We present a detailed comparison of fusion in ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{40,48}\mathrm{Ca}$ within a fully microscopic time-dependent Hartree-Fock framework over sub-, near-, and above-barrier energies. While ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ fusion cross sections are reproduced within the available experimental energy range, calculations for the neutron-rich ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ system systematically overestimate the measured near-barrier cross sections. The discrepancy persists across the tested energy density functionals, indicating that it is not tied to a particular parametrization. Analysis of the dynamical interaction potentials reveals an outward shift and softening of the barrier region at the lowest collision energies. These results are then compared to a frozen density description where the barrier modifications are absent and the predicted cross sections are brought closer to experiment. This demonstrates that the observed discrepancy is closely linked to dynamical surface rearrangement and isovector effects, and highlights the sensitivity of low-energy fusion to both the structure and dynamics of neutron-rich nuclei. This suggests that limitations in the isovector sector of conventional Skyrme EDFs in describing the structure of ${}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$, as highlighted by CREX, are also manifested in the fusion dynamics of the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ system.

The nuclei with 50 neutrons that lie between ${}^{78}\mathrm{Ni}$ and ${}^{100}\mathrm{Sn}$ have provided benchmark studies of the nuclear shell model for protons in the $\{0f_{5/2},1p_{3/2},1p_{1/2},0g_{9/2}\}$ model space. New Hamiltonians for this model space have recently been obtained based on valence-space in-medium renormalization-group (VS-IMSRG) methods with two- and three-nucleon interactions. The two-body matrix elements obtained from these ab initio methods served as the starting point for singular value decomposition (SVD) method fits of the TBME to experimental binding energies and excitation energies, resulting in Hamiltonians called p35-i2, p35-i3, and p30-i3. In this paper, magnetic moments, quadrupole moments, $B\left(M1\right)$ and $B\left(E2\right)$ values obtained with these Hamiltonians are presented and compared with experiment. Results obtained from various Hamiltonians are compared to assess the theoretical uncertainties.

Measurements of the ${}^1\mathrm{H}({}^{11}\mathrm{Li},{}^9\mathrm{Li}){}^3\mathrm{H}$ reaction at 6 MeV per nucleon yield differential cross sections for transitions to the ${}^9\mathrm{Li}$ ground and 2.69 and 4.30 MeV excited states. The transition to the 4.30 MeV $(5/2^{-})$ state is observed for the first time in this reaction. Coupled-reaction-channel calculations employing the São Paulo potential and shell-model spectroscopic amplitudes reasonably reproduce the measured angular distributions in magnitude. The agreement highlights the sensitivity of the two-neutron transfer process to the extended matter density distribution and correlated valence neutrons of the halo nucleus ${}^{11}\mathrm{Li}$. Direct two-neutron transfer dominates over sequential mechanisms, underscoring the correlation of the neutrons outside the ${}^9\mathrm{Li}$ core. The results place stringent quantitative constraints on theoretical descriptions of pairing correlations and continuum coupling in weakly bound nuclei.

The properties of neutron-deficient isotopes far from the $\beta$-stability line are crucial for exploring the position of the proton drip line and shell evolution. Nuclei in the vicinity of the doubly magic nucleus ${}^{100}\mathrm{Sn}$ provide a potential access to explore nuclear structure properties. In this work, the temperature dependence of shell corrections on the potential energy surface is incorporated into the dinuclear system (DNS) model. It is observed that the production cross sections of isotopes with $Z=40–54$ in the multinucleon transfer (MNT) reaction ${}^{64}\mathrm{Ni}+{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ are significantly improved, showing better agreement with the experimental data. The production cross sections for isotopes with $Z=46–54$ are calculated using the DNS model, and calculated values are compared with cross sections measured in the laboratories via projectile fragmentation and fusion reactions. The results indicate that MNT reaction is suggested as an available approach for producing new neutron-deficient nuclei near ${}^{100}\mathrm{Sn}$. Furthermore, the cross sections for producing $Z=50–54$ isotopes in the ${}^{58}\mathrm{Ni}+{}^{106}\mathrm{Cd}$, ${}^{56}\mathrm{Ni}+{}^{106}\mathrm{Cd}$, and ${}^{56}\mathrm{Ni}+{}^{112}\mathrm{Sn}$ reactions are also calculated. The effects of the neutron-to-proton ratio $(N/Z)$ in both the projectile and target nuclei, the incident energy, and the shell effects on the production cross sections of new isotopes are investigated as well. It is found that the reaction ${}^{56}\mathrm{Ni}+{}^{106}\mathrm{Cd}$ at an incident energy of $E_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}=232\text{MeV}$ is more favorable for producing neutron-deficient isotopes with $Z=50–54$.

