[en] The current status and technical details of the four instruments dedicated to X-ray spectroscopy available at Diamond Light Source are presented. This manuscript presents the current status and technical details of the Spectroscopy Village at Diamond Light Source. The Village is formed of four beamlines: I18, B18, I20-Scanning and I20-EDE. The village provides the UK community with local access to a hard X-ray microprobe, a quick-scanning multi-purpose XAS beamline, a high-intensity beamline for X-ray absorption spectroscopy of dilute samples and X-ray emission spectroscopy, and an energy-dispersive extended X-ray absorption fine-structure beamline. The optics of B18, I20-scanning and I20-EDE are detailed; moreover, recent developments on the four beamlines, including new detector hardware and changes in acquisition software, are described.

[en] The WASP-18 system, with its massive and extremely close-in planet, WASP-18b ( M_p = 10.3 M_J, a = 0.02 au, P = 22.6 hr), is one of the best-known exoplanet laboratories to directly measure Q ′, the modified tidal quality factor and proxy for efficiency of tidal dissipation, of the host star. Previous analysis predicted a rapid orbital decay of the planet toward its host star that should be measurable on the timescale of a few years, if the star is as dissipative as is inferred from the circularization of close-in solar-type binary stars. We have compiled published transit and secondary eclipse timing (as observed by WASP, TRAPPIST, and Spitzer ) with more recent unpublished light curves (as observed by TRAPPIST and Hubble Space Telescope ) with coverage spanning nine years. We find no signature of a rapid decay. We conclude that the absence of rapid orbital decay most likely derives from Q ′ being larger than was inferred from solar-type stars and find that Q ′ ≥ 1 × 10"6, at 95% confidence; this supports previous work suggesting that F stars, with their convective cores and thin convective envelopes, are significantly less tidally dissipative than solar-type stars, with radiative cores and large convective envelopes.

[en] We perform a test of the U(4112) cluster supersymmetry scheme by analysing selection rules in five one-nucleon transfer reactions involving A=18, 19 and 20 nuclei. The results present further indication for the validity of the supersymmetry scheme in this region

[en] The electric quadrupole moments of the 9/2^- and 21/2^- isomeric states of ¹⁷³Ta at 165.8 keV and 1713.2 keV, respectively, were measured as Q(9/2^-)=2.92(15) b and Q(21/2^-)=6.23(18) b for the first time using the TDPAD technique. A 66 MeV pulsed ¹²C ion beam from the 15UD pelletron accelerator facility of the Nuclear Science Centre at New Delhi was used in the reaction ¹⁶⁵Ho(¹²C, 4nγ)¹⁷³Ta. The experimental values of equilibrium deformations β₂(9/2^-)=0.251(7) and β₂(21/2^-)=0.391(7) were extracted

[en] The particle stability of sup19B and the particle instability of sup18B are demonstrated. Light neutron-rich nuclei were searched for among the projectile fragments resulting from interactions of a 670A-MeV sup56Fe beam in a 7.9-g/cmsup2 Be target. A detector consisting of a magnetic spectrometer, threshold Cherenkov paddles, and scintillator paddles was used to determine the charge and mass of the projectile fragments

[en] The design and operation of a detector used to study the particle stability of light isotopes are described. This detector is capable of achieving greater sensitivity than any previously employed in the observation of new rare isotopes. The study of nuclei off the valley of beta stability is primarily motivated by the desire to understand the isospin dependence of nuclear system behavior. In particular, obtaining information about nuclidic masses as a function of isospin determines the variation of the nuclear Hamiltonian with this generalized coordinate. The purpose of this experiment is to define the limits of stability of the nuclear system for extreme values of the isospin. This thesis contains the results of an experiment performed at the LBL Bevalac, which is capable of accelerating heavy ions to maximum energies of 2 GeV/N. A 600 MeV/N ⁵⁶Fe beam interacting in a 7 g/cm² Be target produced neutron rich projectile fragments whose masses and charges were analyzed in an electronic detector telescope. A total beam fluence of approx.1 x 10¹¹ particles was obtained during the course of a 72 hour run. This allowed the first observation of ¹⁹B, and of the apparent particle instability of ¹⁸B, in agreement with the predictions of current mass models

