The properties of hybrid stars formed by hadronic and quark matter in $\beta$-equilibrium are described by appropriate equations of state (EOS) in the framework of the quark meson coupling model. In the present work we include the possibility of trapped neutrinos in the equation of state and obtain the properties of the related hybrid stars. We use the quark meson coupling model for the hadron matter and two possibilities for the quark matter phase, namely, the unpaired quark phase and the color-flavor locked phase. The differences are discussed and a comparison with other relativistic EOS is done.

Based on the quark coalescence model, we derive relations among the momentum anisotropies of mesons and baryons in relativistic heavy ion collisions from a given, but arbitrary azimuthal distribution for the partons. These relations allow us to estimate the higher-order anisotropies in the initial partonic matter from the measured hadronic anisotropies. Besides the familiar even Fourier coefficients such as the elliptic flow, we also pay attention to odd Fourier coefficients such as the directed flow, which has been observed at finite rapidity even at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider energies.

In a macroscopic approach to giant dipole resonance (GDR) in hot and rotating nuclei, the observables are related to the nuclear free energy surface with consideration of thermal shape fluctuations. This formalism is revisited with more exact methods. The Nilsson-Strutinsky (NS) method extended to high spin and temperature is used for free energy calculations. Various approaches to calculate shell corrections at finite temperature and spin are compared. The GDR built on the states determined by the NS method is studied with a macroscopic model comprising anisotropic harmonic oscillator potential with separable dipole-dipole interaction. Methods to parametrize the free energy, such as the Landau theory, for easier evaluation of thermal fluctuations, are discussed along with a scheme to evaluate thermal fluctuations exactly. The Landau theory is found to work well even in the extreme limits of spin, however, in the absence of strong shell effects. GDR as a probe for Jacobi transition leading to hyperdeformation is analyzed in the case of zirconium isotopes.

The STAR Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is measuring the production of electron-positron pairs at small impact parameters, larger than but already close to the range, where the ions interact strongly with each other. We calculate the cross section relevant for the STAR experimental setup, as well as, differential distributions of the pair production process with the electromagnetic excitation of both ions in a semiclassical approach and within a lowest order QED calculation. We compare the distribution of electron and positron with the one coming from the cross section calculation without tagging for the excitation of the two ions. Finally we give an outlook of possible results at the LHC.

Recent experimental data on spacelike and timelike form factors of the nucleon are analyzed in terms of a model with an intrinsic structure and a meson cloud. The calculations are in perfect agreement with spacelike proton data, but deviate drastically from spacelike neutron data at $Q^2>1{(\mathrm{GeV}∕c)}^2$. We suggest that timelike data be used to understand this discrepancy. Analysis of timelike data shows excellent agreement with both proton and neutron data in the entire range of measured $q^2=-Q^2$, $3.52⩽q^2⩽15{(\mathrm{GeV}∕c)}^2$ values.

The ${}^{11}\mathrm{B}\left(p,{\alpha }_0\right){}^8\mathrm{Be}$ reaction was studied from $1\text{MeV}$ down to astrophysical energies by means of the Trojan-horse method applied to the ${}^2\mathrm{H}\left({}^{11}\mathrm{B},{\alpha }_o{}^8\mathrm{Be}\right)n$ three-body reaction performed at an incident energy of $27\text{MeV}$. Coincidence spectra measured in a kinematically complete experiment show the presence of the quasifree ${}^{11}\mathrm{B}‐p$ process. The astrophysical factor $S\left(E\right)$ for the ${}^{11}\mathrm{B}\left(p,{\alpha }_0\right){}^8\mathrm{Be}$ reaction was extracted from the three-body cross section at low neutron momentum. The result was compared with the behavior of the astrophysical factor from the directly measured two-body reaction.

Proton emission from deformed nuclei is described within the nonadiabatic weak coupling model which takes into account the coupling to $\gamma$ vibrations around the axially symmetric shape. The coupled equations are derived within the Gamow state formalism. A new method, based on the combination of the $R$-matrix theory and the oscillator expansion technique, is introduced that allows for a substantial increase of the number of coupled channels. As an example, we study the deformed proton emitter ${}^{141}\mathrm{Ho}$.

The giant resonance region from $10\text{MeV}<E_x<55\text{MeV}$ in ${}^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$ has been studied with inelastic scattering of $240\text{MeV}$ $\alpha$ particles at small angles including $0°$. The isoscalar monopole resonance was found to contain $100\pm 12\%$ of the $E0$ energy weighted sum rule with a centroid of $\left(17.81+0.32-0.20\right)\text{MeV}$. Eighty one percent of the isoscalar $E1$ energy weighted sum rule was located in two peaks having $E_x=\left(17.1\pm 0.4\right)$ and $\left(26.7\pm 0.5\right)\text{MeV}$, $\Gamma =\left(5.4\pm 0.3\right)$ and $\left(8.8\pm 1.0\right)\text{MeV}$, and containing $13\pm 3\%$ and $70\pm 10\%$, respectively, of the $E1$ energy weighted sum rule.