Exceptional points (EPs) are non-Hermitian degeneracies at which two eigenvalues and their eigenvectors coalesce, producing a defective Hamiltonian and a double pole of the $S$-matrix. Using the coupled-channel Gamow shell model with the $\ell =1$ spin-orbit strengths as control parameters, we locate and characterize EPs in ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$, ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$, ${}^7\mathrm{Be}$, and ${}^8\mathrm{Be}$, and we analyze their imprint on energies, widths, phase rigidity, spectroscopic factors, elastic cross sections, survival probabilities, and spectral functions. The signatures of the EP in scattering and time-domain observables are found to be strongly channel-dependent, and threshold effects play a decisive role in determining the accessibility of the EP in parameter space.

I study nonequilibrium cascades in which fragile bound or coherent structures are formed through intermediate states rather than by direct equilibration. Motivated by light-nuclei production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and by Bose-Einstein condensation in cosmological settings, I analyze such processes within the Schwinger-Keldysh real-time formalism. I show that commonly used rate equations can be understood as a controlled Markovian approximation obtained by integrating out intermediate reservoirs in an underlying multicomponent nonequilibrium dynamics. When the finite lifetime of these reservoirs is retained, non-Markovian memory effects naturally appear, leading to delayed and history-dependent formation dynamics. The associated memory time provides a quantitative criterion for the validity of reduced, rate-based descriptions far from equilibrium. Applying this framework to light-nuclei formation mediated by $\mathrm{\Delta }$ resonances and to condensate formation with localized intermediate structures, I show that equilibrium-like final yields arise as a consequence of finite-lifetime intermediate reservoirs and memory effects, rather than from genuine thermal equilibration.

To consider the dynamic octupole correlations in odd-mass nuclei, an angular-momentum-dependent octupole-vibration core is incorporated into the octupole core-quasiparticle coupling model, and the structure of ${}^{233}\mathrm{Th}$ is studied as a representative example. The calculated positive- and negative-parity bands for both ${}^{233}\mathrm{Th}$ and its core ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ are in good agreement with experimental data, revealing a transition from octupole vibration to static octupole deformation, and confirming the necessity of including the octupole vibration. The electromagnetic transition and probability distributions of spherical single-particle orbitals and core states further elucidate the evolution characteristics of the configuration. This work establishes an effective theoretical approach for studying octupole vibration in odd-mass nuclei.

Neutron-rich nuclei in the region of $Z\approx 28$ and $N\approx 40$ demonstrate a noticeable departure from traditional mean-field nuclear properties through shell evolution effects, display variations in deformation and shape coexistence, and may fall along astrophysical neutron-capture nucleosynthesis pathways. Spectroscopic data on these isotopes provide insight into open questions in low-energy nuclear science, and are becoming more readily available at modern radioactive ion beam facilities. We present the study of the ${}^{71}\mathrm{Fe}\to {}^{71}\mathrm{Co} \beta$ decay, performed using the technique of total absorption spectroscopy. Extracted $\beta$-strength distributions are compared to shell-model calculations to interpret the structure of low-lying levels in ${}^{71}\mathrm{Co}$ and indicate the possibility of shape coexistence. The calculations underestimate the amount of feeding observed at higher excitation energies (and particularly above the neutron separation energy), similarly to some neighboring nuclei in which $\beta$-delayed neutron emission and $\gamma$ decay have been observed to compete. This effect could exert influence on the $\beta$-delayed neutron probability and thus the progression of r-process nucleosynthesis, which is sensitive to such properties.

Nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) is a coupled nuclear-atomic process by which the capture of an electron by an ion into an atomic vacancy results in the excitation of the corresponding nucleus into a higher excited state. To date, there has been only one experimental result, for the nucleus ${}^{93}\mathrm{Mo}$, where a signal indicative of NEEC has been reported. Additional experimental data are vital to provide a testbed for developing theoretical NEEC models to aid in better understanding this phenomenon. In this work, a second NEEC candidate, ${}^{127}\mathrm{Cs}$, was explored using a methodology similar to that in the prior ${}^{93}\mathrm{Mo}$ study. Highly stripped ions of ${}^{127}\mathrm{Cs}$ in its 53.3-$\mu \mathrm{s}$ isomeric state were produced in ${}^9\mathrm{Be}({}^{123}\mathrm{Sb},5n)$ reactions and implanted into target foils. NEEC-signature $\gamma$-ray coincidences were sought using the Digital Gammasphere spectrometer. Although a signature was not observed, upper limits on the NEEC probability were established: 0.17% for implantation into a layered ${}^{27}\mathrm{Al}/{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ target and 0.27% for a single ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ foil. Theory predicts a yield well below these levels; while the results for ${}^{127}\mathrm{Cs}$ are thus consistent, they ultimately do not provide an explanation that helps resolve the underlying discrepancy between theory and experiment for ${}^{93}\mathrm{Mo}$.

