Background: Previous studies have revealed the importance of introducing surface correction into a phenomenological model for inclusive $(n,n^{\prime }x)$ and $(p,p^{\prime }x)$ reactions. These findings have contributed significantly to the improvement of nuclear data evaluation. However, the necessity for the surface correction in an inclusive $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reaction has hardly been investigated.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference in the peripherality of the $(p,p^{\prime }x)$ and $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reactions by a theoretical analysis using a quantum mechanical model, and to obtain a theoretical basis on the surface correction in the $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reaction.

Methods: The energy spectra and their radial distributions for the $(p,p^{\prime }x)$ and $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reactions are calculated by the one-step semiclassical distorted wave model.

Results: The radial distribution of the energy spectra for the $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reaction is shifted toward the outer region of the nucleus compared to the $(p,p^{\prime }x)$ reaction. Based on this finding, we consider a larger surface correction into a phenomenological model for the $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reaction than that for the $(p,p^{\prime }x)$ reaction, and calculated values reproduce the experimental $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ spectra well.

Conclusion: The peripherality of the $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reaction is more prominent than that of the $(p,p^{\prime }x)$ reaction. The stronger surface correction thus should be introduced for the $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reaction than for the $(p,p^{\prime }x)$ reaction.

Background: The proton-induced deuteron knockout reaction, ($p,pd$), is one of the interests in studies probing the deuteron-like $p\text{−}n$ correlation in nuclei. According to a recent study of the inclusive deuteron-induced reaction, $(d,d^{\prime }x)$, the refraction effect of the deuteron has a significant effect on the elementary process, nucleon-deuteron ($N\text{−}d$) binary scattering inside a nucleus, of the reaction. In the paper, it is shown that proper treatment of the local $N\text{−}d$ relative momentum in the elementary process is crucial in $(d,d^{\prime }x)$ reactions at 100 MeV and below.

Purpose: In the present work, we investigate the deuteron refraction effect in the exclusive ($p,pd$) reactions. We also discuss the incident energy dependence of the refraction effect.

Method: The refraction effect on the $p\text{−}d$ elementary process is taken into account by the local semiclassical approximation to the distorted waves. The results are compared with those obtained with the asymptotic momentum approximation, which is standardly applied to the distorted wave impulse approximation framework.

Result: It is shown that the refraction effect drastically changes the energy sharing distribution of the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}(p,pd){}^{14}\mathrm{N}$ reaction at 101.3 MeV and gives a better agreement with experimental data. In contrast, it is confirmed that the effect is negligibly small at 250 MeV.

Conclusion: We have clarified that the deuteron refraction effect is significant in the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}(p,pd){}^{14}\mathrm{N}$ reaction at 101.3 MeV and the experimental data are well reproduced. The refraction effect plays a significant role in both the shape and magnitude of the ($p,pd$) cross section, while the effect is negligible at 250 MeV.

We report here the results of an experimental study involving the $\beta$-delayed proton decay of ${}^{27}\mathrm{P}$ which was studied with a gas detector, AstroBox2 (AB2), at Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University. Five new low-energy proton groups were detected, individual $\beta$-proton ($\beta \mathrm{p}$) branching ratios were calculated for the already known and the new proton groups and an improved half-life of ${}^{27}\mathrm{P}$ was determined. The discovery of this low-energy protons puts under a new light the reaction rate of ${}^{26m}\mathrm{Al}(\mathrm{p},\gamma ){}^{27}\mathrm{Si}$. Additionally, a ${}^{25}\mathrm{Si}$ exotic beam was used for the energy calibration of the detector. In the data analysis of this isotope implantation was ultimately intended to obtain results in accordance with literature in order to validate our method for the analysis of ${}^{27}\mathrm{P}$ beam, which was finally achieved. Furthermore, an extended description of the analysis method for experiments with AstroBox2 detector is made.

