGATA (the so called “Demon‐strator”) will be soon coupled to the PRISMA spectrometer at Legn...

The imminent commissioning of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J‐PARC) and the planned construction of the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) will offer the opportunity to pursue a systematic program of high‐precision and high‐statistics studies in the field of hypernuclear physics. This subject will represent as well an important topic in the physics program approved for the upgraded Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab).A survey of the future experimental initiatives is presented, with particular emphasis on the activities that will be carried out by Italian and Japanese researchers.

Collision of heavy nuclei at very high energy provides opportunity to study nuclear matter at very high density. It is established that new form of very dense matter is formed in Au+Au collisions at RHIC. At such high density, it is believed that quarks and gluons are no longer confined in hadrons, but become constitutes of a quark‐gluon plasma (QGP). The matter is very dense and opaque, and it has almost no viscosity and behaves like perfect fluid. These conclusions are based on two key discoveries, namely, strong suppression of high transverse momentum particles and strong elliptic flow. Experimental results from RHIC are presented.

A new facility, named EXOTIC, for the in‐flight production of light low‐energy weakly bound Radioactive Ion Beams (RIBs) is now fully operational at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL) of the INFN. In this contribution we will present the facility, the Monte‐Carlo code we developed to properly describe the reaction dynamics inside the production target, the experimental results achieved and a list of possible RIBs delivered from the facility EXOTIC in the next future.

Nuclear spectroscopy via direct reactions of RI beams is discussed especially for focusing on charge exchange reactions of unstable nuclei. As an example, study of isospin multiplets of drip‐line nuclei is presented discussing neutron halo phenomena studied by proton decay of isobaric analog states populated by the (p,n) reaction around 70 A MeV. The SHARAQ project is presented along high‐resolution nuclear spectroscopy using RI beams at 150–350 A MeV, where the characteristics of exothemic charge exchange reactions are discussed. The present status of construction of the SHARAQ spectrometer and the high‐resolution beam line in the RIBF at RIKEN are presented.

Precision atomic spectroscopy experiments for Be isotopes have been carried out at the prototype universal slow RI‐beam (SLOWRI) setup at RIKEN. Radioactive Be ions produced at 1 GeV were decelerated and thermlized in an RF‐carpet ion guide. The thermalized ions were transferred to an ion trap where laser cooling was used to reduce the ion energy to the order of 1 μeV. Laser microwave double resonance spectroscopy was performed for the hyperfine structure measurements of trapped and laser cooled 7Be+ and 11Be+ ions. Measurements of the S1/2→P1/2,P3/2 transition frequencies of 7,9,10,11Be+ ions are also in progress. These results are briefly discussed. Future prospects for expanding the capability of SLOWRI is also discussed.

Neutrino nucleosynthesis is an important synthesis process for light elements in supernovae. One important physics input of neutrino nucleosynthesis is cross sections of neutrino‐nucleus reactions. The cross sections of neutrino‐12C and 4He reactions are derived using new shell model Hamiltonians. With the new cross sections, light element synthesis of a supernova is investigated. The appropriate range of the neutrino temperature for supernovae is constrained to be between 4.3 MeV and 6.5 MeV from the 11B abundance in Galactic chemical evolution. Effects by neutrino oscillations are also discussed.

We invert experimental data for heavy‐ion fusion cross sections at energies well below the Coulomb barrier in order to directly determine the internucleus potential between the colliding nuclei. In contrast to the previous applications of the inversion formula, we explicitly take into account the effect of channel couplings on fusion reactions, by assuming that fusion cross sections at deep subbarrier energies are governed by the lowest barrier in the barrier distribution. The surface region of the internuclear potential is determined from quasi‐elastic scattering at deep subbarrier energies, while the inner part is determined with the WKB formula. We apply this procedure to the 16O+144Sm and 16O+208Pb reactions, and find that the inverted internucleus potential are much thicker than phenomenological potentials.

We study structures of general relativistic compact stars with exotic matter. Our study is based on axisymetric and stationary formalism including purely toroidal magnetic field. We also study the finite size effects of quark-hadron mixed phase on structures of magnetars. For hybrid stars, we find a characteristic distribution of magnetic field, which has a discontinuity originated in the quark-hadron mixed phase. These distributions of magnetic field will change astrophysical phenomena, such as cooling processes., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, conference. in press

Current status on nuclear data for the study of nuclear transmutation of radioactive wastes is reviewed, mainly focusing on neutron capture reactions. It is stressed that the highest‐precision frontier research in nuclear data measurements should be a key to satisfy the target accuracies on the nuclear data requested for realizing the nuclear transmutation.