We report on a measurement of $\varphi$-meson production in $\text{Au}+\text{Au}$ collisions at a beam momentum of $11.7A\text{GeV}∕c$ by experiment 917 at the alternating gradient synchroton. The measurement covers the midrapidity region $1.2<y<1.6$. Transverse-mass spectra and rapidity distributions are presented as functions of centrality characterized by the number of participant projectile nucleons. The yield of $\varphi$’s per participant projectile nucleon increases strongly in central collisions in a manner similar to that observed for kaons.

Following a recent suggestion that the ${\Theta }^{+}$ could be a $K\pi N$ bound state we perform an investigation under the light of the meson-meson and meson-baryon dynamics provided by the chiral Lagrangians and using methods currently employed to dynamically generate meson and baryon resonances by means of unitary extensions of chiral perturbation theory. We consider two-body and three-body forces and examine the possibility of a bound state below the three-particle pion-kaon-nucleon and above the kaon-nucleon thresholds. Although we find indeed an attractive interaction in the case of isospin $\mathrm{I}=0$ and spin-parity $1∕2^{+}$, the interaction is too weak to bind the system. If we arbitrarily add to the physically motivated potential the needed strength to bind the system and with such strong attraction evaluate the decay width into $KN$, this turns out to be small. A discussion on further work in this direction is done.

Systematic studies are carried out for Xe, Ba, Ce, and Nd isotopes within the framework of the pair-truncated shell model where the collective nucleon pairs with angular momenta zero $\left(S\right)$ and two $\left(D\right)$ are assumed to be the building blocks for even-even nuclei. An additional unpaired nucleon is added to the even-even core for a description of odd-mass nuclei. It is found that energy spectra of the low-lying states are nicely reproduced along with intraband and interband $E2$ transitions, which simulate the typical features of the O(6) limit of the interacting boson model.

A cluster model is applied to the description of the decay out phenomenon of the yrast superdeformed states in the nuclei ${}^{190,192,194}\mathrm{Hg}$ and ${}^{192,194,196}\mathrm{Pb}$. The model is based on the assumption that highly deformed cluster-type shapes are produced by a collective motion of the nuclear system in the charge asymmetry coordinate. As follows from our analysis, the sudden transition from the superdeformed minimum to the normal deformed minimum occurs because of the crossing of superdeformed band with the nearest neighboring excited normal deformed band and spreading of collective states among the compound states.

The manifestation of pseudospin symmetry in proton-nucleus scattering is discussed. Constraints on the pseudospin-symmetry violating scattering amplitude are given, which require as input cross section and polarization data, but no measurements of the spin-rotation function. Application of these constraints to $p\text{−}{}^{58}\mathrm{Ni}$ and $p\text{−}{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ scattering data in the laboratory energy range of $200\text{MeV}–800\text{MeV}$ reveals a significant violation of the symmetry at lower energies and a weak one at higher energies. Using a schematic model within the Dirac phenomenology, the role of the Coulomb potential in proton-nucleus scattering with regard to pseudospin symmetry is studied. Our results indicate that the existence of pseudospin symmetry in proton-nucleus scattering is questionable in the whole energy region considered and that the violation of this symmetry stems from the long range nature of the Coulomb interaction.

We explore molecular states of two open heavy-quark mesons $\left(Q\overline{q}\right)-\left(q\overline{Q}\right)$ in a quark-based model in terms of a four-body nonrelativistic Hamiltonian with pairwise effective interactions. Molecular states are found in the combinations of $\left\{D,D^{*},B,B^{*}\right\}$ with $\left\{\overline{D},{\overline{D}}^{*},\overline{B},{\overline{B}}^{*}\right\}$, including a weakly bound $D{\overline{D}}^{*}$ state near the threshold which may be qualitatively identified as the 3872 state observed recently by the Belle Collaboration.