Background: Calculations of $p$-nuclei abundances depend heavily on the Hauser-Feshbach (HF) theory to compute cross sections and, consequently, the reaction rates entering a huge reaction network encompassing nearly 2000 isotopes, the vast majority of which are unstable. Therefore, the successful reproduction of $p$-nuclei abundances relies on the reliability of the nuclear parameters entering the HF calculations, i.e., the optical model potential (OMP), the nuclear level density (NLD), and the $\gamma$-ray strength function ($\gamma \mathrm{SF}$).

Purpose: New cross sections, astrophysical $S$ factors, and reaction rates for ($p,\gamma$) reactions on ${}^{116}\mathrm{Sn}$ and ${}^{118}\mathrm{Sn}$ were measured at energies relevant to the $p$ process with the aim of validating OMP, NLD, and $\gamma \mathrm{SF}$ models and investigating their “global” character, with particular emphasis on the Lane-consistent semimicroscopic OMP developed by Bauge et al. [Bauge, Delaroche, and Girod, Phys. Rev. C 63, 024607 (2001)].

Method: Cross sections were determined from $\gamma$-angular distribution measurements, angle-integrated $\gamma$ spectra taken with the $4\pi \gamma$-summing technique, and off-beam $\gamma$ activities measured with the activation method. HF calculations were performed with the talys code (version 1.96).

Results: Total and partial cross sections were determined for the ${}^{116}\mathrm{Sn}(p,\gamma ){}^{117}\mathrm{Sb}$ and ${}^{118}\mathrm{Sn}(p,\gamma ){}^{119}\mathrm{Sb}$ reactions at energies ranging from 2.2 to 5.2 MeV. These energies cover almost entirely the Gamow window relevant to $p$-process nucleosynthesis. The experimentally determined cross sections and the resulting $S$ factors were corrected for electron screening effects and subsequently compared with HF calculations, which were performed using various combinations of phenomenological or semi-microscopic models describing the proton-nucleus OMP ($p$-OMP), alpha-particle–nucleus OMP ($\alpha$-OMP), NLD, and $\gamma \mathrm{SF}$.

Conclusions: Our screening-corrected data were found to be in very good agreement with the corresponding calculations performed using a combination of the $p$-OMP of Bauge et al. with semimicroscopic models for the $\alpha$-OMP, NLD, and $\gamma \mathrm{SF}$. This agreement resulted from adjusting the energy dependent isoscalar normalization factors ${\lambda }_V$ and ${\lambda }_W$ for the real and imaginary components of the OMP. The model combination used by default in talys 1.96, which includes only phenomenological models for the nuclear parameters entering the HF calculations, was less successful in reproducing our screening-corrected data. The NLDs used in our talys calculations were compared with the experimental cumulative numbers of low-lying levels observed in ${}^{117}\mathrm{Sb}$ and ${}^{119}\mathrm{Sb}$. Average radiative widths from the systematics were also used to validate the combination of NLD and $\gamma \mathrm{SF}$ models found to best reproduce our data. Finally, the stellar reaction rates obtained in the present work were compared with those provided in the REACLIB and BRUSLIB databases. In the temperature range relevant to the $p$ process, it was found that the REACLIB stellar rates are smaller by a factor of $\approx 2$, whereas the BRUSLIB rates exhibit deviations of no more than 20%.

In this paper we study low-lying states based on the nucleon-pair approximation to the nuclear shell model with our focus on the optimization of basis states constructed by using $SDGI$ (nucleon pair with spin zero, two, four, and six) nucleon pairs. We find that the low-lying states in the very large and complex $SDGI$ nucleon-pair configuration space can be well represented by much smaller basis states optimized by the variational factorization method of Papenbrock and collaborators [Phys. Rev. C 67, 051303(R) (2003)] (after modifications). This considerably facilitates studies of deformed nuclei in terms of the nucleon-pair approximation.

