Opportunities for production and property research of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126 at HIAF

The study of nuclide production and its properties in the N=126 neutron-rich region is prevalent in nuclear physics and astrophysics research.The upcoming High-energy FRagment Separator(HFRS)at the High-Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility(HIAF),an in-flight separator at relativistic energies,is characterized by high beam intensity,large ion-optical acceptance,high magnetic rigidity,and high momentum resolution power.This provides an opportunity to study the production and properties of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126.In this paper,an experimental scheme is proposed to produce neutron-rich nuclei around N=126 and simultaneously measure their mass and lifetime based on the HFRS separator;the feasibility of this scheme is evaluated through simulations.The results show that under the high-resolution optical mode,many new neutron-rich nuclei approaching the r-process abundance peak around A=195 can be produced for the first time,and many nuclei with unknown masses and lifetimes can be produced with high statistics.Using the time-of-flight corrected by the measured dispersive position and energy loss information,the cocktails produced from 208 Pb fragmentation can be unambiguously identified.Moreover,the masses of some neutron-rich nuclei near N=126 can be measured with high precision using the time-of-flight magnetic rigidity technique.This indicates that the HIAF-HFRS facility has the potential for the production and property research of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126,which is of great significance for expanding the chart of nuclides,developing nuclear theories,and understanding the origin of heavy elements in the universe.

Main issues in research and practice of environmental protection for water conservancy and hydropower projects in China

In this paper,we generally summarize the main issues in the operational period of water conservancy and hydropower projects in China over the past several decades.First,the adverse impacts of these projects since the technical guidelines were proposed in 2006 are analyzed.Then,combined with projects and experience from 2006 to 2014,the four main issues are summarized:(1) There exist many questions in the design and construction of fishways,which are useful for fish migration,and the migration effects are not as expected.(2) Temperature stratification affecting the downstream fish is the major impact of temperature,and alters fish spawning in the reproduction season.(3)Ecological base flow has been one of the primary questions of the last 30 years in China,the greatest related difficulty being quantification of the amount and flow process necessary to satisfy fish life history.(4) Fish habitat protection and restoration are popular topics in recent years with the development of river ecosystem restoration.Fish habitat loss due to the impacts of dam construction and habitat fragmentation has become more and more serious.These four issues are now the main difficulties in water project management,and interact with one another to bear combined effects on river ecosystems.The issues of eco-hydraulic consideration in the design period are the key factors.Finally,future priorities for research and practice of environmental protection for water conservancy and hydropower projects in China are proposed.The main purpose of this paper is to enhance the scientific research,monitoring,and assessment of operating effectiveness.

A versatile test bench for photomultiplier tube characterization and its application in the DAMPE-PSD

Performance characterization for massive photomultiplier tubes(PMTs) is a frequently encountered procedure in large nuclear and particle experiments.To facilitate this work,a dedicated test bench system has been developed at the Institute of Modern Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences.The two-dimensional photocathode position scanning capability is an intrinsic function of the test bench,and up to 25 PMTs,with the diameter smaller than 2",can be tested simultaneously.The parameters of the light source pulses can be adjusted in a wide range,thus making it suitable for various characteristics measurements.The test bench system is highly automated with all the controlling operations integrated into a single software.Additionally,the hardware platform is extensible which allows complex testing schemes,and the modularity in the software design makes the migration from one testing configuration to another light-weight and efficient.All these features make the test bench versatile and reusable in different experiments.It has been first used in the construction of the Plastic Scintillator Detector(PSD) of DArk Matter Particle Explorer(DAMPE),and a total of 570 Hamamatsu R4443 tubes were tested successfully.The performance was verified and the testing results are also reported in this article.

Temperature dependence of CsI:Tl coupled to a PIN photodiode and a silicon photomultiplier

With the aim of simulating the harsh temperature condition of space, a thallium-activated cesium iodide crystal(CsI:Tl) detector readout with a PIN photodiode(CsI:Tl(PD)) and with a silicon photomultiplier(CsI:Tl(SiPM)) is investigated over a temperature range from-40 to 40 ℃. With the increase in temperature, the output signal increases by ～ 24% with CsI:Tl(PD) and decreases by ～69% with CsI:Tl(SiPM). To reduce the effect of temperature in outer space, a method of bias voltage compensation is adopted for CsI:Tl(SiPM). Our study demonstrates that after correcting the temperature the variation in the analog-to-digital converter's amplitude is< 3%.

