The fusion excitation function of ${}^{35}\mathrm{Cl}+{}^{130}\mathrm{Te}$ system has been measured in a wide energy range, i.e., $E_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}=94–121.6$ MeV, from sub-barrier to above-barrier energies and compared with the ${}^{37}\mathrm{Cl}+{}^{130}\mathrm{Te}$ system to investigate the role of neutron transfer channels in sub-barrier fusion cross-section enhancement. In comparison, the reduced fusion excitation function of ${}^{35}\mathrm{Cl}+{}^{130}\mathrm{Te}$ system shows a significant enhancement over the ${}^{37}\mathrm{Cl}+{}^{130}\mathrm{Te}$ system at sub-barrier energies. This enhancement is correlated with the presence of six positive $Q$-value neutron transfer channels in the ${}^{35}\mathrm{Cl}+{}^{130}\mathrm{Te}$ system compared to none in the ${}^{37}\mathrm{Cl}+{}^{130}\mathrm{Te}$ system. Aiming to probe how fusion at sub-barrier energies responds to different coupling schemes, the excitation functions of both the systems have been analyzed in the framework of the coupled-channels approach on the same footing. The results and coupled-channels analysis presented in this work hints towards the importance of neutron transfer channels in sub-barrier fusion in addition to the inclusion of inelastic excitations of interacting partners. The findings of this work are discussed in light of the conclusions presented by Kohley et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 202701 (2011)], in which the role of positive $Q$-value neutron transfer channels in sub-barrier fusion was studied.

A method to determine the kinetic freeze-out temperature in heavy-ion collisions from measured yields of short-lived resonances is presented. The resonance production is treated in the framework of a thermal model with an evolution between chemical and kinetic freeze-outs. The yields of many short-lived resonances are suppressed at $T=T_{\mathrm{kin}}<T_{\mathrm{ch}}$. We determine the values of $T_{\mathrm{kin}}$ and $T_{\mathrm{ch}}$ for various centralities in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV by fitting the abundances of both the stable hadrons and the short-lived resonances such as ${\rho }^0$ and ${\text{K}}^{*0}$, which were measured by the ALICE collaboration. This allows us to extract the kinetic freeze-out temperature from the measured hadron and resonance yields alone, independent of assumptions about the flow velocity profile and the freeze-out hypersurface. The extracted $T_{\mathrm{ch}}$ values exhibit a moderate multiplicity dependence whereas $T_{\mathrm{kin}}$ drops, from $T_{\mathrm{kin}}\simeq T_{\mathrm{ch}}\simeq 155\mathrm{MeV}$ in peripheral collisions to $T_{\mathrm{kin}}\simeq 110\mathrm{MeV}$ in 0%–20% central collisions. Predictions for other short-lived resonances are presented. A potential (non-)observation of a suppressed $f_0\left(980\right)$ meson yield will allow us to constrain the lifetime of that meson.

The single-flavor excluded-volume model based on the effective size of baryons reproduces the hard-soft density evolution of the equation of state (EoS) required by the recent studies of GW170817. This phenomenological model basically realizes the concept of quarkyonic matter which is introduced from large-$N_c$ gauge theory for dense matter. Enhanced nucleon interactions and dynamically generated quark degrees of freedom can reproduce the hard-soft evolution of the EoS. In this paper, we extend the excluded-volume model to a three-flavor system by considering electromagnetic charge and possible weak equilibrium in order to obtain a proper description for the hard-soft behavior of the EoS inferred from the gravitational waves observations.

Background: The study of exotic nuclei far from the $\beta$ stability line is stimulated by the development of radioactive ion beam facilities worldwide and brings opportunities and challenges to existing nuclear theories. Including self-consistently the nuclear superfluidity, deformation, and continuum effects, the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum (DRHBc) has turned out to be successful in describing both stable and exotic nuclei. Due to several challenges, however, the DRHBc theory has only been applied to study light nuclei so far.

Purpose: The aim of this work is to develop the DRHBc theory based on the point-coupling density functional and examine its possible application for all even-even nuclei in the nuclear chart by taking Nd isotopes as examples.

Method: The nuclear superfluidity is taken into account via Bogoliubov transformation. Densities and potentials are expanded in terms of Legendre polynomials to include the axial deformation degrees of freedom. Sophisticated relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov equations in coordinate space are solved in a Dirac Woods-Saxon basis to consider the continuum effects.

