[en] The future of the nuclear community will not resemble the past. Suddenly gone are the years of blind public trust, cheers for building the bomb that ended a world war, and the unquestioned alliance of patriotism and Pu. Awakened by the radioactivity cloud from Chernobyl and recent revelations of major releases during Hanford's early years, the public is demanding to play a part in its own future in suddenly jam-packed hearings. After four decades, nuclear pioneers should consider that a technology fashioned largely in the vacuum of war-driven secrecy is now being judged--fairly or not--alongside the rather unforgiving measures of present-day politics, economics and morality. The spiral of distrust may continue without a semblance of the following remedies. (1) The press and the public need to become better educated in radiation basics to start making more informed decisions on multi-billion-dollar issues. (2) Because reasoned public discussions of anything nuclear is at an impasse, supporters and critics of nuclear activities should spend less time trying to discredit their opponents and more time trying to understand why they think as they do. (3) The radiation-protection community should welcome scrutiny for one simple reason: no other way exists to regain public trust and respect

[en] Nuclear reaction studies at beam energies of 5.9 and 8.7 × A MeV have been performed with the collision system "2"5Mg + "2"0"6Pb at the velocity filter SHIP of GSI Darmstadt. The velocity filter offers the possibility to detect the reaction products under zero degree with respect to the beam direction. This allows, together with the measurement of the product velocities, for an identification of the underlying reaction mechanism. Besides fusion-evaporation reactions we found strong signatures for rotation and quasi-fission of nuclear molecules formed after the capture stage in the entrance channel. (author)

[en] The diffusion of lipids in bilayers on curved supports of porous silica beads is studied by deuterium solid state NMR relaxation. We demonstrate that the combination of bilayers coated on curved silica substrates with NMR experiments and simulations which are sensitive to the diffusive motion of the fluid bilayer lipids can provide information about the substrate topology. This provides a new approach for the exploration of the complex internal surface topology of silica gels widely used in biomolecule chromatography. (orig.) topology of silica gels widely used in biomolecule chromatography. (orig.)

[en] The Separator for Heavy Ion Reaction Products (SHIP) is a velocity filter located at the UNILAC accelerator of GSI Darmstadt, Germany. For about 35 years a broad experimental program in the field of superheavy element research is running at SHIP. During the last years particularly investigations in the region of the heaviest known nuclei were performed. In fusion reactions of ⁴⁸Ca + ²⁴⁸Cm → ²⁹⁶116* a total of six decay chains was observed which could be attributed to the evaporation residues ²⁹²116 and ²⁹³116. In this experiment, data measured previously on the same isotopes in Dubna were well confirmed. Besides, two attempts were made to synthesize isotopes of the still unobserved element Z = 120 in reactions of ⁶⁴Ni + ²³⁸U and ⁵⁴Cr + ²⁴⁸Cm. No events were observed in these experiments leading to one-event cross-section limits of 90 fb and 560 fb, respectively. For future superheavy element research, a new superconducting continuous wave LINAC is planned at GSI which shall deliver beam intensities of up to 1014 particles per second. In this context we are developing a next generation separator and new detection techniques

[en] The Separator for Heavy Ion Reaction Products (SHIP) is a velocity filter located at the UNILAC accelerator of GSI Darmstadt, Germany. For about 35 years a broad experimental program in the field of superheavy element research is running at SHIP. During the last years particularly investigations in the region of the heaviest known nuclei were performed. In fusion reactions of ⁴⁸Ca + ²⁴⁸Cm→²⁹⁶116^* a total of six decay chains was observed which could be attributed to the evaporation residues ²⁹²116 and ²⁹³116. In this experiment, data measured previously on the same isotopes in Dubna were well confirmed. Besides, two attempts were made to synthesize isotopes of the still unobserved element Z = 120 in reactions of ⁶⁴Ni + ²³⁸U and ⁵⁴Cr + ²⁴⁸Cm. No events were observed in these experiments leading to one-event cross-section limits of 90 and 560 fb, respectively. For future superheavy element research, a new superconducting continuous wave LINAC is planned at GSI which shall deliver beam intensities of up to 10¹⁴ particles per second. In this context we are developing a next generation separator and new detection techniques

No abstract available

[en] At the future MAFF/FRM-II facility in Munich an ion trap system MAFFTRAP will be built. Its goal is to investigate the neutron-rich, in particular heavy, nuclei from thermal neutron fission and fusion of fission products with heavy target nuclei. Basic aims of these investigations are: radioactive beam cooling and purification for nuclear spectroscopy experiments, precise nuclear mass measurements and charged particle spectroscopy 'in-trap'

No abstract available

[en] Jets powered by high-mass X-ray binaries must traverse the powerful wind of the companion star. We present the first global three-dimensional simulations of jet–wind interaction in high-mass X-ray binaries. We show that the wind momentum flux intercepted by the jet can lead to significant bending of the jet and that jets propagating through a spherical wind will be bent to an asymptotic angle ${\mathrm{\psi <!--\; ??\; -->}}_{\mathrm{\infty <!--\; ???\; -->}}$. We derive simple expressions for ${\mathrm{\psi <!--\; ??\; -->}}_{\mathrm{\infty <!--\; ???\; -->}}$ as a function of jet power and wind thrust. For known wind parameters, measurements of ${\mathrm{\psi <!--\; ??\; -->}}_{\mathrm{\infty <!--\; ???\; -->}}$ can be used to constrain the jet power. In the case of Cygnus X-1, the lack of jet precession as a function of orbital phase observed by the Very Long Baseline Array can be used to put a lower limit on the jet power of $L_{\mathrm{j}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{t}}\gtrsim <!--\; ???\; -->{10}^{36}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{s}{\mathrm{s}}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->1}$. We further discuss the case where the initial jet is inclined relative to the binary orbital axis. We also analyze the case of Cygnus X-3 and show that jet bending is likely negligible unless the jet is significantly less powerful or much wider than currently thought. Our numerical investigation is limited to isotropic stellar winds. We discuss the possible effects of wind clumping on jet–wind interaction, which are likely significant, but argue that our limits on jet power for Cygnus X-1 are likely unaffected by clumping unless the global wind mass-loss rate is orders of magnitude below the commonly assumed range for Cyg X-1.

No abstract available