The systematic behavior of the isoscalar giant dipole resonance (ISGDR) in ${}^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$, ${}^{116}\mathrm{Sn}$, ${}^{144}\mathrm{Sm}$, and ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ is studied with inelastic $\alpha$ scattering at $E_{\alpha }=386\mathrm{MeV}$. Multipole-decomposition analysis is applied to extract the excitation strengths of giant resonances from the $(\alpha ,{\alpha }^{\prime })$ differential cross sections at ${\theta }_{\mathrm{lab}}=0.64°–13.5°$. The bimodal structure of the ISGDR is discussed and compared with recent theoretical results from $\text{Hartree}\text{‐}\text{Fock}+\text{random}\text{‐}\text{phase}\text{‐}\text{approximation}$ calculations.

The proton decay of the highly deformed nucleus ${}^{135}\mathrm{Tb}$ has been observed following bombardment of a ${}^{92}\mathrm{Mo}$ target with a $310\text{MeV}$ beam of ${}^{50}\mathrm{Cr}$ ions. This is the first instance of a proton-decaying isotope being produced via the $1p6n$ fusion-evaporation channel. Evaporation residues were separated in-flight using the Argonne fragment mass analyzer and implanted into a new design double-sided silicon strip detector. ${}^{135}\mathrm{Tb}$ decays by the emission of a proton with energy $E_p=1179\left(7\right)\text{keV}\left[Q_p=1188\left(7\right)\text{keV}\right]$ and half-life $t_{1∕2}={0.94}_{-0.22}^{+0.33}\text{ms}$. The transition is assigned to a highly deformed $\left({\beta }_2\sim 0.3\right)J^{\pi }=7∕2^{-}$ configuration by comparing the proton decay rate with calculations for deformed nuclei.

Proton and $\alpha$ decay of the proton-rich nuclide ${}^{185}\mathrm{Bi}$ has been restudied in more detail in the complete fusion reaction ${}^{93}\mathrm{Nb}\left({}^{95}\mathrm{Mo},3n\right){}^{185}\mathrm{Bi}$ at the velocity filter SHIP. The observed decay pattern of ${}^{185}\mathrm{Bi}$ and of the heavier odd-mass isotopes ${}^{187,189,191,193}\mathrm{Bi}$ are interpreted based on potential-energy surface calculations. It is shown that the experimental systematics of the particle decays and of the excited states in these nuclei (where known) can be explained by the prolate-oblate shape co-existence at low excitation energy. The observed state in ${}^{185}\mathrm{Bi}$ is proposed to be of prolate nature, which is in contrast with the previously proposed oblate interpretation.

We have studied the excitation functions of the reactions ${}^{244}\mathrm{Pu}$(${}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$,$xn$). Maximum cross sections for the evaporation of 3–5 neutrons in the complete-fusion reaction ${}^{244}\mathrm{Pu+}{}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ were measured to be ${\sigma }_{3n}=2\text{pb}$, ${\sigma }_{4n}=5\text{pb}$, and ${\sigma }_{5n}=1\text{pb}$. The decay properties of $3n$-evaporation product ${}^{289}114$, in the decay chains observed at low ${}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ energy coincide well with those previously observed in the ${}^{244}\mathrm{Pu+}{}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ and ${}^{248}\mathrm{Cm+}{}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ reactions and assigned to ${}^{288}114$. Two isotopes of element 114 and their descendant nuclei were identified for the first time at higher bombarding energies: ${}^{288}114$ ($E_{\alpha }=9.95\text{MeV}$, $T_{1∕2}=0.6\mathrm{s}$) and ${}^{287}114$ ($E_{\alpha }=10.04\text{MeV}$, $T_{1∕2}=1\mathrm{s}$). We also report on the observation of new isotopes of element 116, ${}^{290,291}116$, produced in the ${}^{245}\mathrm{Cm}+{}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ reaction with cross sections of about $1\text{pb}$. A discussion of self-consistent interpretations of all observed decay chains originating at $Z=118$, 116, and 114 is presented.

Structure of hot dense matter at subnuclear densities is investigated by quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) simulations. We analyze nucleon distributions and nuclear shapes using two-point correlation functions and Minkowski functionals to determine the phase-separation line and to classify the phase of nuclear matter in terms of the nuclear structure. Obtained phase diagrams show that the density of the phase boundaries between the different nuclear structures decreases with increasing temperature due to the thermal expansion of nuclear matter region. The critical temperature for the phase separation is $\gtrsim 6\text{MeV}$ for the proton fraction $x=0.5$ and $\gtrsim 5\text{MeV}$ for $x=0.3$. Our result suggests the existence of “spongelike” phases with negative Euler characteristic in addition to the simple “pasta” phases in supernova cores until $T\lesssim 3\text{MeV}$.

The nucleon spectral function in nuclear matter fulfills an energy weighted sum rule. Comparing two different realistic potentials, these sum rules are studied for Green’s functions that are derived self-consistently within the $T$ matrix approximation at finite temperature.