Background: The behavior of fusion excitation functions at deep sub-barrier energies for light systems relevant for astrophysics (e.g., ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{12}\mathrm{C}, {}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{16}\mathrm{O}, {}^{16}\mathrm{O} + {}^{16}\mathrm{O}$) is far from being clearly established. This is due to differences between the many data sets, and to the appearance of strong resonance peaks in some cases, as far as the existence and features of fusion hindrance are concerned.

Purpose: To investigate the existence and the threshold of hindrance in the system ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{19}\mathrm{F}$, where $Q_{\mathrm{fus}}$ = $+22.95$ MeV, so to clarify the underlying physics by comparing with coupled-channels calculations, and to reliably extrapolate the results to cases of astrophysical relevance such as ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ and ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{16}\mathrm{O}$.

Methods: ${}^{19}\mathrm{F}$ beams from the XTU Tandem accelerator of LNL were sent onto thin ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ targets isotopically enriched to $99.9\%$. The electrostatic beam deflector PISOLO separated the fusion-evaporation residues ER from beam-like particles. Then a $E\text{−}\mathrm{\Delta }E$-time of flight telescope detected and identified the ER.

Results: The fusion cross sections of ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{19}\mathrm{F}$ have been measured down to $\approx 76\mu \mathrm{b}$. The logarithmic derivative of the energy-weighted excitation function increases at the lowest energies and reaches the $L_{CS}$ value. Coupled-channels calculations predict significantly lower values, indicating that the hindrance phenomenon shows up in this system. The low-energy cross sections have been fitted using a recently proposed approach.

Conclusions: We compare the low-energy trend of ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{19}\mathrm{F}$ with nearby and medium-light systems, using Jiang's phenomenological systematics of the hindrance thresholds, updated with the present data and the behavior of the recent results for ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{24,26}\mathrm{Mg}, {}^{28,30}\mathrm{Si}$, and ${}^{16}\mathrm{O} + {}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$. Overall, we observe that the fit to the measured data, including ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{19}\mathrm{F}$ and those systems, leads to an extrapolation to the lighter cases, very close to that obtained from the hindrance model. This is especially true for ${}^{12}\mathrm{C} + {}^{12}\mathrm{C}$, where the several low-energy resonances cause the direct observation of hindrance to be quite challenging.

This investigation compares nonrelativistic and relativistic nucleon-nucleon potentials in the context of proton-deuteron scattering. Conventional NN potentials (e.g., CDBonn, AV18, Nijmegen) rely on the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation, whereas the Kharkiv potential is intrinsically relativistic. We employ the Coester-Pieper-Serduke (CPS) and Kamada-Glöckle (KG) conversion methods to construct a phenomenological-relativistic potential (PRP) from a realistic NN potential, preserving the deuteron binding energy and phase shifts. Focusing on relativistic effects and not including Coulomb forces to avoid complexity, the solutions are compared by solving relativistic and nonrelativistic Faddeev equations. Calculations of the differential cross section using the relativistic Faddeev equation show that relativistic effects—particularly the deviation at the backward angle—become pronounced at $135\text{MeV}$. The differences in the forward angle were attributed to the characteristics of the Kharkiv potential itself. The reverse transformation of the Kharkiv potential into a pseudononrelativistic potential (PNRP) confirms that the backward-angle relativistic effect increases with energy in the range from $100\text{MeV}$ to $400\text{MeV}$. Comparisons of the polarization observables indicate that relativistic effects, as well as the discrepancy between the CPS and KG transformations, become significant above $300\text{MeV}$. However, for polarization observations below $300\text{MeV}$, the nonrelativistic results from PNRP do not deviate significantly from relativistic calculations.

Within the interacting boson model (IBM), a geometric analysis of transitional nuclei is carried out through angular momentum projection of the intrinsic coherent state. The results indicate that $K$-mixing effects in the calculations are typically negligible, validating the use of $K$-fixed projection for semiclassical analyses of the spin dependence of quadrupole deformation in the IBM. Further analysis indicates that in a rotating transitional system, quadrupole deformation is stretched with increasing angular momentum, providing a geometrically intuitive perspective on the commonly observed Jacobi-type transitions, as exemplified by the case studies of ${}^{160}\mathrm{Gd}$ and ${}^{162}\mathrm{Dy}$. The method is additionally applied to the yrast states of ${}^{170}\mathrm{Os}$ to probe quadrupole deformation changes linked to the observed low-spin $B\left(E2\right)$ anomaly behavior, demonstrating the capability of IBM-based angular momentum projection in interpreting exotic collective phenomena.

