K. Krishan’s research while affiliated with Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and other places

The inclusive energy distributions of the complex fragments (3⩽Z⩽7) emitted from the bombardment of 12C by 20Ne beams with incident energies between 145 and 200 MeV have been measured in the angular range 10°⩽θlab⩽50°. Damped fragment yields in all the cases have been found to have the characteristic of emission from fully energy equilibrated composites. The binary fragment yields are compared with the standard statistical model predictions. Whereas Li and Be fragments yields are in agreement with statistical-model calculations, enhanced yields of entrance channel fragments (5⩽Z⩽7) indicate the survival of orbiting-like process in 20Ne+12C system at these energies.

The inclusive energy distributions of the complex fragments (3 $\leq$ Z $\leq$ 7) emitted from the bombardment of ^{12}C by ^{20}Ne beams with incident energies between 145 and 200 MeV have been measured in the angular range 10$^{o} \leq \theta_{lab} \leq$ 50^{o}. Damped fragment yields in all the cases have been found to be the characteristic of emission from fully energy equilibrated composites. The binary fragment yields are compared with the standard statistical model predictions. Enhanced yields of entrance channel fragments (5 $\leq$ Z $\leq$ 7) indicate the survival of orbiting-like process in ^{20}Ne + ^{12}C system at these energies.

We recall the path breaking contributions of the nuclear theory group of the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata. From a beginning of just one person in 1970s, the group has steadily developed into a leading group in the country today, with seminal contributions to almost the entire range of nuclear physics, viz., low energy nuclear reactions, nuclear structure, deep inelastic collisions, fission, liquid to gas phase transitions, nuclear matter, equation of state, mass formulae, neutron stars, relativistic heavy ion collisions, medium modification of hadron properties, quark gluon plasma, and cosmology of early universe. Comment: Lecture given at the special session, "Reflections" during Workshop on Changing Scales in Nuclear Physics at Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata during June 14-15, 2005 to honour Prof. Bikash Sinha on his 60th birth day. 48 pages, 12 figures

The inclusive energy distributions of fragments with Z $\geq$ 3 emitted from the bombardment of $^{12}$C by $^{20}$Ne beams with incident energies between 145 and 200 MeV have been measured in the angular range $\theta_{lab} \sim$ 10$^\circ$ - 50$^\circ$. Damped fragment yields in all cases have been found to be characteristic of emission from fully energy equilibrated composites; for B, C fragments, average Q-values, , were independent of the centre of mass emission angle ($\theta_{c.m}$), and the angular distributions followed $\sim$1/sin$\theta_{c.m}$ like variation, signifying long life times of the emitting di-nuclear systems. Total yields of these fragments have been found to be much larger compared to the standard statistical model predictions of the same. This may be indicative of the survival of orbiting like process in $^{12}$C + $^{20}$Ne system at these energies. Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C (Rapid Communication)

The inclusive energy distributions of fragments (4$\leq$Z$\leq$7) emitted in the reactions $^{16}$O (116 MeV) + $^{27}$Al, $^{28}$Si, $^{20}$Ne (145 MeV) + $^{27}$Al, $^{59}$Co have been measured in the angular range $\theta_{lab}$= 10$^\circ$ - 65$^\circ$. Fusion-fission and deep inelastic components of the fragment emission have been extracted from the experimental data. The angular mometum dissipations in fully damped deep inelastic collisions have been estimated assming exit channel configuration similar to those for fusion-fission process. It has been found that, the angular momentum dissipations are more than those predicted by the empirical sticking limit in all cases. The deviation is found to increase with increasing charge transfer (lighter fragments). Qualitatively, this may be due to stronger friction in the exit channel. Moreover, for the heavier system $^{20}$Ne + $^{59}$Co, the overall magnitude of deviation is less as compared to those for the lighter systems, {\it i.e.}, $^{16}$O + $^{27}$Al, $^{28}$Si, $^{20}$Ne + $^{27}$Al. This may be due to lesser overlap in time scales of fusion and deep inelastic time scales for heavier systems. Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C

The inclusive energy distributions of fragments (3≤Z≤7) emitted in the reaction 16O+27Al at Elab = 116 MeV have been measured in the angular range θlab = 15°-115°. A nonlinear optimization procedure using multiple Gaussian distribution functions has been proposed to extract the fusion-fission and deep-inelastic components of the fragment emission from the experimental data. The angular distributions of the fragments, thus obtained, from the deep-inelastic component are found to fall off faster than those from the fusion-fission component, indicating shorter lifetimes of the emitting dinuclear systems. The lifetimes of the intermediate dinuclear configurations have been estimated using a diffractive Regge-pole model. The lifetimes thus extracted [ ∼(1-5) × 10-22 sec] are found to decrease with the increase in the fragment charge. Optimum Q values are also found to increase with increasing charge transfer, i.e., with the decrease in fragment charge.

The inclusive energy spectra of light charged particles, such as, α, p, d and t, evaporated from the hot 31P nucleus at an excitation energy E *∼ 60 MeV, have been measured at various angles. The compound nucleus 31P has been populated using two different entrance channel configurations; i.e., 7Li (47 MeV) + 24Mg and 19F (96 MeV) + 12C reactions, leading to the same excitation energy of the compound system. It has been observed that the spectra obtained in the 7Li (47 MeV) + 24Mg reaction follow the standard statistical-model prediction with a spherical configuration of the compound nucleus. But, the spectra obtained in the 19F (96 MeV) + 12C reaction deviate from similar predictions of the statistical model both on higher- as well as on lower-energy sides. Considerable deformation was required to be incorporated in the calculation in order to reproduce the measured-energy spectra in this case. Dynamical trajectory model calculations were not found to play any significant role in explaining the differences in behaviour between the two cases under study. The observed discrepancy has been attributed to the difference in the angular-momentum distributions of the compound nuclei formed in the two reactions.

The effect of inelastic excitation of exotic light projectiles (proton- as well as neutron-rich) $^{17}$F and $^{11}$Be on fusion with heavy target has been studied at near-barrier energies. The calculations have been performed in the coupled channels approach where, in addition to the normal coupling of the ground state of the projectile to the continuum, inelastic excitation of the projectile to the bound excited state and its coupling to the continuum have also been taken into consideration. The inclusion of these additional couplings has been found to have significant effect on the fusion excitation function of neutron-rich $^{11}$Be on $^{208}$Pb whereas the effect has been observed to be nominal for the case of proton-rich $^{17}$F on the same target. The pronounced effect of the channel coupling on the fusion process in case of $^{11}$Be is attributed to its well-developed halo structure.

We study theoretically fusion of the light proton-rich exotic nuclei $^{17}$F and $^8$B at near-barrier energies in order to investigate the possible role of breakup processes on their fusion cross sections. To this end, coupled channel calculations are performed considering the couplings to the breakup channels of these projectiles. In case of $^{17}$F, the coupling arising out of the inelastic excitation from the ground state to the bound excited state and its couplings to the continuum have also been taken into consideration. It is found that the inelastic excitation/breakup of $^{17}$F affect the fusion cross sections very nominally even for a heavy target like Pb. On the other hand, calculations for fusion of the one-proton halo nucleus $^8$B on a Pb target show a significant suppression of the complete fusion cross section above the Coulomb barrier. This is due to the larger breakup probability of $^8$B as compared to that of $^{17}$F. However, even for $^8$B, there is little change in the complete fusion cross sections as compared to the no-coupling case at sub-barrier energies. Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, Revtex.sty