Results: Numerical convergence for energy cutoff, angular momentum cutoff, Legendre expansion, pairing strength, and (un)constrained calculations are confirmed for the DRHBc theory from light nuclei to heavy nuclei. The ground-state properties of even-even Nd isotopes are calculated with the successful density functional PC-PK1 and compared with the spherical nuclear mass table based on the relativistic continuum Hartree-Bogoliubov (RCHB) theory as well as the available data. The calculated binding energies are in very good agreement with the existing experimental values with a rms deviation of $0.958\mathrm{MeV}$, which is remarkably smaller than $8.301\mathrm{MeV}$ in the spherical case. The predicted proton and neutron drip-line nuclei for Nd isotopes are respectively ${}^{120}\mathrm{Nd}$ and ${}^{214}\mathrm{Nd}$, in contrast with ${}^{126}\mathrm{Nd}$ and ${}^{228}\mathrm{Nd}$ in the RCHB theory. The experimental quadrupole deformations and charge radii are reproduced well. An interesting decoupling between the oblate shape ${\beta }_2=-0.273$ contributed by bound states and the nearly spherical one ${\beta }_2=0.047$ contributed by continuum is found in ${}^{214}\mathrm{Nd}$. Contributions of different single-particle states to the total neutron density are investigated and an exotic neutron skin phenomenon is suggested for ${}^{214}\mathrm{Nd}$. The proton radioactivity beyond the proton drip line is discussed and ${}^{114}\mathrm{Nd}, {}^{116}\mathrm{Nd}$, and ${}^{118}\mathrm{Nd}$ are predicted to be candidates for two-proton or even multiproton radioactivity.

Conclusions: The DRHBc theory based on the point-coupling density functional is developed and detailed numerical checks are performed. The techniques to construct the DRHBc mass table for even-even nuclei are explored and extended for all even-even nuclei in the nuclear chart by taking Nd isotopes as examples. The available experimental data are reproduced well. The deformation and continuum effects on drip-line nuclei, exotic neutron skin, and proton radioactivity are presented.

The neutron capture cross section of ${}^{53}\mathrm{Mn}$ was measured with cold and reactor neutrons by the activation method, relative to the well-known cross section of ${}^{59}\mathrm{Co}$. Three targets containing a total of $\approx {10}^{18}$ atoms ${}^{53}\mathrm{Mn}$ in the form of chloride salt were prepared using a stock solution obtained from activated accelerator waste in the course of the ERAWAST initiative at Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland (PSI). Natural cobalt salt was added to the sample material as an internal neutron flux monitor. The total numbers of ${}^{53}\mathrm{Mn}$ and ${}^{59}\mathrm{Co}$ atoms in the target were deduced via mass spectrometric measurements at PSI. Cold-neutron activation was carried out at the ICON beamline at PSI. Reactor activation was performed at the LVR-15 research reactor of Research Centre Řež in a well-moderated neutron field of an outer reactor channel. The thermal-neutron capture cross section and the resonance integral were determined by the cadmium ratio method. The induced activities of ${}^{54}\mathrm{Mn}$ and ${}^{60}\mathrm{Co}$ were quantified by high-resolution $\gamma$-ray spectrometry. The obtained thermal-neutron capture cross section of $76.5\pm 1.4\mathrm{b}$ agrees well with previously reported results. The uncertainty of this value could be reduced by almost an order of magnitude with respect to older measurements and is on a level comparable to stable nuclides. The resonance integral of $43.1\pm 1.2\mathrm{b}$ was obtained for the real reactor spectrum with epithermal-spectrum shape factor $\alpha =0.025$.

We present the generalization of recently introduced observables for the studies of correlated fluctuations of different anisotropic flow amplitudes, dubbed symmetric cumulants. We introduce a new set of higher order observables and outline a unique way to extract the genuine multiharmonic correlations from multiparticle azimuthal correlators. We argue that correlations among flow amplitudes can be studied reliably with the general mathematical formalism of cumulants only if that formalism is applied directly on the flow amplitudes. We have tested all the desired properties of new observables with the carefully designed toy Monte Carlo studies. By using the realistic iebe-vishnu model, we have demonstrated that their measurements are feasible and we have provided the predictions for the centrality dependence in Pb-Pb collisions at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies. A separate study was performed for their values in the coordinate space. The new observables contain information which is inaccessible to individual flow amplitudes and correlated fluctuations of only two flow amplitudes, and therefore they provide further and independent constraints for the initial conditions and the properties of quark-gluon plasma in high-energy nuclear collisions.

