• Introduction
• The Nuclear Science References file
  • Scope of the NSR file
  • Literature coverage
  • NSR master file, errors
• User interface
• Browser tips
• Searches
  • NSR topics
  • Data types
  • Nuclide
  • "Evenness"
  • Keynumber
  • Publication year
  • Author
  • Keyword
  • Reaction
  • A simple search
  • A more complicated search
  • Printing search results
• Technical details
  • About Isotope Explorer NSR Server
  • Server syntax
• Whodunit
• Acknowledgements

Introduction

• Freely available on the Internet
• Standard Web-based user interface which is easy to learn, and which runs on standard browsers without any special plug-ins
• Several search criteria are available: nuclide, "evenness", keynumber, publication year, author, keyword and reaction (target and/or projectile)
• Links to abstracts and full articles (the latter only being available for subscribers) are given for recent APS journal articles (e.g. Phys. Rev. C, Phys. Rev. Lett. and Revs. Mod. Phys.)
• The query syntax is very simple, so the system can be used separately from the full user interface, e.g. for decoding Keynumbers from other databases

The Nuclear Science References file

The NSR file originated during the mid-sixties at the Nuclear Data Project (NDP) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a part of a program of systematic evaluation of nuclear structure data. The NSR file contains references to published and unpublished work relevant to nuclear structure. At the same time the NDP created the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) containing the physical data.

Each reference in NSR has a unique identifier - the Keynumber. References since 1969 contain a Keyword Abstract and Keywords, which indicate the kinds of data contained in the article.

Scope of the NSR file

Starting 1994, all articles in the main nuclear physics journals Phys. Rev. C and Nucl. Phys. A are entered into the NSR. This change in policy is reflected in the change of the name from Nuclear Structure References to Nuclear Science References.

Literature coverage

NSR master file, errors

User interface

The browser window is divided into four areas called frames:

Top left: Input frame

Top right: Search string frame

Bottom left: Selections frame

Bottom right: Output frame

• The Input frame contains a set of buttons for operations, input text fields, check boxes and select boxes for input and options. The top part of the frame contains frequently used objects, while the bottom of the frame (below the horizontal line, usually hidden from view) contains less frequently used options and buttons.

  Submit query button

  Submits the query (in the Search string frame) to the server

  Reset button

  Clears the current search string and output frame

  Help button

  Displays the help text

  Data type select box

  Determines the type of data that should be inputted (nuclide, "evenness", keynumber, publication year, author, keyword, reaction)

  ? button

  Displays help on the selected data type

  Input text box

  Some data types take input from this box

  Get list button

  Only available for author, keyword and reaction: gets a list of all possible choices with the limitation given in the input field. If there are too many entries, the list is truncated. This button is hidden when not active (only Netscape Navigator 3.0 and later)

  AND to query button

  Adds currently selected criterion to the query (AND)

  OR to query button

  As AND to query, but the criterion is ORed with the previous. Only data types of the same type can be ORed. If you want to OR two different data types, you have to perform two separate searches

  Topics select box

  Used to select which NSR topic to retrieve. See NSR topics for details. Default (the most common choice) is select all topics

  New window for output check box

  If checked, the output and help is directed to a new window (mainly useful if you have a small screen so that there is very little space for the output). This window should be closed after use, since Netscape Navigator does not automatically put the window on top, and Internet Explorer creates a new window for each request

  Extended characters check box

  If checked, extended characters (e.g. Greek letters) are mapped to the Symbol font and super/subscripts are written as such. This works on Netscape Navigator 3.0, Internet Explorer 3.0 for PC and Macintosh. For other browsers, this option can be deselected, and greek characters will come out preceded by a pipe, e.g. |g for gamma. The complete character mapping for the NSR is available

  Ignore topic "Structure" check box

  If checked, all references with the topic "Nuclear structure" only will be ignored (which means that only references with experimental results are retrieved). If one particular topic has been selected in the Topics select box, this check box is ignored.