[en] Highlights: • Three types of novel DCHEs with variable structure sizes are tested and compared. • Ranks of influence factors in experiments are obtained by using Taguchi method. • Higher surface compactness of DCHE means higher heat and mass transfer capacity. • Heat and mass transfer coefficients are functions of pressure drop. Desiccant-coated heat exchanger (DCHE) is a novel component for handling both sensible and latent heat assisted by desiccant materials. In this paper, three types of DCHEs with the same transfer surface area, DCHE A (fin pitch 2 mm, fin depth 44 mm), DCHE B (fin pitch 3 mm, fin depth 66 mm) and DCHE C (fin pitch 4 mm, fin depth 88 mm), are fabricated to make out the relationships between structure sizes and performance characteristics. The transient heat and moisture transfer performance, as well as the pressure drop passing through DCHEs, are tested and compared in depth. By using Taguchi method, the ranks of influence factors in heat and mass transfer performances are obtained. With the same transfer surface area but different surface compactness, three DCHEs show different heat and mass transfer capacities and different pressure drops. DCHE A with the highest surface compactness shows the highest heat and mass transfer capacity, while the highest pressure drop is shown as deficiency. DCHE C with the smallest surface compactness shows the highest heat recovery efficiency and the lowest pressure drop. Heat transfer coefficient of DCHE A is 14.9% greater than DCHE B, 19.6% greater than DCHE C in dehumidification process. The moisture adsorbed value of DCHE A is 9.6% greater than DCHE B, 18.2% greater than DCHE C. Pressure drop of DCHE A is 50% larger than DCHE B, and 90% larger than DCHE C. The correlations of Nusselt number and Euler number of three DCHEs are summarized by fitting the experimental data.

[en] The physics of disordered alloys, such as typically the well known case of CeNi_1-xCu_x alloys, showing an interplay among the Kondo effect, the spin glass state and a magnetic order, has been studied firstly within an average description like in the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model. Recently, a theoretical model [S.G. Magalhaes, F.M. Zimmer, P.R. Krebs, B. Coqblin, Phys. Rev. B 74 (2006) 014427] involving a more local description of the intersite interaction has been proposed to describe the phase diagram of CeNi_1-xCu_x. This alloy is an example of the complex interplay between Kondo effect and frustration in which there is in particular the onset of a cluster-glass state. Although the model given in Magalhaes et al. [Phys. Rev. B 74 (2006) 014427] has reproduced the different phases relatively well, it is not able to describe the cluster-glass state. We study here the competition between the Kondo effect and a cluster glass phase within a Kondo-lattice model with an inter-cluster random Gaussian interaction. The inter-cluster term is treated within the cluster mean-field theory for spin glasses [C.M. Sokoulis, Phys. Rev. B 18 (1978) 3757], while, inside the cluster, an exact diagonalisation is performed including inter-site ferromagnetic and intra-site Kondo interactions. The cluster glass order parameters and the Kondo correlation function are obtained for different values of the cluster size, the intra-cluster ferromagnetic coupling and the Kondo intra-site coupling. We obtain that the increase of the Kondo coupling tends clearly to destroy the cluster glass phase.

[en] The decay of the neutron unbound ground state of ¹⁸B was studied for the first time through a single-proton knockout reaction from a 62 MeV/u ¹⁹C beam. The decay energy spectrum was reconstructed from coincidence measurements between the emitted neutron and the ¹⁷B fragment using the MoNA/Sweeper setup. An s-wave line shape was used to describe the experimental spectrum resulting in an upper limit for the scattering length of -50 fm which corresponds to a decay energy <10 keV. Observing an s-wave decay of ¹⁸B provides an experimental verification that the ground state of ¹⁹C includes a large s-wave component. The presence of this s-wave component shows that s-d mixing is still present in ¹⁸B and that the s_1/2 orbital has not moved significantly below the d_5/2 orbital.

[en] In this study, the proton and neutron densities, charge densities, rms nuclear charge radii, rms nuclear mass radii, rms nuclear proton, neutron radii, and neutron skin thickness are calculated by using Hartree-Fock method with an effective nucleon-nucleon Skyrme interactions with SI, SIII, SIV, T3, SKM, and SKM* parameters. These nuclear properties for the neutron-rich isotopes of B (Boron) are presented. The calculated results are compared with the experimental and theoretical results of other researchers.