We conducted measurements of $K^{-}+{}^3\mathrm{He}\to \pi YN+N^{\prime }$ reactions using a $1\mathrm{GeV}/c{K}^{-}$-beam, with the objective of understanding the broad decay width of $\overline{K}NN$ (approximately twice as broad as that of $\mathrm{\Lambda }\left(1405\right)$ considered to be the $\overline{K}N$ quasibound state). We successfully reproduced distributions of the $\pi YN$ invariant mass and momentum transfer for $\pi YN$ using model-fitting functions for $\overline{K}NN$ formation and quasifree $\overline{K}$ absorption (${\mathrm{QF}}_{\overline{K}-\mathrm{abs}}$) processes. The model can describe the experimental data quite well, and four $\overline{K}NN\to \pi YN$ cross sections were obtained. The results indicate that mesonic decay is the dominant decay branch of $\overline{K}NN$. The results also suggest that ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\pi \mathrm{\Lambda }N}\approx {\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\pi \mathrm{\Sigma }N}$, which indicates that the $I_{\overline{K}N}=1$ absorption channel, in addition to the $I_{\overline{K}N}=0$ absorption channel, substantially contributes to the $\overline{K}NN$ decay, making the $\overline{K}NN$ state approximately twice as unstable as $\mathrm{\Lambda }$(1405).

The relationship of the root-mean-square (rms) charge radius difference $\mathrm{\Delta }{R}_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{mir}}$ of mirror pairs and the isospin asymmetry $(N-Z)/A$ is investigated using a newly developed deep Bayesian neural network (DBNN) approach. The DBNN approach with optimized architecture and input features demonstrates superior predictive capability for nuclear rms charge radii $R_{\mathrm{ch}}$ compared to previous machine learning approaches employing single-layer neural networks. Utilizing the DBNN-predicted $R_{\mathrm{ch}}$ values, a significant mass dependence of the $\mathrm{\Delta }{R}_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{mir}}$ versus $(N-Z)/A$ linear relationship, previously unobserved in experimental $\mathrm{\Delta }{R}_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{mir}}$ analyses, is revealed. The physical existence and origin of the mass-dependent linear relationship between $\mathrm{\Delta }{R}_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{mir}}$ and $(N-Z)/A$ is explored using the microscopic Sky3D model and the macroscopic droplet model. Both Sky3D model and droplet model calculations indicate the physical existence of a mass-dependent linear relationship between $\mathrm{\Delta }{R}_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{mir}}$ and $(N-Z)/A$ in nature. Within the droplet model framework, the mass dependence is found to be closely associated with the ratio of the volume and surface symmetry energy coefficients, suggesting that such a mass-dependent $\mathrm{\Delta }{R}_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{mir}}$ versus $(N-Z)/A$ linear relationship could potentially serve as a probe for studying the surface component in nuclear symmetry energy in future.

We determine the temperature fluctuations associated with the Higgs boson $p_T$ spectrum through the derivation of the string tension distribution corresponding to the QCD-based Hagedorn function, frequently used to fit the transverse momentum distribution (TMD). The identified string tension fluctuations are heavy tailed, behaving similarly to the $q$-Gaussian distribution. After the convolution with the Schwinger mechanism, both approaches correctly describe the entire TMD. This approach leads to the nonthermal description of the particle production in ultrarelativistic $pp$ collisions. By analyzing the data of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, we found that the average temperature associated with the Higgs boson differential cross section is around 85 times greater than the estimated value for the charged particle TMD. Our results show that the Higgs boson production exhibits the largest deviation from the thermal description.