We investigate simultaneous effects of finite system size and global charge conservation on thermal fluctuations in the vicinity of a critical point. For that we consider a finite interacting system, which exchanges particles with a finite reservoir (thermostat), comprising a statistical ensemble that is distinct from the common canonical and grand canonical ensembles. As a particular example the van der Waals model is used. The global charge conservation effects strongly influence the cumulants of particle number distribution when the system size is comparable to that of the reservoir. If the system size is large enough to capture all the physics associated with the interactions, the global charge conservation effects can be accurately described and corrected for analytically, within a recently developed subensemble acceptance method. The finite size effects start to play a significant role when the correlation length grows large due to proximity of the critical point or when the system is small enough to be comparable to an eigenvolume of an individual particle. We discuss our results in the context of fluctuation measurements in heavy-ion collisions.

We present a feasibility study of a simultaneous subpercent extraction of the weak charge and the weak radius of the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ nucleus using parity-violating electron scattering, based on a largely model-independent assessment of the uncertainties. The corresponding measurement is considered to be carried out at the future MESA facility in Mainz with $E_{\mathrm{beam}}=155\mathrm{MeV}$. We find that a combination of a 0.3% precise measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry at forward angles with a 10% measurement at backward angles will allow to determine the weak charge and the weak radius of ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ with 0.4% and 0.5% precision, respectively. These values could be improved to 0.3% and 0.2% for a 3% backward measurement. This experimental program will have impact on precision low-energy tests in the electroweak sector and nuclear structure.

A study of the ground states of the laser-ionized and mass-separated odd-odd isotopes ${}^{180,182}\mathrm{Au}$ was performed using the Resonance Ionization Laser Ion Source, Windmill detection setup and ISOLTRAP Multi-Reflection Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer at ISOLDE, CERN. A complex fine-structure $\alpha$-decay pattern of ${}^{180}\mathrm{Au}$ was deduced, providing insight into the low-lying levels in the daughter nucleus ${}^{176}\mathrm{Ir}$. An $\alpha$-decay branching ratio of $b_{\alpha }\left({}^{180}\mathrm{Au}\right)=0.58\left(10\right)\%$ and a half-life of $T_{1/2}=7.2\left(5\right)$ s have also been derived, allowing for the calculation of the reduced $\alpha$-decay widths and determining the degree of hindrance of respective $\alpha$-decay branches. From complementary first in-source laser spectroscopy measurements of the hyperfine structure in atomic transitions of ${}^{180,182}\mathrm{Au}$, the nuclear magnetic moments of $\mu \left({}^{180}\mathrm{Au}\right)=-0.83\left(9\right){\mu }_N$ and $\mu \left({}^{182}\mathrm{Au}\right)=1.66\left(9\right){\mu }_N$ were extracted with an inclusion of a correction for the hyperfine anomaly. Based on the observed hyperfine structure patterns, and on the comparison of the measured and calculated $\mu$ values, a preferred ground-state spin and parity $I^{\pi }\left({}^{180}\mathrm{Au}^{\mathrm{gs}}\right)=\left(1^{+}\right)$ is proposed, and the earlier assignment of $I^{\pi }\left({}^{182}\mathrm{Au}^{\mathrm{gs}}\right)=\left(2^{+}\right)$ is confirmed. For ${}^{180}\mathrm{Au}$, the most probable proton-neutron Nilsson configuration of $\pi 3/2^{-}\left[532\right]\otimes \nu 5/2^{-}\left[512\right]$ suggests the same proton state as in the heavier deformed odd-odd nuclei ${}^{182,184}\mathrm{Au}$.

The yields of products of multinucleon transfer reaction ${}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}+{}^{248}\mathrm{Cm}$ at energy $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=5.63\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{nucleon}$ around the corresponding Coulomb barrier are analyzed within the dinuclear system model. The calculation results are compared with the experimental data obtained with the separator for heavy-ion reaction products SHIP at GSI. The model describes rather well the experimental production cross sections of isotopes with $N>126$ but deviates from the experimental cross sections for the very neutron-deficient Pa and U isotopes.

We propose a pair-condensate variational approach (PCV) to determine a set of the most important collective pairs in the description of low-lying states in atomic nuclei. Having available the precise details on these key collective pairs—their spin, parity, and structure—can be particularly useful in calculations based on the nucleon-pair approximation (NPA), helping to reduce their uncertainties. In trial calculations for the transitional Ba isotopes, our variational approach describes the evolution of quadrupole-deformation properties similar to Hartree-Fock treatments, while at the same time highlighting the $\gamma$ softness of ${}^{132}\mathrm{Ba}$. Our approach can conclusively determine which collective pairs are critical for obtaining the lowest possible yrast, quasi-$\beta$, quasi-$\gamma$ bands, producing both the level structure of these bands and related B(E2) values in reasonable consistency with experiment. These trial calculations suggest that with our PCV approach the NPA can be meaningfully applied to transitional nuclei with a wide spectrum of shapes. We also show that while neutron negative-parity pairs could in principle have an important impact on backbending in ${}^{132}\mathrm{Ba}$, they are not favored for this nucleus.

