Vol 79, No 3 (2016)

A research program aimed at studying fundamental interactions by means of ultracold and polarized cold neutrons at the GEK-4-4′ channel of the PIK reactor is presented. The apparatus to be used includes a source of cold neutrons in the heavy-water reflector of the reactor, a source of ultracold neutrons based on superfluid helium and installed in a cold-neutron beam extracted from the GEK-4 channel, and a number of experimental facilities in neutron beams. An experiment devoted to searches for the neutron electric dipole moment and an experiment aimed at a measurement the neutron lifetime with the aid of a large gravitational trap are planned to be performed in a beam of ultracold neutrons. An experiment devoted to measuring neutron-decay asymmetries with the aid of a superconducting solenoid is planned in a beam of cold polarized neutrons from the GEK-4′ channel. The second ultracold-neutron source and an experiment aimed at measuring the neutron lifetime with the aid of a magnetic trap are planned in the neutron-guide system of the GEK-3 channel. In the realms of neutrino physics, an experiment intended for sterile-neutrino searches is designed. The state of affairs around the preparation of the experimental equipment for this program is discussed.

It is shown that A. Bohr’s classic theory of angular distributions of fragments originating from low-energy fission should be supplemented with quantum corrections based on the involvement of a superposition of a very large number of angular momenta L_m in the description of the relative motion of fragments flying apart along the straight line coincidentwith the symmetry axis. It is revealed that quantum zero-point wriggling-type vibrations of the fissile system in the vicinity of its scission point are a source of these angular momenta and of high fragment spins observed experimentally.

Calculations for (p, n) and (α, p3n) reactions were performed with the aid of the TALYS-1.4 code. Reactions in which the mass numbers of target and product nuclei were identical were examined in the range of A = 44–124. Excitation functions were obtained for product nuclei in ground and isomeric states, and isomeric ratios were calculated. The calculated data reflect well the dependence of the isomeric ratios on the projectile type. A comparison of the calculated and experimental data reveals, that, for some nuclei in a high-spin state, the calculated data fall greatly short of their experimental counterparts. These discrepancies may be due to the presence of high-spin yrast states and rotational bands in these nuclei. Calculations involving various level-density models included in the TALYS-1.4 code with allowance for the enhancement of collective effects do not remove the discrepancies in the majority of cases.

A two-stage model is developed in order to describe fusion–fission reactions. The process in the course of which colliding ions approach each other is simulated at the first stage, the deformations and relative orientations of the ions being taken into account. The first stage of the calculation is completed as soon as colliding nuclei touch each other. A continuous nuclear system (monosystem) is formed at this instant. The emerging distributions of the angular momenta of this system and of its potential and internal energies at the point of touching are used as input data that are necessary for triggering the second stage of the calculation. The evolution of collective coordinates that describe the shape of the monosystem is calculated at the second stage. The description of this evolution is terminated either at the instant of its fission or upon the release of a major part of its excess energy via particle and photon emission. In the latter case, the probability for the fission of the monosystem or a further decrease in its excitation energy becomes extremely small. The ion-collision process and the evolution of the monosystem formed after primary nuclei come into contact are simulated on the basis of stochastic Langevin equations. The quantities appearing in them (which include the potential energy and inertial and friction parameters) are determined with allowance for the shell structure of nuclei. The tunneling of colliding nuclei through the Coulomb barrier is taken into account, and the effect of this phenomenon on model predictions is studied.

An exactly solvable potential model is used to study the possibility of deducing information about the features of bound states for the system under consideration (binding energies and asymptotic normalization coefficients) on the basis of data on continuum states. The present analysis is based on an analytic approximation and on the subsequent continuation of a partial-wave scattering function from the region of positive energies to the region of negative energies. Cases where the system has one or two bound states are studied. The α+d and α+¹²C systems are taken as physical examples. In the case of one bound state, the scattering function is a smooth function of energy, and the procedure of its analytic continuation for different polynomial approximations leads to close results, which are nearly coincident with exact values. In the case of two bound states, the scattering function has two poles—one in the region of positive energies and the other in the region of negative energies between the energies corresponding to the two bound states in question. Padéapproximants are used to reproduce these poles. The inclusion of these poles proves to be necessary for correctly describing the properties of the bound states.

In this work, neutron knockout reactions of ¹⁵C on a ⁹Be target at energy 103 and 250 MeV/nucleon are studied. Using the Eikonal approximation of the Glauber model, total neutron removal cross sections, the stripping and diffractive cross sections as well as ¹⁴C longitudinal momentum distributions are determined in both ¹⁵C ground state and exited states of the wave function. We compared the results of our calculations with the available experimental data obtained recently. The calculated cross sections of ¹⁵C and ¹⁴C reactions, as well as the momentum distribution are in relatively good agreement with available data.

The 1-GeV muon–hadron detector of the Carpet-2 multipurpose shower array at the Baksan Neutrino Observatory, Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences (INR, Moscow, Russia) is able to record simultaneously muons and hadrons. The procedure developed for this device makes it possible to separate the muon and hadron components to a high degree of precision. The spatial and energy features of the muon and hadron extensive-air-shower components are presented. Experimental data from the Carpet-2 array are contrasted against data from the EAS-TOP and KASCADE arrays and against the results of the calculations based on the CORSIKA (GHEISHA + QGSJET01) code package and performed for primary protons and iron nuclei.

An effect of the orientation dependence of the cross section for the single-photon annihilation of relativistic positrons with atomic electrons in a crystal is predicted. It is shown that the probability for the single-photon annihilation of a channeled positron in a crystal may be either suppressed in a crystal in relation to a homogeneous medium or, on the contrary, enhanced. The reason is that, depending on their incidence angle, the positrons may be either in the vicinity of ion planes of the crystal, where the electron density is higher, or far away from them, where the electron density is lower.

The neutrino luminosity of a stellar medium because of plasmon decay to a neutrino pair via nonstandard tensor interaction in a degenerate electron gas subjected to the effect of a magnetic field such strong that the electrons of the gas are in the lowest Landau level is calculated. Relative limits on nonstandard coupling constants are obtained from a comparison of the results of this calculation with the neutrino luminosity generated in the respective standard process proceeding under the same conditions.

A theory of lepton decay constants based on the path-integral formalism is given for chiral and vector mesons. Decay constants of the pseudoscalar and vector mesons are calculated and compared to other existing results.