  Status button

  Click this to display current values of variables in the output window. This is mainly a script debugging tool

  Test server button

  Quick test of server and connection (sends a simple request for update information)

• The Search string frame contains the current search criteria in a text box. The text box can be edited by hand (but: you're on your own here!)

• The Selections frame is used to input selection criteria. It is either a fixed page (nuclide, "evenness", publication year, keynumber) or a page generated by the server (author, keyword, reaction)

• The Output frame contains the server response. You can go back to previous responses by clicking on the right mouse button and selecting Back

Browser tips

Netscape Navigator 2.02, Windows 95

After selecting data type in the Input frame you must click outside the select box before the new selection is made.

Internet Explorer 3.0, Windows 95

Creates a new window for each new output if New window for output is set: delete window with the x button. Status bar help does not work for text (onMousover).

Please report other limitations to Peter Ekström

Searches

A few old references do not have a Reference record. For these, the abbreviated reference, the Coden, is displayed.

For very simple searches on Nuclide, Keynumber, Author, Keyword and Reaction, the user can select Submit query even if the search field is empty. In that case, only the currently selected limitation is applied.

NSR topics

ATOMIC MASSES	Exp., Theory
ATOMIC PHYSICS	Exp., Theory
COMPILATION	Exp., Theory
NUCLEAR MOMENTS	Exp., Theory
NUCLEAR REACTIONS	Exp., Theory
NUCLEAR STRUCTURE	Theory
RADIOACTIVITY	Exp., Theory

Data types

Search criteria are selected with the select box in the Input frame. The criteria are entered either in the text box in the Input frame or in the Selections frame. They are added to the search string either with the AND to query button or the OR to query button. When all required search criteria have been entered, click the Submit query button in the Input frame to get the result. The search string (and the output) is reset with the Reset button.

Nuclide

The data are entered in the boxes above the line in the Selections frame. The current restriction is displayed in the Result text box next to the button. You are not allowed to write in the results box. All text boxes are cleared with the button.

Mass number A and neutron number N are entered as numbers. The nuclear charge can either be entered as the atomic number Z or the element chemical symbol. The chemical symbol for elements with Z>103 is 04, 05, ... Currently the maximum A allowed is 320 and Z/N is 199, which is safe since the current experimental record is A=277 with Z=112. Theorists have, however, been quite a lot more adventurous!

If at least two out of A, Z and N are entered, the nuclide is uniquely defined, and the nuclide symbol is displayed. The program keeps track of the order in which A, Z and N are entered, and calculates the oldest value from the two more recent.

Note that specifying only A, Z or N will create a lot of hits that may be of limited interest, since the NSR contains a lot of references with very wide ranges, e.g. A=4-208. A reference with this specification would create a hit for all A:s in the range. To avoid these hits, one should if possible specify the nuclide completely.

"Evenness"

Even Z, even N

Even Z, odd N

Odd Z, even N

Odd Z, odd N

Even Z

Odd Z

Even N

Odd N

Keynumber

This option decodes an NSR keynumber. Enter a valid keynumber (a eight/six-character string, e.g. 1981En01 or 81En01) in the box, and click the AND to query button.

Since the Keynumber is unique for each reference, it does not make any sense to AND Keynumbers with any other restrictions. Several keynumbers can, however, be retrieved at once by adding subsequent choices with the OR to query button.

Publication year

Author

Enter an Author name (or the first part of it) and click the Get list button. All author matches are then displayed in the Selections frame. If there are too many matches, the list is truncated, and the restriction should be increased. You can also get the continuation of the list by clicking continue list under the select box.

The number of matching references are given after the respective author name in the select box. Select the required author (or authors by control-clicking) and click AND to query or OR to query.

Keyword

The interpretation of the keywords is self-evident in most cases.

Enter a Keyword (or the first part of it) and click the Get list button.. All matches are then displayed in the Selections frame. A blank entry in the input field yields a list of all available keywords.

The number of matching references are given after the respective keyword. Select the required keyword (or keywords by control-clicking) and click AND to query or OR to query.

Reaction

If you enter a target nuclide (e.g. 12C) and click the Get list button, the program will display a list of all reactions with the specified target. If you enter 12C(p, the list will contain all proton induced reaction on ¹²C.