An efficient emulator for ab initio calculations of nuclear ground-state properties is developed by integrating the neural-network variational Monte Carlo framework, FeynmanNet, with the eigenvector continuation. It enables the calculation of observables for different Hamiltonians with minimal computational cost, while delivering ground-state energies with errors below $0.5\%$ compared to the full FeynmanNet results. With this emulator, the ground-state energies and charge radii of ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$, ${}^{15}\mathrm{O}$, ${}^{14}\mathrm{O}$, ${}^{15}\mathrm{N}$, and ${}^{14}\mathrm{C}$ are computed using a nuclear Hamiltonian derived from the leading-order pionless effective field theory, with a large number of different values of low-energy constants (LECs). Then, we perform a global sensitivity analysis of the ground-state energies, charge radii, separation energies of selected nuclei for the three LECs in the Hamiltonian, to identify how each LEC contributes to the variances of these observables. It shows that the two-body LEC in the ${}^3{S}_1$ channel is the most influential LEC governing these nuclear bulk properties. Finally, the correlations among the ground-state energies of ${}^4\mathrm{He}$, ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$, and ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ are investigated by varying the LECs in the Hamiltonian. The analysis reveals that the experimental ground-state energies of ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ and ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ cannot be reproduced simultaneously by varying the LECs in the leading-order pionless Hamiltonian. This suggests that additional ingredients in the leading-order Hamiltonian are required to improve its description of light nuclei. The present work establishes an efficient framework for global sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification in the quantum Monte Carlo calculations for light and medium-mass nuclei.

The very neutron-deficient ${}^{115}\mathrm{I}$ nucleus has been studied using the ${}^{58}\mathrm{Ni}({}^{64}\mathrm{Zn},$ $1\alpha 3\mathrm{p})$ reaction and JUROGAM 3 $\gamma$-ray detector array coupled to the MARA recoil-mass separator. The previously known bands have been largely revised and have been extended to high spin by five newly identified rotational bands. Many other levels and transitions have been identified both at low and high spin. A set of nine rotational bands with well-established spins and parities are analyzed. One important result is the observation of the terminating state in one of the bands. Five bands start at low spin and are assigned to the single-particle proton orbitals $d_{5/2}$, $g_{7/2}$, $g_{9/2}$, and $h_{11/2}$, which are close to the $Z=53$ Fermi surface for deformations around ${\varepsilon }_2=0.2–0.3$. Particle number conserving cranked shell-model calculations have been performed to investigate the evolution of the observed bands at high spin, and have been compared to the cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations, revealing differences in the predicted configurations and nature of the observed crossings in some of the bands.

Proton radioactivity provides a sensitive probe of single-particle structure beyond the proton drip line, but global half-life descriptions are often limited by the approximate treatment of nuclear-structure effects. We find that introducing an $E_{\mathrm{mic}}$-dependent proton preformation factor within the transfer-matrix method (TMM) markedly improves the agreement with experiment and substantially reduces the sensitivity to the adopted proton-daughter potential. We perform a systematic TMM study of 45 established proton emitters from I to Bi using three representative interaction potentials, namely the Woods-Saxon (WS), cosh-type (Cosh), and Guo2013 proximity (Prox) forms. Starting from baseline calculations with $S_p=1$, we extract proton preformation factors nucleus by nucleus and, for each fixed-$l$ group, establish a linear correlation between ${log}_{10}{S}_p$ and the microscopic mass correction $E_{\mathrm{mic}}$, with uncertainties of the fitted coefficients estimated by Monte Carlo resampling. After including the resulting preformation factors, the root-mean-square (RMS) deviations in ${log}_{10}{T}_{1/2}$ are reduced from 1.088, 1.059, and 0.944 to 0.353, 0.352, and 0.343 for the WS, Cosh, and Prox potentials, respectively, while the three calculations converge to a common modified Geiger-Nuttall trend. We further predict proton preformation factors and partial half-lives for six candidate proton emitters with energetically allowed or experimentally indicated proton emission, providing quantitative benchmarks for future measurements and microscopic studies of proton radioactivity.

