NPA Seminar: Prof. Hans A. Weidenmueller, Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany, “Laser-Nucleus Interactions”

It is expected that intense laser pulses with energies of several MeV per photon will soon become available. How does such a pulse interact with a medium-weight or heavy nucleus? Multiple absorption of dipole photons leads to states at high excitation (several 100 MeV) with low spin, an unexplored territory. Sequential neutron decay will populate highly excited states in proton-rich nuclei far off the valley of stability. The theoretical model uses rate equations based on a random-matrix approach. The input parameters (nuclear level densities and the rate for dipole absorption) will be discussed, and some results presented.