The production of superheavy elements (SHE) is confronted with significant experimental difficulties owing to extremely low cross sections for their formation in heavy-ion fusion reactions. Accurate predictions of these cross sections along with the corresponding excitation functions are of the utmost importance for future experiments. Theoretical studies are needed in order to investigate the decay properties of excited SHE. A recent conclusion on the importance of the neck-length parameter [S. Chopra, N. Goel, M. K. Sharma, P. O. Hess, and Hemdeep, Phys. Rev. C 106, L031601 (2022)] within the framework of the dynamical cluster-decay model (DCM) became foundational for this work, which explained the ability of the DCM to predict the decay cross sections in hot fusion reactions. The model is a nonstatistical description for the decay of a compound nucleus (CN). The only parameter of the model is the neck-length parameter, which is related to the total kinetic energy $\mathrm{TKE}\left(T\right)$ or the effective $Q$ value $Q_{\mathrm{eff}}(T$) at the temperature $T$ of the CN. This work shows that the hot fusion reactions ${}^{54}\mathrm{Cr}+{}^{248}\mathrm{Cm}$ and ${}^{50}\mathrm{Ti}+{}^{249}\mathrm{Cf}$, in the decay of $4n$ evaporation channel may be more favorable for the synthesis of the $Z=120$ SHE. After the emission of four neutrons, ${}^{302}120^{*}$ can reach ${}^{298}120$ and this would lead to the formation of ${}^{294}118$ after one $\alpha$ decay. In the same way, ${}^{50}\mathrm{Ti}+{}^{249}\mathrm{Cf}$ can end up at some known nuclei. If this happens, it would be a positive sign for the synthesis of $Z=120$ from one of these two nuclear reactions. The present work calculated the cross sections of all possible decay modes, i.e., evaporation residues, fission, and quasifission for the chosen reactions. In addition, an evaluation for the total or capture cross section is applied, for the case of $Z=120$, without the use of any input of a single experimental data. These predictions may be useful for upcoming experiments.

We present results of simulations of directed flow of various hadrons in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at collision energies of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3$ and 4.5 GeV. Simulations are performed within the model three-fluid dynamics and the event simulator based on it (THESEUS). The results are compared with recent STAR data. The directed flows of various particles provide information on dynamics in various parts and at various stages of the colliding system depending on the particle. However, the information on the equation of state is not always directly accessible because of strong influence of the afterburner stage or insufficient equilibration of the matter. It is found that the crossover scenario gives the best overall description of the data. This crossover equation of state is soft in the hadronic phase. The transition into QGP in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions occurs at collision energies between 3 and 4.5 GeV, at baryon densities $n_B\succsim 4n_0$ and temperatures $\approx 150$ MeV. In-medium effects in the directed flow of (anti)kaons are discussed.

We calculated in nonlinear bosonized theory $1/\overline{N}$ corrections to the Landau Fermi-liquid fixed-point (FLFP) axial-vector coupling constant in nuclear matter $g_A^L\approx 1$ to which the Landau parameter $F_1^{\omega }$ predominantly contributes. We obtain the correction to $F_1^{\omega }$ to calculate the correction $\delta g_A^L$ to the axial-vector coupling constant $g_A^L$ at the nuclear saturation density. It comes out to be extremely small, $\delta g_A^L\sim O\left({10}^{-4}\right)$. We discuss how the dilaton-limit fixed-point (DLFP) result $g_A=1$ can be preserved from finite nuclei to high densities relevant to massive neutron stars and its possible impact on $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay processes involved in going beyond the standard model.

The low-lying level schemes, $E2$ transitional rates, electrical quadrupole moments $Q$, and magnetic dipole moments $\mu$ of odd-mass Te isotopes with mass number from 129–139 are calculated within the framework of the nucleon-pair approximation of the shell model by using the standard multipole-multipole interaction in a large truncated space. Good agreement is obtained between the calculated results and experimental data. The dominant configurations in collective nucleon-pair basis of low-lying yrast states in ${}^{129–133}\mathrm{Te}$ and ${}^{135–139}\mathrm{Te}$ are analyzed in detail. The possible weak-coupling multiplets in these nuclei are probed by investigating the corresponding relative excitation energy, wave function, $E2$ transition rates, electric quadrupole moments $Q$, and magnetic dipole moment $\mu$. $E2$ ground-state transitions of odd-mass nuclei and even-even core are compared, and a similar asymmetry pattern with respect to $N=82$ is obtained. The electromagnetic moments $Q$ and $\mu$ of the $3/2_1^{+}, 11/2_1^{-}$ states in ${}^{129–133}\mathrm{Te}$, and the $7/2_1^{-}$ state in ${}^{135–139}\mathrm{Te}$ are discussed in terms of the overall trend and the contribution of the proton and neutron components.

Motivated by possible industrial fusion applications of spectroscopy of the $\gamma$ rays accompanying $d\text{−}t$ collisions we develop the first model calculations of the minor branching ratio of the $d+t$ reaction, $d+t\to \alpha +n+\gamma$. The model exploits the most relevant physics feature—spin conservation in electric dipole transitions—which leads to a peculiar mechanism of this reaction: $\gamma$ emission via bremsstrahlung from an intermediate $\alpha \text{−}n$ state. We highlight that, as a consequence of the bremsstrahlung, the $\gamma$ spectrum contains nonzero contributions at all energies, thus making inclusive $dt\gamma$ cross section measurements sensitive to the low-energy cutoff of the detected $\gamma$ events. Comparison of our predictions to existing $d+t\to \alpha +n+\gamma$ measurements in accelerators, employing cutoffs of 13 and 14 MeV, and inertial confinement fusion facilities, with a low-limit cutoff of 0.4 to 10 MeV, suggests a possible contradiction between results from these two types of experiments. Our predictions agree well with accelerator measurements and corroborate the cutoff dependence observed in inertial confinement experiments. These predictions are sensitive to the wave function details inside the short-range area of the $\alpha \text{−}n$ interaction, with uncertainty comparable to that of available experimental data, but become model independent below 4–5 MeV. This part of the $\gamma$ spectrum features a previously unexpected rise, which below 0.5 MeV surpasses the main 17-MeV $\gamma$ peak in strength. The reactivity of the $d+t\to \alpha +n+\gamma$ branch was found to be proportional to its cross section. It strongly depends on the $d\text{−}t$ plasma temperature, which opens the possibility of not only total $d+t$ reactivity measurements but also advanced plasma temperature diagnostics.

The amount of light produced by nuclear recoils in scintillating targets is strongly quenched compared to that produced by electrons. A precise understanding of the quenching factor is particularly interesting for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP) searches and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering ($\mathrm{CE}\nu \mathrm{NS}$) measurements since both rely on nuclear recoils, whereas energy calibrations are more readily accessible from electron recoils. There is a wide variation among the current measurements of the quenching factor in sodium iodide (NaI) crystals, especially below 10 keV, the energy region of interest for dark matter and $\mathrm{CE}\nu \mathrm{NS}$ studies. A better understanding of the quenching factor in NaI(Tl) is of particular interest for resolving the decades-old puzzle in the field of dark matter between the null results of most WIMP searches and the claim for dark matter detection by the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration. In this work, we measured sodium and iodine quenching factors for five small NaI(Tl) crystals grown with similar thallium concentrations and growth procedures. Unlike previous experiments, multiple crystals were tested, with measurements made in the same experimental setup to control systematic effects. The quenching factors agree in all crystals we investigated, and both sodium and iodine quenching factors are smaller than those reported by DAMA/LIBRA. The dominant systematic effect was due to the electron equivalent energy calibration originating from the nonproportional behavior of the NaI(Tl) light yield at lower energies, potentially the cause for the discrepancies among the previous measurements.

Elastic scattering off nuclei in target detectors, involving interactions with dark matter and coherent elastic neutrino nuclear recoil $\left(\mathrm{CE}\nu \mathrm{NS}\right)$, results in the deposition of low energy within the nuclei, dissipating rapidly through a combination of heat and ionization. The primary energy loss mechanism for nuclear recoil is heat, leading to consistently smaller measurable scintillation signals compared to electron recoils of the same energy. The nuclear recoil quenching factor (QF), representing the ratio of scintillation light yield produced by nuclear recoil to that of electron recoil at the same energy, is a critical parameter for understanding dark matter and neutrino interactions with nuclei. The low energy QF of NaI(Tl) crystals, commonly employed in dark matter searches and $\mathrm{CE}\nu \mathrm{NS}$ measurements, is of substantial importance. Previous low energy QF measurements were constrained by contamination from photomultiplier tube (PMT)-induced noise, resulting in an observed light yield of approximately 15 photoelectrons per keVee (kilo-electron-volt electron-equivalent energy) and nuclear recoil energy above 5 keVnr (kilo-electron-volt nuclear recoil energy). Through enhanced crystal encapsulation, an increased light yield of around 26 photoelectrons per keVee is achieved. This improvement enables the measurement of the nuclear recoil QF for sodium nuclei at an energy of $3.8\pm 0.6\mathrm{keVnr}$ with a QF of $11.2\pm 1.7\%$. Furthermore, a re-evaluation of previously reported QF results is conducted, incorporating enhancements in low energy events based on waveform simulation. The outcomes are generally consistent with various recent QF measurements for sodium and iodine.

