Introduction

This section contains a short overview of VuENSDF. Also, since the program is very tightly tied in with the two databases ENSDF and NSR, a short description of these will be given.

VuENSDF is primarily, as the name suggests, used to access and look at (view) nuclear data in the ENSDF format. Currently, the program is available for the Microsoft^® Windows platform. As the program is developed, more facilities for systematic searching of data and for data display/manipulation will be added, and more platforms will be supported.

An older version of VuENSDF is available for Macintosh ^{[VuENSDF for Mac]}. This version can be used to view data from the Table of Isotopes CD-ROM ^[TOI].

VuENSDF allows users to view nuclear data interactively by selecting commands and options from a Menu bar or a Toolbar, or interacting directly with objects such as levels and gammas.

The program uses a multiple document interface (MDI) that makes it possible to open a number of files and display them at the same time in child windows inside the main window. It supports three types of views: level scheme mode, table mode and text editor.

Level scheme and table modes can display ENSDF format data that are organized into files with extension .ENS or .ENX (see below). In addition to .ENS and ENX files, the text editor can display ASCII text files.

Current information about the program is given on the VuENSDF Home Page with URL: http://isotopes.lbl.gov/isotopes/vuensdf.html. The program can be freely downloaded from the World Wide Web.

VuENSDF utilizes two databases, ENSDF (or databases in the ENSDF format derived from it) for nuclear structure and decay data, and NSR for the bibliographic references.^[ENSDF/NSR]

ENSDF
The Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) ^[ENSDF] contains nuclear structure and radioactive decay data, primarily derived from experiments.

ENSDF is organized in a hierarchial structure:

Mass chains

Data for all nuclei with a given mass number (A fixed)

Nuclides

Data for a certain nucleus (A,Z fixed)

Data sets

Data for the nuclide (A,Z) from a certain nuclear reaction or decay. For most nuclides there is also an Adopted levels data set with the best values of the derived nuclear properties. A data set in the smallest independent unit of ENSDF

Data records

Fixed and variable format records containing the data, e.g. level records, gamma records, beta records, comment records etc.

One important feature of the ENSDF format is that data sets are independent, i.e. one data set contains all necessary information for a certain aspect of a nuclide. This means that parts of ENSDF (individual data sets) can be distributed without loss of information.

The ENSDF format comes in two flavors, ENSDF (.ENS file extension) and ENSDF/2 (.ENX file extension). The main difference is that the ENSDF/2 format is somewhat more compact, and it contains explicit information on the final levels of a gamma-ray transition (which in the ENSDF format in some cases is given implicitly by the energy match). Also, the comment records in the ENSDF/2 format have been transcribed to contain extended characters such as Greek letters, superscripts and subscripts.

Some data sets contain information on sets of levels called 'bands'. A band in VuENSDF is a set of nuclear levels that share some nuclear structure property, such as rotational bands, a set of vibrational states or simple shell-model configurations.

NSR
The Nuclear Science References (NSR) ^[NSR] is a comprehensive bibliographic database covering low-, intermediate- and high-energy nuclear physics. The file contains almost 140,000 references from 1910 to the present time.

Each reference in the NSR has a unique identifier - the Keynumber. References since 1969 contain a Keyword Abstract, which indicates the kinds of data contained in the article. Most references also have a number of Keywords.

Originally, references were entered for papers that reported experimental data on nuclear structure, nuclear decay and nuclear reactions and on theoretical studies of specific nuclei and nuclear reactions. Recently the scope has been widened to include also high-energy nuclear physics references. Also, all references in the core nuclear physics journals (e.g. Nuclear Physics, Physical Review C) are entered in the file. This increase in scope is reflected in the change of name from Nuclear Structure References to Nuclear Science References.

If one selects the File, Get Nucleus menu item, VuENSDF accesses data from a special version of ENSDF, the Table of Isotopes ^[TOI] databases. There are three different TOI databases available for different purposes:

1. Decay parent: Radioactive decays ordered by parent nuclide. The naming convention is pAAAZZ.enx, where AAA is the mass number and ZZ is the chemical symbol

2. Daughter or reaction product: Adopted levels, decay daughters and reaction products. The naming convention is AAAZZ.enx

3. Superdeformed bands: Ordered by nuclide. The naming convention is sAAAZZ.enx

Comments to: F Chu (program), P Ekström (manual)

All contents copyright © 1996, Isotopes Project, Berkeley Lab. All rights reserved.
Revised: