As a part of a general program to evaluate production routes for ${}^{229}\mathrm{Th}$, we studied production of ${}^{229}\mathrm{Th}$ via proton-induced reactions on ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ targets bombarded with low-energy protons, $E_{\mathrm{p}}\le 40\mathrm{MeV}$. The reported excitation functions include those for proton-induced reactions on natural thorium yielding to ${}^{228,229,230\&232}\mathrm{Pa}$ isotopes; ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$(p,xn) reactions, where $x=1$, 3, 4, and 5, at proton energy ranges of 12–40 MeV. Although the data for ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,n){}^{228}\mathrm{Pa}$, ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,3n){}^{230}\mathrm{Pa}$, and ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,5n){}^{232}\mathrm{Pa}$ reactions were deduced by direct analysis of the thorium foils after irradiation, the data for ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,4n){}^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ were obtained by radiochemical techniques. The half-life of ${}^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ was evaluated and determined to be 1.55 ± 0.01 d. Further, the α-branching ratio, α/(α + EC) of ${}^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ was evaluated to be 0.53 ± 0.10% by allowing ${}^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ to decay for $\sim 7\mathrm{d}$, then chemically extracting and quantifying the ${}^{225}\mathrm{Ac}$ ($t_{1/2}=10.0\pm 0.1\mathrm{d}$) from ${}^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ samples. In addition, we report the effective production cross section of ${}^{229}\mathrm{Th}$ in a thick ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ target in the proton energy range of 23–33 MeV. The peak of the excitation function for the ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,4n){}^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ reaction occurs at 162 ± 14 mb and $E_p=29.7\pm 0.5\mathrm{MeV}$. This is only slightly larger than the effective cross section for the ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,x){}^{229}\mathrm{Th}$ reaction (obtained from a thick target experiment). This data indicates that the ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,4n){}^{229}\mathrm{Pa}$ reaction is the major reaction pathway for the cumulative ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}(p,x){}^{229}\mathrm{Th}$ reaction cross section in this energy range. The measured cross sections were compared with theoretical cross sections using the simulation codes Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS) and Monte Carlo Neutral Particle 6 (MCNP6). At proton energy ranges of 12–33 MeV, the cumulative excitation function predicted by PHITS for the reactions leading to ${}^{229}\mathrm{Th}$ was in close agreement with the experimental function, whereas the function predicted by MCNP6 was a factor of two higher at the peak of the excitation function.

The excited states of the ${}^{199}\mathrm{Tl}$ nucleus have been studied by using the light ion induced fusion evaporation reaction ${}^{197}\mathrm{Au}(\alpha ,2n){}^{199}\mathrm{Tl}$ at 30 MeV of beam energy by $\gamma$-ray spectroscopic methods. VECC Array for NUclear Spectroscopy (VENUS) has been used to detect the prompt $\gamma$ rays. Level scheme of ${}^{199}\mathrm{Tl}$ has been significantly improved and extended with the placement of 53 new transitions. The yrast $\pi h_{9/2}$ band has been extended in this nucleus beyond the band crossing. Several new near- and non-yrast band structures have also been identified. It has been observed that in case of the three-quasiparticle structures, a different configuration involving negative parity neutron orbitals becomes yrast for heavier Tl isotopes with $N\ge 118$ in contrast to the involvement of the neutron $i_{13/2}$ orbital for lighter Tl isotopes. It was possible to identify both the yrast and the non-yrast states corresponding to these configurations in the present work. The observed band structures have been interpreted in light of the systematics of the neighboring odd mass Thallium nuclei. Total Routhian surface calculations have been performed to study the deformation and shape changes as a function of rotational frequency in this nucleus.

Background: Use of deuteron-induced spallation reactions at intermediate energies was recently proposed for transmutation of several long-lived fission products (LLFPs). In the design study of a transmutation system using a deuteron primary beam, accurate cross section data of deuteron-induced reactions on the LLFPs are indispensable. Reliable model predictions play an important role in completing the necessary cross section data since currently available experimental data are very limited. Under the circumstances, we have been developing a code system dedicated for deuteron-induced reactions, which is called DEURACS.

Purpose: Aiming to predict the production cross sections of residual nuclei, the purpose of the present work is to clarify the role of deuteron breakup processes in deuteron-induced spallation reactions at intermediate energies.

Methods: Isotopic production cross sections of residual nuclei in the deuteron-induced reactions on ${}^{93}\mathrm{Zr}$ and ${}^{107}\mathrm{Pd}$ at 100–200 MeV/nucleon are analyzed using DEURACS, in which the breakup processes are explicitly taken into account. The calculated cross sections are decomposed into individual components corresponding to the absorption of either neutron or proton in the incident deuteron, or the deuteron itself.

Results: The calculated cross sections reproduced the experimental data well over a wide mass number range of residual nuclei. From a component-by-component analysis, it was found that the components of nucleon absorption make the significant contributions to the production of residual nuclei.

Conclusions: Consideration of the breakup processes is essential to predict the production cross sections of residual nuclei in deuteron-induced reactions. The framework of DEURACS is applicable to deuteron-induced spallation reactions at intermediate energies.

Cluster-core hybrid potentials with Woods-Saxon plus cubic terms have been constructed to account for both the decay properties and positive-parity ground-state bands in ${}^{212}\mathrm{Po}, {}^{218}\mathrm{Rn}, {}^{222}\mathrm{Ra}$, and ${}^{228}\mathrm{Th}$. The hybrid potential parameters have been extracted from the real part of the double-folding interaction using the realistic Michigan-3-Yukawa (M3Y) and a complex Gaussian effective interactions. We find that both the effective interactions exhibit similar behavior in the internal region, and the agreement between our estimated results with the existing experimental data is satisfactory.

The nuclear structure of ${}^{112}\mathrm{Cd}$ has been investigated with the ${}^{111}\mathrm{Cd}(\vec{d},p){}^{112}\mathrm{Cd}$ reaction. Isotopically enriched targets of ${}^{111}\mathrm{Cd}$ were bombarded with 22 MeV polarized deuterons, and reaction products were analyzed with a magnetic spectrograph. Angular distributions and analyzing powers were determined for 129 states, 49 of which are newly observed, up to approximately 4.2 MeV in excitation energy. The observed angular distributions were compared with distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) and adiabatic distorted wave approximation (ADWA) calculations to extract the spectroscopic factors. Two-quasineutron configurations involving coupling to the $s_{\frac{1}{2}}$ orbital are suggested. The sum of spectroscopic strengths extracted by using the ADWA for the individual $l$ transfers are combined with previous results from the ${}^{111}\mathrm{Cd}(\vec{d},t)$ reaction and show good agreement with the $2j+1$ sum rule, whereas those extracted with the DWBA calculations are significantly less.

Background: The positions of diffraction minima of Coulomb form factors $|F_C{\left(q\right)|}^2$ are important landmarks for electron scattering experiments, which are sensitive to the nuclear size. For the isotopic chain, previous studies show the minima of $|F_C{\left(q\right)|}^2$ have an outward shift as the target nucleus moves to the proton-rich side.

Purpose: Based on previous studies, the Coulomb form factors of Xe isotopes are further investigated by the deformed relativistic mean-field (RMF) model and distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) method.

Method: First, the nuclear charge density distributions are calculated by the constrained calculations of deformed RMF model. Next, the axially deformed density distributions are expanded into multipole components. With the charge density multipoles, the Coulomb form factors of Xe isotopes are calculated by the DWBA method.

Results: For the nucleus with deformation, there are differences on the Coulomb form factors calculated from the spherical and deformed RMF models. For the Xe isotopic chain, the changing trend of $|F_C{\left(q\right)|}^2$ from the deformed RMF model is different from the results from the spherical RMF model at high momentum transfers.

Conclusions: The minima of $|F_C{\left(q\right)|}^2$ of isotopes are directly influenced by the nuclear deformation parameter ${\beta }_2$, not just the charge radius $R_C$. For the studies of electron scattering, the nuclear deformation should be taken into account, especially in high momentum transfers.

The GEneral description of Fission observables (GEF) code was developed to produce fission-related nuclear data which are of importance for basic and applied nuclear physics. The investigation of the performance of the GEF code is here extended to a region in fissioning system mass, charge, excitation energy, and angular momentum, as well as to new observables, that could not be benchmarked so far. More specifically, benefiting from recent and innovative measurements, the work focuses on fragment mass and isotopic distributions for fission of various heavy actinides, with excitation energies from threshold up to $\approx 60\mathrm{MeV}$ and angular momenta up to $\approx 20\hslash$. The approach reveals a high degree of consistency and provides a reasonable description of the new data. The physics behind specific discrepancies is discussed, with emphasis on the challenging modeling of the competition between the symmetric and asymmetric fission channels. Comparison of the calculation with experiment permits us to highlight the influence of the system intrinsic properties, their interplay, and the importance of experimental aspects such as mass, charge, and excitation-energy resolution. All together points to the necessity of measuring as many observables as possible in one experiment with the highest possible accuracy, for proper unfolding of involved correlations and robust interpretation. The GEF code has become a widely used tool for this purpose.