Background: The phenomenon of reflection-asymmetric nuclear shapes is relevant to nuclear stability, nuclear spectroscopy, nuclear decays and fission, and the search for new physics beyond the standard model. Global surveys of ground-state octupole deformation, performed with a limited number of models, suggest that the number of pear-shaped isotopes is fairly limited across the nuclear landscape.

Purpose: We carry out a global analysis of ground-state octupole deformations for particle-bound even-even nuclei with $Z\le 110$ and $N\le 210$ using nuclear density functional theory (DFT) with several nonrelativistic and covariant energy density functionals. In this way, we can identify the best candidates for reflection-asymmetric shapes.

Methods: The calculations are performed in the frameworks of axial reflection-asymmetric Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory and relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory using DFT solvers employing harmonic oscillator basis expansion. We consider five Skyrme and four covariant energy density functionals.

Results: We predict several regions of ground-state octupole deformation. In addition to the “traditional” regions of neutron-deficient actinide nuclei around ${}^{224}\mathrm{Ra}$ and neutron-rich lanthanides around ${}^{146}\mathrm{Ba}$, we identified vast regions of reflection-asymmetric shapes in very neutron-rich nuclei around ${}^{200}\mathrm{Gd}$ and ${}^{288}\mathrm{Pu}$, as well as in several nuclei around ${}^{112}\mathrm{Ba}$. Our analysis suggests several promising candidates with stable ground-state octupole deformation, primarily in the neutron-deficient actinide region, that can be reached experimentally. Detailed comparison between Skyrme and covariant models is performed.

Conclusions: Octupole shapes predicted in this study are consistent with the current experimental information. This work can serve as the starting point of a systematic search for parity doublets in odd-mass and odd-odd nuclei, which will be of interest in the context of new physics searches.

A reflection-asymmetric triaxial particle rotor model with three quasiparticles and a reflection-asymmetric triaxial rotor is developed, and applied to investigate the observed multiple chiral doublets $\left(\mathrm{M}\chi \mathrm{D}\right)$ candidates with octupole correlations in ${}^{131}\mathrm{Ba}$, i.e., two pairs of positive-parity bands D3-D4 and D5-D6, as well as one pair of negative-parity bands D7-D8. The energy spectra, the energy staggering parameters, the $B\left(M1\right)/B\left(E2\right)$ ratios, and the $B\left(E1\right)/B\left(E2\right)$ ratios are reproduced well. The chiral geometries for these $\mathrm{M}\chi \mathrm{D}$ candidates are examined by the azimuthal plots, and the evolution of chiral geometry with spin is clearly demonstrated. The intrinsic structure for the positive-parity bands is analyzed and the possible pseudospin-chiral quartet bands are suggested.

The scattering of electrons on carbon, calcium, and argon targets are analyzed using an approach that incorporates the contributions to the electromagnetic response functions from the quasielastic (QE), inelastic processes, and two-particle and two-hole meson exchange current ($2\mathrm{p}-2\mathrm{h}$ MEC). This approach describes well the whole energy spectrum of data at very different kinematics. It is shown that the accuracy of the $(e,e^{\prime })$ cross-section calculations in the region between the QE and $\delta$-resonance peaks, where the $2\mathrm{p}-2\mathrm{h}$ MEC contribution reaches its maximum value, depends on the momentum transfer $\left|\mathit{q}\right|$ and at $\left|\mathit{q}\right|>500$ MeV the calculated and measured cross sections are in agreement within the experimental uncertainties.

Proton- and neutron-induced nonelastic cross sections for ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}, {}^{27}\mathrm{Al}, {}^{56}\mathrm{Fe}$, and ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ are investigated in the low-energy region from 100 MeV down to nearly 0 MeV based on a framework of the extended intranuclear cascade (INC) model. It is shown that the present INC model can reproduce the experimental data both for the proton- and for the neutron-induced nonelastic cross sections of a wide range of targets in a systematic way and that the crucial point is to include the suppressed transition probability of the excited particles due to the discrete level constraint. On the basis of the reliability of the INC calculation, we analyze two effects of the discrete level constraint and Coulomb repulsion separately for the proton and for the neutron injection cases, and we elucidate the domain of the target mass and the incident energy where two effects play important roles.