We undertake a systematic calculation on electric dipole responses of even‐even nuclei for a wide mass region employing a fully self‐consistent Hartree‐Fock plus RPA approach. For an easy implementation of the fully self‐consistent calculation, the finite amplitude method which we have proposed recently is employed. We calculated dipole responses in Cartesian mesh representation, which can deal with deformed nuclei but does not include pairing correlation. The calculated results show reasonable agreement for heavy nuclei while the average excitation energy are underestimated for light nuclei. The systematic calculation have reached Nickel isotopes. We show a compilation of calculated peak energies of giant dipole resonances.

The Radoactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) is presently the top world‐class radioactive‐isotope (RI) beam facility based on the in‐flight method. Present status and future plan of RIBF are introduced through discussing physics programs.

We review the application of Bethe ansatz method to the shell model Hamiltonian describing s‐pairs of nucleons which interact with an orbit dependent separable pairing force. We concentrate on the special case in which the separations between the single particle energy levels are small in comparison with the pairing energy.

CRIB (CNS Radioactive Ion Beam separator) is a low‐energy RI beam separator at the Center for Nuclear Study (CNS) of the University of Tokyo, used for various studies covering nuclear‐astrophysical topics. An application of the RI beam at CRIB for the astrophysical studies is a new measurement of the proton resonance scattering on 7Be. The measurement was performed up to the excitation energy of 6.8 MeV, ans the excitation function above 3.5 MeV was successfully measured for the first time, providing important information about the reaction rate of 7Be(p,γ)8B, which is the key reaction in the solar 8B neutrino production. A preliminary result of the 7Be+p experiment is presented.

The time‐dependent mean‐field theory has a long history in describing many‐nucleon dynamics in nuclear physics, and is now widely applied to many‐electron dynamics in atomic, molecular, and condensed matter physics. We present our recent studies in these fields, applying similar computational methods to both nuclear and electronic systems. In the linear response regime, we show calculations of the optical response of a medium mass nucleus and a fullerene molecule C60. The applications in nonlinear regime are also briefly mentioned.

We have measured the γ‐ray angular distribution of the 12C(α,γ)16O reaction at a center‐of‐mass energy of Ecm = 1.6 MeV and Ecm = 1.4 MeV. In this experiment, we used high efficiency anti‐Compton NaI(Tl) spectrometers to detect a γ‐ray from the reaction with a large S/N ratio, intense pulsed α beams to discriminate true events from neutron induced background by using a time‐of‐flight (TOF) method, and the monitoring system of target thickness. We could pick up true events from the reaction free from intense neutron background with high statistics.

Present status and recent developments of the tandem accelerator, superconducting booster, and radioactive nuclear beam accelerator TRIAC are presented. The terminal voltage of the tandem accelerator reached 19.1 MV by replacing acceleration tubes. The multi‐charged positive‐ion injector was installed in the terminal of the tandem accelerator, supplying noble‐gas ions. A superconducting cavity for low‐velocity ions was developed. Radioactive nuclear beams of 8Li, 123In, and 143Ba were accelerated. Recent experimental results of nuclear physics are also reported.

We report a recent experiment about the measurement of wall distribution of ions externally injected for charge‐breeding in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source. The ions, radioactive and singly charged 111In, were injected into the ECR ion source (ECRIS) for breeding their charge states at the Tokai Radioactive Ion Accelerator Complex (TRIAC). The residual radioactivity on the wall of the ECR plasma chamber of the source was measured, giving a two‐dimensional distribution of the ions failed to be re‐extracted during charge breeding. The distribution was decomposed, according to azimuthal symmetry, into three components, asymmetric, 120‐degree symmetric, and isotropic ones, whose origins were qualitatively discussed for clarifying ion‐losses in the course of charge breeding in ECRIS.

The study of the γ decay from the giant dipole resonance (GDR) at finite temperature and far from stability allows to obtain information on the properties of nuclei in different regimes. Exclusive measurements of γ ‐decays with fusion reactions were made at LNL (INFN) in order to address different physical problems. First, the measurement of the temperature dependence of the GDR width up to T = 4 MeV in the mass region A = 130 will be shown together with its interpretation in terms of thermal shape fluctuation calculations. Secondly, a measurement of the isospin mixing for nuclei in the mass region A = 80 at temperature around T = 2 MeV is described. Finally the search for the pygmy dipole resonance in the neutron rich 68Ni nucleus, produced by fragmentation at GSI, will be presented. Coulomb excitation at 600 MeV/nucleon was employed and the γ ‐rays were detected with the RISING array.