A simple search

Frame	Field/button/item	Action
Input	Select box	Select Nuclide
Selections	A text box	Enter 171
Selections	Symbol text box	Enter re
Selections		Click
Input		Click
Input	Select box	Select Publication year
Selections	Left text box	Enter 94
Input		Click
Input		Click

A more complicated search

We have four limitations:

Author

Twin,P

Keyword

sup-def

Nuclide

¹⁵²Dy

Publication year

-90

Frame	Field/button/item	Action
Input	Select box	Select Author
Input	Text field	Enter twin
Input		Click
Selections	Select box	Select Twin,P.J. and Twin,P. by control-clicking the items
Input		Click
Input	Select box	Select Keyword
Input	Text field	Enter su
Input		Click
Selections	Select box	Select sup-def
Input		Click
Input	Select box	Select Nuclide
Selections	A field	Enter 152
Selections	Symbol field	Enter dy
Input		Click
Input	Select box	Select Publication year
Selections	Right field	Enter 90
Input		Click
Input		Click

Printing search results

1. Make sure the Output frame is current by clicking on it

2. Select File, Print Frame

Technical details

About Isotope Explorer NSR Server

At present, Isotope Explorer is only available as a 32-bit Windows application, so it was considered worth while to port the parts of the database access that can be easily ported to a platform independent service. Since the NSR is a text-based database, this was the obvious choice.

Introduction

Isotope Explorer NSR Server consists of three parts:

1. The NSR file (see above)
2. A set of HTML/JavaScript documents for user input/output and constructing properly formatted requests
3. A server running software to satisfy these requests

The client side of the search is handled by JavaScript, and it requires Netscape 2.02 or later or Internet Explorer 3.0.

Servers

The server software is running on Windows NT workstations (ie.lbl.gov and nucleardata.nuclear.lu.se). The servers contain a version of the NSR database (the same database Isotope Explorer uses), and they respond to HTTP requests by interpreting the submitted parameters. The output is formatted according to the HTML specification (e.g. with superscripts and subscripts) and sent back to the client. Greek characters are supported for PC and Macintosh through the Symbol font.

Server syntax

General

The syntax is

NSR?condition1&condition2&...[options] or

NSR?command1=argument&command2=argument...[options]

keyname=string

Valid keynames

AUTH

Exact author: AUTH=smith,a.b.

YEAR

Publication year (given by the NSR Keynumber): YEAR=88-95, YEAR=96

KEYN

Decode keynumber(s): 81Ek01|96Ab01

NUCL

Nuclide limitation

• By AZ: 100Ag, 12C
• By A: A235, A100|A101|A102
• By Z: Z47 or Ag
• By N: N12 for N=12 (A=12,Z=7 is 12N)

EVEN

"Evenness":
E-E, E-O, O-E, O-O (Z-N, both specified)
Z-E, Z-O, N-E, N-O (N or Z specified)

KEYW

Exact NSR Keyword: a-decay, high-spin|sup-def|hyp-def

KEYR

Nuclear reaction: 164Dy(14N,10B), 12C(P,G)

TOPIC

NSR Topic: TOPIC=STRUCTURE, TOPIC=REACTION, .... TOPIC=NOSTRUCTURE (only when all topics are selected)

Syntax: COMMAND=argument

AUTHLST

List authors with limitation given: AUTHLST=chu

KEYWLST

List keywords with limitation given: KEYWLST=a-dec

KEYRLST

List reactions with limitation given: KEYRLST=12C will list all reactions with 12C as a target. KEYLST=(P will list all reactions with p as the projectile

UPDATEDATE

Display database update cutoff date in output frame

HTML

Output is formatted as HTML text

NOMAP

Do not remap extended characters and super/subscripts

SELE

Output is formatted as a form select box

Whodunit

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Division of Nuclear Physics of the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC03-76SF00098.

The Swedish Nuclear Data Project is supported by the Nuclear Power Inspectorate (SKI), the Radiation Protection Institute (SSI), and the energy companies Barsebäck Kraft and Vattenfall.