Photonuclear reactions induced by intense short laser pulses

A measurement of the decay in time of nuclei excited by an intense short laser pulse of energy E-0 yields the Fourier transform of the autocorrelation function of the associated scattering matrix. We determine the optimal length (in time) of the pulse and evaluate the time-decay function using random-matrix theory. That function is shown to contain information not otherwise available. We approximate that function in a manner that is useful for the analysis of data. For E-0 below the threshold energy E-n of the first neutron channel, the time-decay function is exponential in time t while it is the product of an exponential and a power in t for E-0 > E-n. The comparison of the measured decay functions in both energy domains yields an unambiguous and novel test of random-matrix theory in nuclei. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.