The inner crust of a neutron star is expected to contain a Coulomb lattice of nuclei immersed in a superfluid sea of free neutrons. The rotation of the star induces the formation of vortices in the neutron sea, whose dynamics is influenced by the interaction with the nuclei. In particular, this interaction is important to determine whether it is energetically advantageous for vortices to pin on nuclei or not. We find that the pinning energy is sensitive to quantal size effects. In fact, the nuclear shell structure tends to hinder the formation of vortices inside the nuclear volume.

Recently our FLNR theoretical group completes a calculation model to treat all reaction processes in heavy and superheavy mass region, which is so called “Unified model.” Using a lot of available experimental data, we verify the validity of our model and establish a reliable model to describe the whole reaction process. As examples of the application of our model, we discuss two cases that are quasi‐fission process and deep inelastic collision. We show the calculation results of the mass distribution of fission fragments in the reaction 36S+236U. Also, we discuss the possibility for the production of new heavy neutron‐rich nuclei in the low‐energy multi‐neutron transfer process.

The γ‐ray strength function is a key statistical nuclear ingredient to the s‐, r‐ and p‐process nucleosynthesis of heavy elements. It has recently become apparent that extra γ‐ray strengths that appear near neutron threshold on top of the low‐energy tail of GDR play an important role in neutron capture and photodisintegration. We discuss extra γ‐ray strengths of pigmy E1 and giant M1 nature based on the latest experimental photoneutron cross sections measured with laser Compton scattering γ‐rays.

The structure of doublet bands associated with neutron 0h11/2 and proton 0g9/2 orbital in the doubly‐odd nuclei, 98–104Tc and 100–106Rh is studied theoretically using the quadrupole coupling model. The calculated energy levels and electromagnetic transitions are in excellent agreement with experimental data. The internal structure of the yrast states is discussed in terms of the QCM wave functions.

An overview of the experimental activities in Nuclear Physics carried out by Italian researchers and funded by INFN is presented. The experimental program addresses a number of key problems of modern nuclear physics in the fields of hadron dynamics, quark gluon plasma, nuclear structure and reaction dynamics and nuclear astrophysics. The experiments are performed at the four national laboratories, at CERN and several other laboratories abroad. In particular, LNL is mainly dedicated to nuclear structure, LNS is strongly involved in the study of equation of state and nuclear astrophysics, LNF has a program on hypernuclei and kaonic atoms and LNGS has a facility for measurements of cross sections of astrophysical interest. The large community working on the problem of quark gluon plasma is very active in the ALICE experiment which will use the ultrarelativisc heavy ion collisions of LHC. Interdisciplinary researches are also supported. A brief outline of the future perspectives is here given.

The level ordering in the unbound nuclei 10Li and 13Be is established on firm basis using a time dependent projectile fragmentation model, comparing to experimental data and using structure inputs obtained from a semi‐phenomenological core‐vibration coupling model of two‐neutron halo nuclei. As a consistency test we show that the energy spectra of some Beryllium isotopes obtained by using pp‐RPA predict the same shell ordering as extracted from the reaction model vs. data analysis and that the well known structure of 11Li is reproduced.

Light elements lithium, beryllium and boron (LiBeB) were used in the last years as “possible probes” for stellar structure. They are mainly destroyed by (p,α) reactions and cross section measurements for such channels are then needed. In this work a resume of the recent results, obtained via Trojan Horse Method, about the 11B(p,α0)8Be and 10B(p,α)7Be reactions are shown.

We have developed a radiotracer method for diffusion studies in lithium ionic conductors, by using, as the tracer, the short‐lived α‐emitting radioisotope of 8Li from TRIAC (Tokai Radioactive Ion Accelerator Complex). In the method, we measured α‐particles coming out of the sample of interest and have found that the time‐dependent yields of α‐particle from the diffusing 8Li primarily implanted is a good measure of the Li diffusion in the sample. The method has been successfully applied to measure the lithium diffusion coefficients in a typical defect‐mediated lithium ionic conductor of LiGa, well demonstrating that the method is very efficient to measure the diffusion in the micro‐meter regime per second. Further development, as an extension of the present method, was proposed to measure the diffusion on the nanoscale in lithium ionic conductors.

In order to study the nucleus‐nucleus interaction in Pb‐based cold fusion, we have measured excitation functions for quasi‐elastic scattering of 48Ti, 54Cr, 56Fe, 64Ni, 70Zn and 86Kr projectiles on 208Pb target at backward angles. The barrier distributions were derived from the first derivative of measured quasi‐elastic scattering cross sections relative to the Rutherford scattering cross section. The centroids of the barrier distributions show a deviation from several predicted barrier heights toward the low energy side. The shape of the barrier distributions is well reproduced by the results of a coupled‐channel calculation taking account of the coupling effects of two phonon excitations of the quadrupole vibration for the projectiles and of the octupole vibration for the 208Pb target.