Neutron knockout reactions on beams of ${}^{104,102}\mathrm{Cd}$ and ${}^{104}\mathrm{Sn}$ are presented. States in the residual ${}^{103,101}\mathrm{Cd}$ and ${}^{103}\mathrm{Sn}$ nuclei are populated, including low-lying $7/2^{+}$ states of $\nu g_{7/2}$ character. These states have half-lives $\approx 400$ ps due to their low energy and hindered $B(M1;7/2^{+}\to 5/2^{+})$ strengths. The excited-state half-lives were measured using their Doppler-shifted line shapes, and the resulting $B\left(M1\right)$ strengths are compared to valence space in medium similarity renormalization group (VS-IMSRG) calculations. The VS-IMSRG calculations underpredict the $l$-forbidden $M1$ strengths in the ${}^{100}\mathrm{Sn}$ region, as well as in other regions of the nuclear chart near ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ and ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$.

We present coupled-channel Gamow shell model (GSM-CC) calculations of the ${}^{13}\mathrm{O}$($p,p$) and ${}^{14}\mathrm{O}$($p,p$) elastic-scattering reactions in the $\mathrm{core}+\mathrm{valence}$ nucleon picture. Within this unified framework, we investigate the structural and scattering properties of the proton-unbound nuclei ${}^{14}\mathrm{F}$ and ${}^{15}\mathrm{F}$. GSM-CC reproduces the ground-state separation energies and describes the low-lying spectra and decay widths of ${}^{14}\mathrm{F}$ ($2_1^{-}, 1^{-}, 3^{-}, 2_2^{-}, 4^{-}$) and ${}^{15}\mathrm{F}$ ($1/2^{+}, 5/2^{+}$) nuclear states. For ${}^{15}\mathrm{F}$, phase shifts and spectroscopic factors in the $1/2^{+}$ and $5/2^{+}$ channels are analyzed to identify the dominant configurations. The calculated ${}^{14}\mathrm{O}$($p,p$) excitation functions at several ${\theta }_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}$ angles agree with available experimental data, thereby providing a benchmark for the reaction framework. We then provide GSM-CC calculations and predictions related to the ${}^{13}\mathrm{O}$($p,p$) elastic scattering reaction and characterize the five lowest resonances in ${}^{14}\mathrm{F}$ in terms of their energies, widths, and spectroscopic factors. Notably, and consistently with other theoretical studies, GSM-CC predicts an excited $2_2^{-}$ resonance contributing to the ${}^{13}\mathrm{O}$($p,p$) excitation function at higher energy, which was not identified in the previous experimental measurement. Comparison with the GSM structure calculations reflects the enhanced coupling provided by the configuration mixing present in the GSM-CC framework.

High-spin states in ${}^{60}\mathrm{Cu}$ are investigated on the basis of reaction-channel-selected $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy. Data stem from three experiments that used the same fusion-evaporation reaction at similar beam energies. The Gammasphere $\gamma$-ray spectrometer was combined with the Microball CsI(Tl) detector array and sets of liquid-scintillator neutron detectors which allowed us to identify and tag on evaporated light charged particles and neutrons, respectively. A level scheme is proposed which comprises more than 300 $\gamma$-ray transitions connecting more than 100 excited states. Predictions from cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations describe the observed high-spin collective structures in ${}^{60}\mathrm{Cu}$. Predictions of shell-model calculations are probed with a suite of low- to medium-spin states of both parities. Taking into account isospin-symmetry-breaking terms in these calculations, a case study of the yrast line of the weakly bound mirror nucleus ${}^{60}\mathrm{Ga}$ is presented.

(Multi-)strange particle production rates and transverse momentum distributions are measured at midrapidity $\left(\right|y|<0.5)$ as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity density by the ALICE experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), using proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV. This study extends similar studies performed at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV to a lower-energy regime, improving the statistical precision and extending the measurement to previously unexplored low-multiplicity regions. While ${\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{S}}^0$, $\mathrm{\Lambda }$, and $\mathrm{\Xi }$ yields can be described with a linear multiplicity dependence within uncertainties, the $\mathrm{\Omega }$ yields follow a significantly faster than linear increasing trend. For all analyzed particles, the overall production rate is consistent with that observed at higher energy and at similar multiplicity densities. Transverse momentum distributions are observed to evolve with multiplicity. Several state-of-the-art QCD-inspired Monte Carlo models have been compared with the data, testing some recently introduced features to address the findings at higher energies. Models can qualitatively describe the transverse momentum spectra and the $\mathrm{\Lambda }/{\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{S}}^0$ spectral ratio only if collectivity is introduced in the evolution of the system.