Using three methods, the two-potential approach (TPA), the direct method, and the distorted-wave method, the decay widths of uranium isotopes were calculated. Wider ranges of application of the TPA were checked and independence of the decay width to the separation point, from the prebarrier position to the postbarrier position, was observed. The equivalence of the direct and the distorted-wave methods for spherical nuclei was discussed Simplified versions of the TPA and the direct method were used and satisfactory results for the TPA version and the same results for two forms of the direct method were obtained. By presenting different experimental half-lives with remarkable uncertainties, especially for lighter isotopes, the calculated preformation probabilities using the TPA bound wave function and the TPA decay width were compared and reasonable agreement was observed for favored transitions.

For the search of the chiral magnetic effect (CME), STAR previously presented the results from isobar collisions (${}_{44}{}^{96}\mathrm{Ru}+{}_{44}{}^{96}\mathrm{Ru}, {}_{40}{}^{96}\mathrm{Zr}+{}_{40}{}^{96}\mathrm{Zr}$) obtained through a blind analysis. The ratio of results in $\mathrm{Ru}+\mathrm{Ru}$ to $\mathrm{Zr}+\mathrm{Zr}$ collisions for the CME-sensitive charge-dependent azimuthal correlator ($\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma$), normalized by elliptic anisotropy ($v_2$), was observed to be close to but systematically larger than the inverse multiplicity ratio. The background baseline for the isobar ratio, $Y=\frac{{(\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma /v_2)}^{\text{Ru}}}{{(\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma /v_2)}^{\text{Zr}}}$, is naively expected to be $\frac{{(1/N)}^{\mathrm{Ru}}}{{(1/N)}^{\mathrm{Zr}}}$; however, genuine two- and three-particle correlations are expected to alter it. We estimate the contributions to $Y$ from those correlations, utilizing both the isobar data and hijing simulations. After including those contributions, we arrive at a final background baseline for $Y$, which is consistent with the isobar data. We extract an upper limit for the CME fraction in the $\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma$ measurement of approximately $10\%$ at a $95\%$ confidence level on in isobar collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200\mathrm{GeV}$, with an expected 15% difference in their squared magnetic fields.

The ALICE Collaboration reports measurements of the semi-inclusive distribution of charged-particle jets recoiling from a high transverse momentum (high $p_{\mathrm{T}}$) charged hadron, in $pp$ and central Pb-Pb collisions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV. The large uncorrelated background in central Pb-Pb collisions is corrected using a data-driven statistical approach which enables precise measurement of recoil jet distributions over a broad range in $p_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}$ and jet resolution parameter $R$. Recoil jet yields are reported for $R=0.2$, 0.4, and 0.5 in the range $7<p_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}<140 \mathrm{GeV}/c$ and $\pi /2<\mathrm{\Delta }\phi <\pi$, where $\mathrm{\Delta }\phi$ is the azimuthal angular separation between hadron trigger and recoil jet. The low-$p_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}$ reach of the measurement explores unique phase space for studying jet quenching, the interaction of jets with the quark–gluon plasma generated in high-energy nuclear collisions. Comparison of $p_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}$ distributions from $pp$ and central Pb-Pb collisions probes medium-induced jet energy loss and intra-jet broadening, while comparison of their acoplanarity distributions explores in-medium jet scattering and medium response. The measurements are compared to theoretical calculations incorporating jet quenching.