An enhancement in near-scission $\alpha$-particle multiplicity was observed in the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ fission reaction at a beam energy of 69 MeV in a recent experiment [Y. K. Gupta $etal.$, Phys. Rev. C 86, 014615 (2012)]. The excess $\alpha$-particle emission was attributed to $\alpha$-transfer induced fission, where $\alpha$-particle transfer followed by breakup of ${}^8\mathrm{Be}$ into two $\alpha$ particles in coincidence with fission fragments (FFs) was observed. In order to further verify this transfer-breakup source, $\alpha$-particle energy spectra have been measured in coincidence with FFs in ${}^{12,13}\mathrm{C}+{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ reactions at various relative angles with respect to the beam and FF directions at a beam energy of 74.5 MeV. The $\alpha$-particle multiplicity spectra were fitted using a moving source disentangling analysis. The features of multiplicity spectra clearly demonstrate the presence of transfer-breakup events in ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ fission. The contribution of $\alpha$-particle multiplicity from transfer-breakup events in the ${}^{13}\mathrm{C}+{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ reaction is seen to be negligibly smaller than that of the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ reaction. After taking into account the transfer-breakup source, the pre- and near-scission $\alpha$-particle multiplicities follow the recently developed heavy-ion systematics for both reactions. These results conclusively affirm that transfer-breakup is a potential source of $\alpha$-particle emission in fission reactions, induced by $\alpha$-cluster projectiles such as ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$.

Short-lived $\alpha$-decaying nuclei “northeast” of ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ in the chart of nuclides were studied using the reaction ${}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}+{}^{243}\mathrm{Am}$ with the decay station TASISpec at TASCA, GSI Darmstadt. Decay energies and times from pile-up events were extracted with a tailor-made pulse-shape analysis routine and specific $\alpha$-decay chains were identified in a correlation analysis. Decay chains starting with the even-even ${}^{220}\mathrm{Ra}$ and its odd-$A$ neighbors, ${}^{219}\mathrm{Fr}$, and ${}^{221,219}\mathrm{Ra}$, with a focus on the ${}^{219}\mathrm{Ra}\to {}^{215}\mathrm{Rn}$ decay, were studied by means of $\alpha -\gamma$ spectroscopy. A revised $\alpha$-decay scheme of ${}^{219}\mathrm{Ra}$ is proposed, including a new decay branch from a previously not considered isomeric state at 17 keV excitation energy. Conclusions on nuclear structure are drawn from the experimental data, aided by Geant4 simulations and a discussion on theoretical calculations.

This paper reports the measurement of polarized and unpolarized cross sections for the $ep\to e^{\prime }{p}^{\prime }\gamma$ reaction, which is composed of deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) and Bethe-Heitler (BH) processes, at an electron beam energy of 5.88 GeV at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility using the Large Acceptance Spectrometer CLAS. The unpolarized cross sections and polarized cross section differences have been measured over broad kinematics, $0.10<x_B<0.58, 1.0<Q^2<4.8{\text{GeV}}^2$, and $0.09<-t<2.00{\text{GeV}}^2$. The results are found to be consistent with previous CLAS data, and these new data are discussed in the framework of the generalized parton distribution approach. Calculations with two widely used phenomenological models are approximately compatible with the experimental results over a large portion of the kinematic range of the data.

The Tohsaki-Horiuchi-Schuck-Röpke (THSR) wave function has been successfully used for the studies of gaslike nature of $\alpha$ clusters in various nuclei, including the so-called Hoyle state of ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ and four $\alpha$ states of ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$. In standard $\alpha$ cluster models, however, each $\alpha$ cluster wave function has spin zero because of its spatial symmetry and antisymmetrization effect. Thus the noncentral interactions do not contribute, and this situation is the same in the THSR wave function. In this work, the spin-orbit contribution, which is found to be quite important at short $\alpha -\alpha$ distances, is taken into account in the THSR wave function by combing it with antisymmetrized quasicluster model (AQCM). The application to ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ is presented. The multi-integration in the original THSR wave function is carried out by using a Monte Carlo technique, which is called the Monte Carlo THSR wave function. For the nucleon-nucleon interaction, the Tohsaki interaction, which contains finite-range three-body terms and simultaneously reproduces the saturation properties of nuclear systems, the $\alpha -\alpha$ scattering phase shift, and the size and binding energy of ${}^4\mathrm{He}$, is adopted.

Here we investigate the decay patterns of the low-lying hidden strangeness nucleon resonances ($\equiv N_{s\overline{s}}$) via the strangeness channels by employing the chiral Lagrangian approach, where the $N_{s\overline{s}}$ states are treated as compact pentaquark states. The $S$-wave decays of these states to the $PB$ (pseudoscalar meson and baryon) and $VB$ (vector meson and baryon) channels are studied. According to the obtained masses and decay properties, we find four states, namely, $N_{s\overline{s}}\left(1874\right)$ with quantum numbers $I\left(J^P\right)=1/2(1/2^{-}), N_{s\overline{s}}\left(1885\right)$ with $I\left(J^P\right)=1/2(3/2^{-}), N_{s\overline{s}}\left(2327\right)$ with $I\left(J^P\right)=1/2(1/2^{-})$, and $N_{s\overline{s}}\left(2252\right)$ with $I\left(J^P\right)=1/2(3/2^{-})$, may be associated with the well-established nucleon resonances $N^{*}\left(1895\right)$ and $N^{*}\left(1875\right)$ and with the resonances $N^{*}\left(2355\right)$ and $N^{*}\left(2250\right)$ newly predicted by the CLAS Collaboration, respectively. In addition, several other obtained hidden strangeness nucleon resonances may be expected to be dominant components of the predicted missing resonances in the literature.

We explore some phenomenological issues during calculations of transport coefficients for hadronic matter, produced in the experiments of heavy ion collisions. Here, we use an ideal hadron resonance gas model to demonstrate the issues. On the basis of dissipation mechanism, the hadronic zoo is classified into resonance and nonresonance members who participate in dissipation via strong decay and scattering channels, respectively. Imposing our phenomenological restriction, we are able to provide a rough upper and lower bound estimations of transport coefficients. Interestingly, we find that our proposed lower limit estimation for shear viscosity to entropy density ratio is a little larger than its quantum lower bound. By taking a simple example, we demonstrate how our proposed restriction helps to tune any estimation of transport coefficients within its numerical band, proposed by us.

The level structure of ${}^{136}\mathrm{Nd}$ has been investigated using the ${}^{100}\mathrm{Mo}({}^{40}\mathrm{Ar},4n)$ reaction and the JUROGAM II+RITU+GREAT setup. The level scheme has been extended significantly. Many new bands have been identified both at low and high spin, among which are five nearly degenerate bands interpreted as chiral partners. Excitation energies, spins, and parities of the previously known bands are revised and firmly established, and some previously known bands have been revised. Configurations are assigned to the observed bands based on cranked Nilsson-Strutinsky calculations. The band structure of ${}^{136}\mathrm{Nd}$ is now clarified and the various types of single-particle and collective excitations are well understood.

In this paper we present an evolution of our derivation of the shell-model effective Hamiltonian, namely introducing effects of three-body contributions. More precisely, we consider a three-body potential at next-to-next-to-leading order in chiral perturbation theory, and the induced three-body forces that arise from many-body correlations among valence nucleons. The first one is included, in the derivation of the effective Hamiltonian for one- and two-valence nucleon-systems, at first order in the many-body perturbation theory. Namely, we include only the three-body interaction between one or two valence nucleons and those belonging to the core. For nuclei with more than two valence particles, both induced—turned on by the two-body potential—and genuine three-body forces come into play. Since it is difficult to perform shell-model calculations with three-body forces, these contributions are estimated for the ground-state energy only. To establish the reliability of our approximations, we focus attention on nuclei belonging to the $p$ shell, aiming to benchmark our calculations against those performed with the ab initio no-core shell model. The obtained results are satisfactory, and pave the way to the application of our approach to nuclear systems with heavier masses.

We use an improved version of a semiclassical coupled-channels method previously developed by some of us to evaluate fusion cross sections in collisions of weakly bound nuclei. This version takes into account the static effects of the low breakup threshold, uses better bin states in the discretization of the continuum, and avoids the excitation of closed channels. The population of these channels is a consequence of the violation of energy conservation, which is inherent in the semiclassical method. The method is employed to evaluate complete fusion and total fusion cross section in collisions of the weakly bound ${}^{6,7}\mathrm{Li}$ projectiles with ${}^{159}\mathrm{Tb}$ and ${}^{197}\mathrm{Au}$ targets, for which data is available. The overall agreement between theory and experiment is fairly good.