Two systems of 64Ni+118Sn and 58Ni+124Sn produce the same compound nucleus 182Pt in the fusion reaction and they show the similar fusion cross sections below and near the Coulomb barriers, although only the system of 58Ni+124Sn has positive Q‐value multi‐neutron transfer channels of 1–11 neutron(s). In order to investigate the possible effect of positive Q‐value multi‐neutron transfer channels on the capture cross sections, the quasi‐elastic back‐scattering for the two systems were measured below and near the Coulomb barriers at the backward angles of 162° and 172°. The beam energies were altered in the energy range and the quasi‐elastic back‐scattering excitation functions were obtained. They were compared with the coupled‐channel calculations of collective excitations and a two‐neutron transfer channel, indicating no evidence of a significant effect of the positive Q‐value multi‐neutron transfer channels on the capture cross sections for the system of 58Ni+124Sn.

We investigated the dynamical dipole mode, related with entrance channel charge asymmetry effects, in the 40Ar+92Zr and 36Ar+96Zr fusion reactions at Elab = 15.1 A and 16 A MeV, respectively. These reactions populate, through entrance channels having different charge asymmetries, a compound nucleus in the A = 126 mass energy region, identical spin distribution at an average excitation energy of about 280 MeV. The compound nucleus average excitation energy and average mass were deduced by the analysis of the light charged particle energy spectra. By studying the γ‐ray energy spectra and the γ‐ray angular distributions of the considered reactions, the dynamical nature of the prompt radiation related to the dynamical dipole mode was evidenced. The data are compared with calculations based on a collective bremsstrahlung analysis of the reaction dynamics.

After six years of activity 155 patients have been treated inside the CATANA (Centro di AdroTerapia ed Applicazioni Nucleari Avanzate) facility. CATANA is the first and unique proton therapy facility in which the 62 MeV proton beams, accelerated by a Superconducting Cyclotron, are used for the radio‐therapeutic treatments of choroidal and iris melanomas. Inside CATANA new absolute and relative dosimetric techniques have been developed in order to achieve the best results in terms of treatment precision and dose release accuracy. The follow‐up results for 42 patients demonstrated the efficacy of high energy protons in the radiotherapeutic field and encouraged us in our activity in the battle against cancer

Our previous work [1] showed that if a primordial magnetic field (PMF) was present during photon decoupling and afterward, massive neutrinos affect all modes of the CMB. This is because of the compensation of anisotropic stress between the neutrinos and the PMF. In order to study the observability of this new effect, we need careful analysis of the passive mode [2] generated by the PMF. Here, we focus on the polarization of the CMB and study the observability of the finite neutrino mass effect.

Nuclear structure of the neutron‐rich Se, and Ge isotopes is theoretically studied in terms of the spherical full shell model with the monopole and quadrupole pairing plus quadrupole‐quadrupole interaction. The experimental energy levels of low‐lying states as well as high‐spin states are well reproduced. The shell model results are examined in details in a pair‐truncated shell model. The analysis shows the alignment of two g9/2 neutrons at high spins.

We investigate different aspects connected with shape phase transitions in nuclei and the possible occurrence of dynamical symmetries at the critical points. We discuss in particular the behaviour of the neighbour odd nuclei at the vicinity of the critical points in the even nuclei. We consider both the case of the transition from the vibrational behaviour to the gamma-unstable deformation (characterized within the collective Bohr hamiltonian by the E(5) critical point symmetry) and the case of the transition from the vibrational behaviour to the stable axial deformation (characterized by the X(5) symmetry). The odd particle is assumed to be moving in the three single particle orbitals j=1/2,3/2,5/2, a set of orbitals that is known to lead to possible supersymmetric cases. The coupling of the odd particle to the Bohr hamiltonian does lead in fact in the former case at the critical point to the E(5/12) boson-fermion dynamical symmetry. An alternative approach to the two shape transitions is based on the Interacting Boson Fermion Model. In this case suitably parametrized boson-fermion hamiltonians can describe the evolution of the odd system along the shape transitions. At the critical points both energy spectra and electromagnetic transitions were found to display characteristic patterns similar to those displayed by the even nuclei at the corresponding critical point. The behaviour of the odd nuclei can therefore be seen as necessary complementary signatures of the occurrence of the phase transitions. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación FIS2008-04189