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The strong-interaction effects both in pionic hydrogen and deuterium atoms have been re-determined with improved precision. The hadronic shift and width in pionic hydrogen together with the hadronic shift in pionic deuterium constitute a one-fold constraint for the two independent pion-nucleon scattering lengths. Furthermore, the hadronic width in pionic deuterium measures the transition strength of s-wave pions on an isoscalar nucleon-nucleon pair which is an independent quantity not related to the pion-nucleon scattering lengths. The experiment was performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute by stopping a high-intensity low-energy pion beam in gaseous targets using the cyclotron trap. The X-rays emitted by the πH and πD atoms were analysed with a high resolution Bragg spectrometer equipped with spherically bent crystals. The pion-nucleon scattering lengths and other physical quantities extracted from the atom data are in good agreement with the results obtained from pionnucleon and nucleon-nucleon scattering experiments and confirm that a consistent picture is achieved for the low-energy pion-nucleon sector with respect to the expectations of chiral perturbation theory.

We present a new evaluation of the negatively charged pion mass based on the simultaneous spectroscopy of pionic nitrogen and muonic oxygen transitions using a gaseous target composed by a N2/O2 mixture at 1.4 bar. We present the experimental set-up and the methods for deriving the pion mass value from the spatial separation from the 5g − 4f πN transition line and the 5g − 4f μO transition line used as reference. Moreover, we discuss the importance to use dilute targets in order to minimize the influence of additional spectral lines from the presence of remaining electrons during the radiative emission. The occurrence of possible satellite lines is investigated via hypothesis testing methods using the Bayes factor.

Metal–ligand cluster ions are structurally characterized by means of gas-phase infrared multiple photon dissociation spectroscopy. The mass-selected complexes consist of one or two metal cations M3+ (M = Al, Fe, or Ru) and two to five anionic bidentate acetylacetonate ligands. Experimental IR spectra are compared with different density functional theory calculations, namely, PBE/TZVP, B3LYP/6-31G*, and M06/6-31+G**. Frequency analysis was also performed at different levels, namely, scaled static harmonic and unscaled static anharmonic, or with ab initio molecular dynamics simulations at the PBE/TZVP level. All methods lead to simulated spectra that fit rather well with experimental data, and the spectral red shifts of several main bands, in the 1200 cm−1–1800 cm−1 range, are sensitive to the strength of the metal–ligand interaction and to the spin state of the ion. Due to the rigidity of those complexes, first principles molecular dynamics calculations provide spectra similar to that produced by static calculations that are already able to catch the main spectral signatures using harmonic calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G* level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on measurements of the ionization and fragmentation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) targets in Xe20 + + C16H10 and Xe20 + + [C16H10]k collisions and compare results for the two C16H10 isomers: pyrene and fluoranthene. For both types of targets, i.e., for single PAH molecules isolated in vacuum or for isomerically pure clusters of one of the molecules, the resulting fragment spectra are surprisingly similar. However, we do observe weak but significant isomer effects. Although these are manifested in very different ways for the monomer and cluster targets, they both have at their roots small differences (<2.5 eV) between the total binding energies of neutral, and singly and multiply charged pyrene and fluoranthene monomers. The results will be discussed in view of the density functional theory calculations of ionization and dissociation energies for fluoranthene and pyrene. A simple classical over-the-barrier model is used to estimate cross sections for single- and multiple-electron transfer between PAHs and ions. Calculated single and multiple ionization energies, and the corresponding model PAH ionization cross sections, are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find that the most stable fullerene isomers, C70-C94, form efficiently in close-to central collisions between keV atomic ions and weakly bound clusters of more than 15 C60-molecules. We observe extraordinarily high yields of C70 and marked preferences for C78 and C84. Larger even-size carbon molecules, C96-C180, follow a smooth log-normal (statistical) intensity distribution. Measurements of kinetic energies indicate that C70-C94 mainly are formed by coalescence reactions between small carbon molecules and C60, while Cn with n≥96 are due to self-assembly (of small molecules) and shrinking hot giant fullerenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied the outcome of collisions between the hydrated nucleotide anion adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP) and sodium. Electron capture leads to hydrogen loss as well as water evaporation regardless of the initial number m of water molecules attached to the parent ion (m≤=16). The yield of dianions with microsecond lifetimes increases strongly with m, which is explained from dielectric screening of the two charges by the water nanodroplet. For comparison, collision induced dissociation results in water losses with no or very little damage of the AMP molecule itself [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction of keV He+, He2+, and O5+ ions with isolated α and β isomers of the amino acid alanine was studied by means of high resolution coincidence time-of-flight mass spectrometry. We observed a strong isomer dependence of characteristic fragmentation channels which manifests in strongly altered branching ratios. Despite the ultrashort initial perturbation by the incoming ion, evidence for molecular rearrangement leading to the formation of H3+ was found. The measured kinetic energies of ionic alanine fragments can be sufficient to induce secondary damage to DNA in a biological environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C602- and C702- dianions have been produced by electrospray of the monoanions and subsequent electron pickup in a Na vapor cell. The dianions were stored in an electrostatic ring and their decay by electron emission was measured up to 1 s after injection. While C702- ions are stable on this time scale, except for a small fraction of the ions which have been excited by gas collisions, most of the C602- ions decay on a millisecond time scale, with a lifetime depending strongly on their internal temperature. The results can be modeled as decay by electron tunneling through a Coulomb barrier, mainly from thermally populated triplet states about 120 meV above a singlet ground state. At times longer than about 100 ms, the absorption of blackbody radiation plays an important role for the decay of initially cold ions. The tunneling rates obtained from the modeling, combined with WKB estimates of the barrier penetration, give a ground-state energy 200±30 meV above the energy of the monoanion plus a free electron and a ground-state lifetime of the order of 20 s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]