Actinide collisions for QED and superheavy elements with the time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory and the Balian-Veneroni variational principle

Actinide collisions are studied in a dynamical quantum microscopic approach. The three-dimensional time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) code tdhf3d is used with a full Skyrme energy density functional to investigate the time evolution of expectation values of one-body operators, such as fragment position and particle number. This code is also used to compute the dispersion of the particle numbers (e.g., widths of fragment mass and charge distributions) from TDHF transfer probabilities, on the one hand, and using the Balian-Veneroni variational principle, on the other hand. A first application to test QED is discussed. Collision times in 238U+238U are computed to determine the optimum energy for the observation of the vacuum decay. It is shown that the initial orientation strongly affects the collision times and reaction mechanism. The highest collision times predicted by TDHF in this reaction are of the order of ∼ 4 zs at a center of mass energy of 1200 MeV. According to modern calculations based on the Dirac equation, the collision times at Ecm > 1 GeV are sufficient to allow spontaneous electron-positron pair emission from QED vacuum decay, in case of bare uranium ion collision. A second application of actinide collisions to produce neutron-rich trans-fermiums is discussed. A new inverse quasi-fission mechanism associated to a specific orientation of the nuclei is proposed to produce trans fermium nuclei (Z > 100) in the collision of prolate deformed actinides such as 232Th+250Cf. The collision of the tip of one nucleus with the side of the other results in a nucleon flux toward the latter. The probability distributions for trans-fermium production in such a collision are computed. The produced nuclei are more neutron-rich than those formed in fusion reactions, thus, leading to more stable isotopes closer to the predicted superheavy island of stability. In addition to mass and charge dispersion, the Balian-Veneroni variational principle is used to compute correlations between Z and N distributions, which are zero in standard TDHF calculations. (authors)