Nonstatic effects in high-momentum transfer reactions

title: Pionic and electromagnetic excitation of A* resonances
abstract: The nuclear excitation spectrum in the Delta (3,3) energy range is studied by comparing elastic pion scattering with coherent neutral pion photoproduction. The corresponding multipole excitation strength distributions are found to be quite different. This emphasises the role of the electromagnetic excitations of nuclei for the investigation of the A* resonances which is complementary to their mesonic excitation. Results are presented for 12C( gamma , pi 0) 12C(GS); they are compared with those of the phenomenological isobar doorway model and of DWIA calculations.

title: COLLECTIVE TREATMENT OF THE GIANT RESONANCES IN SPHERICAL NUCLEI.
abstract: In a collective treatment the energies of the giant resonances are given by the boundary conditions at the nuclear surface, which is subject to vibration in spherical nuclei. The general form of the coupling between these two collective motions is given by angular-momentum and parity conservation. The coupling constants are completely determined within the hydrodynamical model. In the present treatment the influence of the surface vibrations on the total photon-absorption cross section is calculated. It turns out that in most of the spherical nuclei this interaction leads to a pronounced structure in the cross section. The agreement with the experiments in medium-heavy nuclei is striking; many of the experimental characteristics are reproduced by the present calculations. In some nuclei, however, there seem to be indications of single-particle excitations which are not yet contained in this work.

title: SHORT-RANGE CORRELATIONS AND ELASTIC ELECTRON SCATTERING.

title: Unified Description of Pion-Photo-Production and Elastic Pion Scattering on the Deuteron in the Isobar-Doorway Model
abstract: It has been recognized recently1 that the strong dominance of the Δ(1236) isobar in nuclear reactions at medium energies advocates an explicit treatment of this degree of freedom in nuclei (in contrast to its implicit incorporation in an optical model description). Such a model, phrased commonly as isobar doorway or A* model1 has two particularly interesting features, (i) it forms a natural basis for a unified description of different isobar dominated scattering processes; (ii) it offers a more or less direct test of the isobar self energy in nuclei or, equivalently, of the ΔN interaction. An ideal testing ground for such a model seems to be deuteron: with all many-body complications being absent, predictions for scattering reactions on the deuteron should reflect and in this way allow direct investigation of the various ingredients of the model.

title: Quark excitations of nuclei - A new frontier in nuclear research -
abstract: The investigation of nuclei in the energy domain of the elementary N*-resonances (i.e. for 200 MeV < Eexc < 2 GeV) opens up a new and important domain of nuclear research for essentially two reasons: (i) the quark structure of the nuclear constituent, the nucleon, leads to new nuclear phenomena; their investigation appears to be of fundamental importance for the understanding of complex hadronic systems; (ii) the nucleus can be used as a unique laboratory to test QCD in the nonasymptotic region where perturbative approaches fail. This is of particular interest, e.g. for the confinement problem. — Some specific aspects of subnuclear research are discussed in connection with the analysis of recent experiments and, in particular, in view of a possible strategy for a systematic investigation of nuclear quark excitations.

title: Exclusion Limits on the WIMP Nucleon Cross-Section from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
abstract: The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) employs low-temperature Ge and Si detectors to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) via their elastic-scattering interactions with nuclei while discriminating against interactions of background particles. For recoil energies above 10 keV, events due to background photons are rejected with >99.9% efficiency, and surface events are rejected with >95% efficiency. The estimate of the background due to neutrons is based primarily on the observation of multiple-scatter events that should all be neutrons. Data selection is determined primarily by examining calibration data and vetoed events. Resulting efficiencies should be accurate to ∼10%. Results of CDMS data from 1998 and 1999 with a relaxed fiducial-volume cut (resulting in 15.8 kg days exposure on Ge) are consistent with an earlier analysis with a more restrictive fiducial-volume cut. Twenty-three WIMP candidate events are observed, but these events are consistent with a background from neutrons in all ways tested. Resulting limits on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic-scattering cross section exclude unexplored parameter space for WIMPs with masses between 10–70 GeV/c2. These limits border, but do not exclude, parameter space allowed by supersymmetry models and accelerator constraints. Results are compatible with some regions reported as allowed at 3σ by the annual-modulation measurement of the DAMA Collaboration. However, under the assumptions of standard WIMP interactions and a standard halo, the results are incompatible with the DAMA most likely value at >99.9% confidence level (C.L.), and are incompatible with the model-independent annual-modulation signal of DAMA at 99.99% C.L. in the asymptotic limit.

title: The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) : Present Status and Future
abstract: The CDMS collaboration utilizes Ge detectors for their Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) search at the Soudan mine, Minnesota. The final data run of CDMS II is complete and a detector upgrade for SuperCDMS has commenced. A SuperTower of five 1‐inch thick Ge crystals has been installed and undergoing commissioning. Its surface‐event rejection capability should allow SuperCDMS to continue to run background free for the next proposed phases: 15 kg Ge deployment at Soudan, and up to 150 kg Ge deployment at SNOLAB. Recent detector advances to allow a 1 tonne Ge experiment are also discussed.

