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Abstract
We study the feasibility for an experimental observation of toroidal and bubble nuclei in Au + Au
collisions. Preliminary data pertaining to Au+Au and Au+C collisions at 15MeV/A are analyzed. The
beam time needed to accumulate a reasonable number of candidate events with at least five heavy
fragments is estimated. The current status of reaction simulations, developed for this purpose, is
presented.
Fifty years ago, Wheeler suggested the A number of observables were suggested as the
existence of nuclei with nonspherical shapes and signatures of noncompact nuclear system configurations
investigated the stability of toroidal nuclei [1,2]. About breakup:
30 years ago, Siemens and Bethe showed that spherical (i) More of the intermediate mass fragments
bubble nuclei with a sufficiently large charge may be should be generated than would be
stable against a symmetry-preserving breathing expected for the decay of a compact object
deformation [3]. Later, Wong pointed out that at the same temperature [8,14];
probability of existence of such nuclei should depend on (ii) Enhanced similarity in the charges of
temperature [4]. As the nuclear temperature increases, large fragments. Theoretical models have
the surface tension coefficient decreases and the quantitatively predicted that the formation
Coulomb repulsion is pushing nuclear matter outwards of noncompact geometries will result in
leading to the formation of toroidal and bubble nuclei. increased cross section for emission of
Moretto [5] showed that the depletion of charge in the fragments with nearly equal masses [12,
central cavity of nuclear bubbles stabilizes them against 15];
monopole oscillations. Such objects are however (iii) Suppressed sphericity in the emission of
unstable with respect to quadruple and octupole heavy fragments [16];
distortions. Generalized rotating liquid drop model (iv) Two-body observables of the intermediate
calculations show that the minimum of the potential mass fragments should disentangle the
energy for toroidal shape occurs even at zero angular emission from spherical sources and from
momentum for heaviest nuclear systems with masses ring- and disc-shaped sources [17].
greater than 300 atomic mass units [6]. The experimental evidence for the decay of
Toroidal-shaped objects are also common in nuclear matter noncompact geometries up to now is
hydrodynamical collisions [7]. Simulations of nuclear very limited. The article of Stone et al. [16] presents a
collisions by means of transport equations show the systematic study of experimental results for the 86Kr +
93
possibility of ring-, disk-, or bubble-shaped nuclear Nb system for incident energies ranging from 35 to 95
configurations formation in central collisions [8-13]. It MeV/nucleon. The authors noticed a 5% enhancement
was found that different values of the incompressibility of the intermediate mass fragments emission and
of nuclear matter leads to different exotic objects [9]. similarity of these fragment charges. They also observe
a 5% suppression in the mean value of the sphericity
and suppressed flow angles of IMF emission. These
observations indicate the existence of exotic geometries is relatively small in comparison to the heavy fragments
for beam energies between 60 and 75 MeV/nucleon. (notice the logarithmic y axis scale on Figs. 1 and 2).
In this contribution, we present the feasibility
study for the experimental observation of toroidal and
bubble nuclei. This search is based on data collected by
the CHIMERA collaboration for the Au + Au reaction
at 15 MeV/nucleon. The experiment was performed at
INFN –
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multidetector [18].
In the first step of our analysis, we have
established an identification method of heavy fragments
using raw (uncalibrated) experimental data. In Fig.1 we
present the raw energy spectra observed at several
ij
(ii) the particle is stopped in silicon detector (associated ij values are more abundant
& $ * ? , ) # $ @ , ' > , , $ A B + , ) , 9 :
CsI signal is not observed). Comparison between the for the class of events with three heavy fragments.
solid and dashed curves in Figs 1 and 2 shows that the The multiplicity distributions of heavy
emission probability for light particles in both reactions fragments for both reactions are presented in Fig. 4.
This distribution is limited to multiplicities smaller than
4 and has a maximum at multiplicity 2 for the Au + C a rod. For non-spherical shapes the characteristic
system. The distribution is much broader for the Au dimensions (e.g. the thickness of the disc) are of order
+Au reaction. of magnitude of the average diameter of the primary
In order to distinguish between different fragments to be put into. The fragments are placed
nuclear geometries we need to accumulate a reasonable randomly inside the freezout volume. Then an overlap
number of events with many heavy fragments. The check is performed. If two or more fragments are to
beam time needed to achieve occupy the same location in space the placing
procedure is repeated.
Energy conservation is then applied. The
energy of the entrance channel (kinetic energy in the
CM minus binding energy of the substrates) must not be
less than the energy of the output channel (Coulomb
energy minus binding energy of the products). If this
does not happen – the event is discarded and the
procedure starts from the beginning. The remaining
energy is distributed among the fragments using
Maxwell distribution. A center of mass shift is used to
assure momentum conservation. Then the kinetic
energies are multiplied by a common factor to guarantee
energy conservation as well. Finally, a Coulomb
acceleration subroutine is executed to obtain the final
picture of the reaction.
As an example of simulation predictions we
Fig. 4. The multiplicity of heavy fragments distributions plot angular distributions of fragments in the laboratory
for Au + Au and Au + C reactions (black area system (Fig. 5). These calculations were performed for
correspond to events with at least five heavy fragments). the case of five primary fragments. Here different lines
correspond to different geometries of the decaying
this goal is calculated for events with at least 5 heavy system. The differences between different geometries
fragments. We found that the fraction of such events are visible.
among the accumulated data is equal to 8*10-4.
Assuming the Au beam intensity 0.03 pnA and a target
thickness of 0.3 mg/cm2 we estimated that 450 hours of
beam time is needed to record 106 multifragment events.
In order to examine the applicability of the
CHIMERA multidetector for recognition of noncompact
nuclear geometries we have developed the Monte Carlo
simulation program ETNA (Expecting Toroidal Nuclear
Agglomerations). This code allows us to simulate the
decay of the nuclear system assuming ball, disk, toroidal
and rod-like breakup geometries. First of all the number
of participating nucleons is determined: for lower
energies (e.g. 15 MeV/nucleon) all nucleons from the
projectile and the target are assumed to be involved in
the reaction, for higher energies some of them escape as
prompt emitted particles. All the participants are
assumed to form a composite system which breaks up
into pieces. The number of resulting primary fragments
is an input to the simulation program. The fragments are
set in following procedure. The composite system
divides into two with a bell curve probability of charge Fig. 5. The angular distributions for heavy fragments in
and mass distribution between them. The fragment to the laboratory system for different geometries of the
break next is selected with a probability equal to the decaying system.
portion of total system mass it carries. The process is
repeated until the desired number of fragments is These simulations will be further refined with
obtained. the inclusion of mass, charge and recoil corrections due
All the fragments are then placed within a to evaporation from the excited fragments. The relevant
freezout volume of density given by an input parameter. subroutines have been prepared [19]. The simulated
The shape of the freezout volume in the current version events will eventually pass through the CHIMERA
of the ETNA code can be: a sphere, a disc, a toroid and
software detector filter [20], in order to be compared
with the experimental data.
In this contribution the feasibility study of
experimental observation of toroidal and bubble nuclei
in the Au + Au reaction is presented. The beam time
needed to accumulate a reasonable number of events
with at least five heavy fragments is estimated. Present
status of the Monte Carlo simulation predictions is
shortly discussed.
REFERENCES