A tracking system for the external target facility of CSR

A tracking system composed of three multiwires proportional chambers(MWPCs) for the external target facility of the Cooler Storage Ring is reported in this paper. The active areas of the MWPCs are 518 mm 9400 mm, 582 mm 9 450 mm, and 710 mm 9 500 mm Each MWPC consists of a series of alternately placed cathode and anode wire planes and can measure position along the directions of-30°, 0°, and 30° relative to horizontal. The construction and operation of the detectors are described, and a method for track reconstruction is introduced. A track-finding efficiency of about 62% and a spatial resolution of 1.21 mm have been achieved. The pion and proton can be identified clearly with the tracking system combined with a time-of-flight system.

Toward real-time digital pulse process algorithms for CsI(Tl)detector array at external target facility in HIRFL-CSR

A fully digital data acquisition system based on a field-programmable gate array(FPGA) was developed for a CsI(Tl) array at the external target facility(ETF) in the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou(HIRFL). To process the CsI(Tl) signals generated by γ-rays and light-charged ions, a scheme for digital pulse processing algorithms is proposed. Every step in the algorithms was benchmarked using standard γ and α sources. The scheme, which included a moving average filter, baseline restoration, leading-edge discrimination, moving window deconvolution, and digital charge comparison, was subsequently implemented on the FPGA. A good energy resolution of 5.7% for 1.33-MeV γ-rays and excellent α-γ identification using the digital charge comparison method were achieved, which satisfies CsI(Tl) array performance requirements.

A method for aligning the plastic scintillator detector on DAMPE

The Plastic Scintillator Detector(PSD) onboard the DArk Matter Particle Explorer(DAMPE)is designed to measure cosmic ray charge(Z) and to act as a veto detector for gamma ray identification.To fully exploit the charge identification potential of PSD and to enhance its capability to identify gamma ray events, we develop an alignment method for the PSD. The path length of a given track in the volume of a PSD bar is derived taking into account the shift and rotation alignment corrections. By examining energy spectra of corner-passing events and fully contained events, position shifts and rotations of all PSD bars are obtained, and are found to be on average about 1 mm and 0.0015 radian respectively. To validate the alignment method, we introduce artificial shifts and rotations of PSD bars into the detector simulation.These shift and rotation parameters can be recovered successfully by the alignment procedure. As a result of the PSD alignment procedure, the charge resolution of the PSD is improved from 4% to 8%, depending on the nuclei.

A new species of the genus Triplophysa (Cypriniformes： Nemacheilidae), Triplophysa daochengensis, from Sichuan Province, China

Triplophysa daochengensis sp. nov. is described from the Daocheng River, a northern tributary of the Jinsha River in Sichuan Province, China. The new species can be distinguished from its congeners by the following characters： body smooth and scales absent; lateral line complete; caudal peduncle compressed, depth unchanging; head length equal to caudal-peduncle length; lower jaw shovel-shaped; dorsal-fin origin anterior to pelvic-fin origin and closer to the tip of the snout than to the caudal-fin base, last unbranched ray hard; pelvic-fin tip not reaching anus; posterior chamber of gas bladder absent; intestine of spiral type with three winding coils.

Calibration of the DAMPE Plastic Scintillator Detector and its on-orbit performance

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer(DAMPE) is a space-borne apparatus for detecting the highenergy cosmic-ray-like electrons, γ-rays, protons and heavy ions. The Plastic Scintillator Detector(PSD)is the top-most sub-detector of the DAMPE. The PSD is designed to measure the charge of incident highenergy particles and it also serves as a veto detector for discriminating γ-rays from charged particles. In this paper, a PSD on-orbit calibration procedure is described, which includes the five steps of pedestal, dynode correlation, response to minimum-ionizing particles, light attenuation function and energy reconstruction.A method for reconstructing the charge of incident high energy cosmic-ray particles is introduced. The detection efficiency of each PSD strip is verified to be above 99.5%; the total efficiency of the PSD for charged particles is above 99.99%.