Kinetic-energy spectra and angular distributions of the projectile-like fragments were measured in ${}^{12,13}\mathrm{C}+{}^{93}\mathrm{Nb}$ reactions at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=65\mathrm{MeV}$ to investigate the reaction mechanisms involving the role of projectile and target structures. It has been observed that one-nucleon pick-up reactions lead to the formation of target-like fragments predominantly in the ground state, whereas nucleon transfer to the target occurs predominantly in the excited states for both ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{93}\mathrm{Nb}$ and ${}^{13}\mathrm{C}+{}^{93}\mathrm{Nb}$ reactions. In the case of ${}^{93}\mathrm{Nb}({}^{12}\mathrm{C}, {}^{15}\mathrm{N}){}^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$ reactions, a significant yield was observed for ${}^{15}\mathrm{N}$ (“$1p+2n$” pick-up) indicating the role of the $N=50$ shell in ${}^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$. Observation of a systematic increase in the forward peaking of the angular distributions of projectile-like fragments with an increasing number of nucleon transfers indicates an increase in the projectile-target overlap with increasing mass transfer. Angular distributions for inelastic scattering as well as transfer channels populating various states of projectile-like fragments and/or target-like fragments were calculated simultaneously by using the coupled reaction channels code fresco and were in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. New (modified) spectroscopic amplitudes have been proposed for some of the unknown (known) overlapping states for calculating transfer cross sections. In the case of ${}^{13}\mathrm{C}+{}^{93}\mathrm{Nb}$, the transfer channels corresponding to “$2n$” and “$1p+1n$” pick-up channels were not observed. This may be due to the higher N/Z ratio of the projectile, highlighting the importance of projectile structure in addition to that of the target.

Microscopic optical-model potentials evaluated by two methods in a nuclear matter approach, namely a $G$-matrix folding method and an improved local-density approximation (LDA) method, are compared. The real parts agree well and show good correspondence to a phenomenological Woods-Saxon potential when second-order contributions are taken into account. On the other hand, the resemblance is not so good in an imaginary part. The reason for the similarity in the real part of the two methods is examined. The improved LDA, which requires less numerical effort, is useful to apply in other cases such as hyperon potentials.

Heavy flavor probes provide important information about the in-medium properties of the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions. In this work, we investigate the effects of $2\text{D}+1$ event-by-event fluctuating hydrodynamic backgrounds on the nuclear suppression factor and momentum anisotropies of heavy flavor mesons and nonphotonic electrons. Using the state-of-the-art $D$ and $B$ mesons modular simulation code (called “DAB-MOD”), we perform a systematic comparison of different transport equations in the same background, including a few energy-loss models—with and without energy-loss fluctuations—and a relativistic Langevin model with different drag parametrizations. We present the resulting $D$ and $B$ mesons $R_{AA}$, $v_2$, $v_3$, and $v_4$ as well as multiparticle cumulants, in $\text{AuAu}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200\mathrm{GeV}$ and $\text{PbPb}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76\mathrm{TeV}$ and $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$, and compare them to the available experimental data. The $v_2\left\{4\right\}/v_2\left\{2\right\}$ ratio, which is known to be a powerful probe of the initial conditions and flow fluctuations in the soft sector, is also studied in the context of heavy flavor. We also investigate the correlations between the transverse anisotropies of heavy mesons and all charged particles to better understand how heavy quarks couple to the hydrodynamically expanding quark-gluon plasma. We study the influence that different initial conditions and the implementation of heavy-light quark coalescence has on our results.

In this work, we investigate the production of nucleon resonances in the $\gamma p\to \varphi {\eta }^{\prime }p$ reaction within an effective Lagrangian approach and isobar model. We first discuss the possible roles of the $N\left(1895\right)$, $N\left(1900\right)$, $N\left(2100\right)$, and $N\left(2120\right)$ productions in this reaction. By considering the $\pi$, $\eta$, and ${\eta }^{\prime }$ exchanges between the initial $\gamma$ and proton, we find that the excitation of the $N\left(1895\right)$ in the intermediate state gives the most important contribution near the threshold. The dominant role of the $N\left(1895\right)$ is mainly attributed to its large coupling to the $N\eta$ and $N{\eta }^{\prime }$ channels. Additionally, we also discuss the possibility of looking for a new nucleon resonance proposed in some recent works. We find that if this resonance indeed exists it should also show signals in the present reaction. Thus the present reaction offers the opportunities to study the properties of the $N\left(1895\right)$ and test the existence of the proposed new nucleon resonance.