title: Dark Matter Search Results from the CDMS II Experiment
abstract: News from the Dark Side? Dark matter is thought to represent 85% of all matter in the universe and to have been responsible for the formation of structure in the early universe, but its nature is still a mystery. Ahmed et al. (p. 1619, published online 11 February; see the Perspective by Lang) describe the results from the completed Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) experiment, which searched for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP). Two candidate signals were observed, whereas only one background event was expected. The probability of having two or more events from the background would have been 23%. The results of this analysis cannot be interpreted with confidence as evidence for WIMP interactions, but, at the same time, neither event can be ruled out as representing signal. Details of possible, but unlikely, detection events produced by dark matter are reported. Astrophysical observations indicate that dark matter constitutes most of the mass in our universe, but its nature remains unknown. Over the past decade, the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) experiment has provided world-leading sensitivity for the direct detection of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter. The final exposure of our low-temperature germanium particle detectors at the Soudan Underground Laboratory yielded two candidate events, with an expected background of 0.9 ± 0.2 events. This is not statistically significant evidence for a WIMP signal. The combined CDMS II data place the strongest constraints on the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent scattering cross section for a wide range of WIMP masses and exclude new parameter space in inelastic dark matter models.

title: DIRECT CONFIRMATION OF THE ASYMMETRY OF THE CAS A SUPERNOVA WITH LIGHT ECHOES
abstract: We report the first detection of asymmetry in a supernova (SN) photosphere based on SN light echo (LE) spectra of Cas A from the different perspectives of dust concentrations on its LE ellipsoid. New LEs are reported based on difference images, and optical spectra of these LEs are analyzed and compared. After properly accounting for the effects of finite dust-filament extent and inclination, we find one field where the He I lambda 5876 and Ha features are blueshifted by an additional similar to 4000 km s(-1) relative to other spectra and to the spectra of the Type IIb SN 1993J. That same direction does not show any shift relative to other Cas A LE spectra in the Ca II near-infrared triplet feature. We compare the perspectives of the Cas A LE dust concentrations with recent three-dimensional modeling of the SN remnant (SNR) and note that the location having the blueshifted He I and Ha features is roughly in the direction of an Fe-rich outflow and in the opposite direction of the motion of the compact object at the center of the SNR. We conclude that Cas A was an intrinsically asymmetric SN. Future LE spectroscopy of this object, and of other historical SNe, will provide additional insight into the connection of the explosion mechanism to SN then to SNR, as well as give crucial observational evidence regarding how stars explode.

title: X-ray selected galaxy clusters in the Pan-STARRS Medium Deep Survey
abstract: We present the results of a pilot study for the extended Massive Cluster Survey (eMACS), a comprehensive search for distant, X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at z > 0.5. Our pilot study applies the eMACS concept to the 71 deg2 area extended by the 10 fields of the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) Medium Deep Survey (MDS). Candidate clusters are identified by visual inspection of PS1 images in the g, r, i and z bands in a 5 × 5 arcmin2 region around X-ray sources detected in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS). To test and optimize the eMACS X-ray selection criteria, our pilot study uses the largest possible RASS data base, i.e. all RASS sources listed in the Bright and Faint Source Catalogues (BSC and FSC) that fall within the MDS footprint. We apply no additional constraints regarding X-ray flux, spectral hardness ratio or photon statistics and lower the redshift threshold to z > 0.3 to extend the probed luminosity range to poorer systems. Scrutiny of PS1/MDS images for 41 BSC and 200 FSC sources combined with dedicated spectroscopic follow-up observations results in a sample of 11 clusters with estimated or spectroscopic redshifts of z > 0.3. In order to assess and quantify the degree of point source contamination of the observed RASS fluxes, we examine archival Chandra data obtained in targeted and serendipitous observations of six of the 11 clusters found. As expected, the diffuse emission from all six systems is contaminated by point sources to some degree, and for half of them active galactic nucleus emission dominates. X-ray follow-up observations will thus be crucial in order to establish robust cluster luminosities for eMACS clusters. Although the small number of distant X-ray luminous clusters in the MDS does not allow us to make firm predictions for the over 20 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky covered by eMACS, the identification of two extremely promising eMACS cluster candidates at z ≳ 0.6 (both yet to be observed with Chandra) in such a small solid angle is encouraging. Representing a tremendous gain over the presently known two dozen such systems from X-ray, optical and Sunyaev–Zel’dovich cluster surveys combined, the sample of over 100 extremely massive clusters at z > 0.5 expected from eMACS would be invaluable for the identification of the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe, as well as for in-depth and statistical studies of the physical properties of the most massive galaxy clusters out to z ∼ 1.