A new species of Triplophysa Rendahl （Cypriniformes, Nemacheilidae） from Sichuan Province, China

Triplophysa yajiangensis sp. nov. is described from the upper and middle reaches of the Yalong River, Yangtze Basin, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province China. This new species can be distinguished from other congeneric species by the following characters： body surface smooth and scaleless; lateral line complete; caudal peduncle compressed and tapered slightly; lower jaw shovel-shaped; head shorter than caudal peduncle; dorsal-fin origin anterior to pelvic-fin origin and closer to tip of snout than to caudal-fin base, last unbranched ray hard; pelvic-fin reaches or exceeds anus; posterior chamber of gas bladder absent; intestine spiral type with 3-5 winding coils.

Elastic scattering of ^(13)C and ^(14)C isotopes on a ^(208)Pb target at energies of approximately five times the Coulomb barriers

The elastic scattering angular distributions of ^(13)C at 340 MeV and ^(14)C at 294 MeV and 342 MeV on a ^(208)Pb target,which correspond to approximately five times the Coulomb barriers,were measured at the Radioactive Ion Beam Line in Lanzhou.The data were analyzed within the optical model and continuum-discretized coupled-channels(CDCC)framework,and the results of both calculations could effectively account for the experimental data.The differential cross sections of elastic scattering revealed no particular suppression at the Coulomb nuclear interference peak angles,suggesting that the breakup coupling effects on the elastic scattering angular distributions were negligibly small in this incident energy region.The contributions from the couplings with inelastic states to the elastic cross sections were of minor importance within the angular range covered by these experiments.

Towards the full realization of the RIBLL2 beam line at the HIRFL-CSR complex

More than 99%of the mass in the visible universe—the material that makes up ourselves,our planet,stars—is in the atomic nucleus.Although the matter has existed for billions of years,only over the past few decades have we had the tools and the knowledge necessary to get a basic understanding of the structure and dynamic of nuclei.Nuclear physicists around the world have made tremendous strides by initiating a broad range of key

Experimental study of the elastic scattering of 10Be on 208Pb at the energy of around three times the Coulomb barrier

Elastic scattering of 10Be on a 208Pb target was measured at ELab=127 MeV,which corresponds to three times the Coulomb barrier.The secondary 10Be beam was produced at the Radioactive Ion Beam Line in Lanzhou of the Heavy-Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou.The angular distribution of elastic scattering in the 10 Be+208Pb system shows a typical Fresnel diffraction peak.Optical model analysis of the angular distribution was performed using the Woods-Saxon,double-folding and global potentials.With the global potential,different density distributions were used.The results indicate that different density distributions for the projectile induce distinct effects in the angular distribution.

Charge-changing cross section measurements of 300 MeV/nucleon^(28)Si on carbon and data analysis

Charge-changing cross section(σcc)measurements via the transmission method have recently seen significant progress with the aim of determining the charge radii of exotic nuclei.In this work,we report a newσcc measurement of 304(9)MeV/nucleon^(28)Si on carbon at the second Radioactive Ion Beam Line in Lanzhou(RIBLL2)and describe the data analysis procedure in detail.This procedure is essential for evaluating the systematic uncertainty in the transmission method.The determinedσcc of 1125(11)mb is found to be consistent with the existing data at similar energies.The present work will serve as a reference forσcc determinations at RIBLL2.

Fragmentation of stable and neutron-rich ^(12-16)C into boron fragments at approximately 240 MeV/nucleon

The elemental fragmentation cross sections of boron fragments produced by stable and neutron-rich^(12-16)C beams with a carbon target were systematically measured at an incident beam energy of approximately 240 MeV/nucleon.The measured cross sections were found to increase as the projectile mass number increases.The observed feature is explained qualitatively based on the abrasion-ablation two-stage reaction model and is compared quantitatively with predictions from various reaction models,including empirical and statistical models.All models agree with the measured cross sections within a factor of 2.

Isotopic production cross sections of fragmentation residues produced by ^(18)O ions on a carbon target near 260 MeV/nucleon

The isotopic cross sections of residual nuclei produced in fragmentation reactions of ^(18)O projectiles impinging on a carbon target at energies near 260 MeV/nucleon were measured at the HIRFL facility in Lanzhou(China).A full identification of atomic and mass numbers of fragments was achieved from the determination of their magnetic rigidity,energy loss,and time of flight.The production cross sections for a dozen of nitrogen,carbon,and boron isotopes were determined with uncertainties below 30% for most of the cases.The obtained cross sections for N and B isotopes show a rather good agreement with previous experimental data obtained with different projectile energies.The cross sections for some C isotopes seem to exhibit a dependence on the projectile energy.A comparison of the data and several theoretical model calculations are presented.