Measurements of azimuthal angular correlations are presented for high-multiplicity $p\mathrm{Pb}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}=5.02\text{TeV}$ and peripheral PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}=2.76\text{TeV}$. The data used in this work were collected with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Fourier coefficients as functions of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity are studied using the scalar product method; four-, six-, and eight-particle cumulants; and the Lee-Yang zero technique. The influence of event plane decorrelation is evaluated using the scalar product method and found to account for most of the observed pseudorapidity dependence.

We study the response of EJ-301 liquid scintillator to monochromatic $244.6\pm 8.4$ keV neutrons, targeting the 10–100 keV proton recoil energy interval. Limited experimental information exists for proton light yield in this range, for this or any other organic scintillator. Our results confirm the adequacy of a modified Birks' model, common to all organic scintillator formulations, predicting a marked increase in quenching factor as proton energy approaches the few keV regime. The relevance of this behavior within the context of searches for low-mass particle dark matter is mentioned.

Background: Fusion of heavy nuclei requires energy dissipation to trap the system inside the capture barrier. At high angular momentum, the centrifugal potential causes the barrier radius to reduce, which may lead to energy dissipation outside the barrier, affecting the fusion angular momentum distributions and thus the capture cross sections.

Purpose: To investigate the sensitivity of fusion-fission cross sections as a probe of fusion dynamics at high angular momentum.

Method: Fission of the compound nucleus ${}^{164}\mathrm{Yb}$ formed by three different fusion reactions, namely, ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{148}\mathrm{Sm}$, ${}^{28}\mathrm{Si}+{}^{136}\mathrm{Ba}$, and ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}+{}^{124}\mathrm{Sn}$, was measured at four beam energies well above their respective capture barriers. Fission cross sections were extracted from the measured fission fragment angular distributions and compared with model calculations of fusion and subsequent fission. Fusion and evaporation residue cross sections available in the literature for the same or similar reactions were used to guide model calculations and obtain the fusion angular momentum distributions.

Results: The measured fission characteristics were found to be consistent with fusion-fission, as expected, justifying the use of the statistical model to calculate fission cross sections for each reaction. Significantly different fission cross-section predictions were obtained from calculations using angular momentum distributions corresponding to different coupling schemes and different diffuseness parameter of the nuclear potential. A large diffuseness parameter ($\gg 0.65$ fm) of the nuclear potential was observed to give the best reproduction of both the experimental fusion as well as fission cross sections.

Conclusions: Experimental fission cross sections provide a stringent constraint to the fusion model calculations and thus prove to be a sensitive probe for understanding fusion dynamics at high angular momentum. This is shown in the present work by a simultaneous analysis of the fusion and fission cross sections for systems where fission cross sections form a small fraction of the fusion cross section and where noncompound nuclear processes are not a dominant competing channel. Observations from this work also suggest the requirement of evaporation residue as well as fission cross sections of higher precision than those generally available for drawing quantitative conclusions.

Neutral pion and $\eta$ meson production in the transverse momentum range 1 $<p_T<$ 20 $\mathrm{GeV}/c$ have been measured at midrapidity by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in central and semicentral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathit{NN}}}$  = 2.76 TeV. These results were obtained using the photon conversion method as well as the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS) and Electromagnetic Calorimeter detectors. The results extend the upper $p_T$ reach of the previous ALICE ${\pi }^0$ measurements from 12 to 20 $\mathrm{GeV}/c$ and present the first measurement of $\eta$ meson production in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. The $\eta /{\pi }^0$ ratio is similar for the two centralities and reaches at high $p_T$ a plateau value of 0.457 $\pm$ $0.{013}^{\mathrm{stat}}$ $\pm$ $0.{018}^{\mathrm{syst}}$. A suppression of similar magnitude for ${\pi }^0$ and $\eta$ meson production is observed in Pb-Pb collisions with respect to their production in $pp$ collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. We discuss the results in terms of Next to Leading Order (NLO) pQCD predictions and hydrodynamic models. The measurements show a stronger suppression than observed at lower center-of-mass energies in the $p_T$ range 6 $<p_T<$ 10 $\mathrm{GeV}/c$. For $p_T<$ 3 $\mathrm{GeV}/c$, hadronization models describe the ${\pi }^0$ results while for the $\eta$ some tension is observed.