Background: Simultaneous description of major outgoing channels for a nuclear reaction by coupled-channels calculations using the same set of potential and coupling parameters is one of the difficult tasks to accomplish in nuclear reaction studies.

Purpose: To measure the elastic, inelastic, and transfer cross sections for as many channels as possible in ${}^7\mathrm{Li}+{}^{120}\mathrm{Sn}$ system at different beam energies and simultaneously describe them by a single set of model calculations using fresco.

Methods: Projectile-like fragments were detected using six sets of Si-detector telescopes to measure the cross sections for elastic, inelastic, and 1-nucleon transfer channels at two beam energies of 28 and 30 MeV. Optical model analysis of elastic data and coupled-reaction-channels (CRC) calculations that include around 30 reaction channels coupled directly to the entrance channel, with respective structural parameters, were performed to understand the measured cross sections.

Results: Structure information available in the literature for some of the identified states did not reproduce the present data. Cross sections obtained from CRC calculations using a modified but single set of potential and coupling parameters were able to describe simultaneously the measured data for all the channels at both the measured energies as well as the existing data for elastic and inelastic cross sections at 44 MeV.

Conclusions: Non-reproduction of some of the cross sections using the structure information available in the literature which are extracted from reactions involving different projectiles indicates that such measurements are probe dependent. New structural parameters were assigned for such states as well as for several new transfer states whose spectroscopic factors were not known.

Angular distributions of the transfer reaction ${}^{63}\mathrm{Cu}\left({}^7\mathrm{Li},{}^6\mathrm{He}\right){}^{64}\mathrm{Zn}$ were measured at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}\left({}^7\mathrm{Li}\right)=12.67$, 15.21, 16.33, 23.30, 27.30, and 30.96 MeV. With the interaction potentials of the entrance channel ${}^7\mathrm{Li}+{}^{63}\mathrm{Cu}$ obtained from elastic scattering data as input, the optical potentials of the halo nuclear system ${}^6\mathrm{He}+{}^{64}\mathrm{Zn}$ in the exit channel were extracted by fitting the experimental data with the distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA) and coupled reaction channels (CRC) methods, respectively. The results show that the threshold anomaly presents in the weakly bound system of ${}^7\mathrm{Li}+{}^{63}\mathrm{Cu}$ and the dispersion relation can be adopted to describe the connection between the real and imaginary potentials, while both the real and imaginary potentials nearly keep constant within the researched energy region for the halo system of ${}^6\mathrm{He}+{}^{64}\mathrm{Zn}$. Moreover, calculations by the potentials extracted from the CRC method can reproduce the experimental elastic scattering of the ${}^6\mathrm{He}+{}^{64}\mathrm{Zn}$ system rather well, but those by the potentials from the DWBA method cannot, where the couplings between ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ and ${}^6\mathrm{He}$ are absent. This work verifies the validity of the transfer method in the medium-mass target region and lays a solid foundation for the further study of optical potentials for exotic nuclear systems.

This paper presents values of complete fusion cross sections deduced from activation measurements for the reactions ${}^6\mathrm{Li}+{}^{120}\mathrm{Sn}$ and ${}^7\mathrm{Li}+{}^{119}\mathrm{Sn}$, and for a projectile energy range from 17.5 to 28 MeV in the center-of-mass system. A new deconvolution analysis technique is used to link the basic activation data to the actual fusion excitation function. The complete fusion cross sections above the barrier are suppressed by about $70\%$ and $85\%$ with respect to the universal fusion function, used as a standard reference, in the ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ and ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ induced reactions, respectively. From a comparison of the excitation functions of the two systems at energies below the barrier, no significant differences can be observed, despite the two systems have different $n$-transfer $Q$ values. This observation is supported by the results of coupled reaction channels (CRC) calculations.

The helicity-dependent observable $E$ for the reaction $\gamma d\to \eta n\left(p\right)$ with a spectator proton was recently measured by the A2 Collaboration at MAMI in Mainz. The data were interpreted as further evidence for a narrow resonance with spin and parity $J^P=1/2^{+}$ $(P_{11}$ wave). However, a full partial-wave analysis without any narrow resonance leads to an excellent description of the data. Imposing a narrow resonance with the properties suggested by the A2 Collaboration leads to a significant deterioration of the fit quality: there is no need for a narrow resonance.

Nonleptonic weak decays of ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c$ into ${\pi }^{+}$ and a meson $\left(M\right)$-baryon $\left(B\right)$ final state, $MB$, are analyzed from the viewpoint of probing $S=-2$ baryon resonances, i.e., $\mathrm{\Xi }\left(1620\right)$ and $\mathrm{\Xi }\left(1690\right)$, of which spin-parity and other properties are not well known. We argue that the weak decay of ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c$ is dominated by a single quark-line diagram, preferred by the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa coefficient, color recombination factor, the diquark correlation, and the kinematical condition. The decay process has an advantage of being free from meson resonances in the ${\pi }^{+}M$ invariant mass distribution. The invariant mass distribution of the meson-baryon final state is calculated with three different chiral unitary approaches, assuming that the $\mathrm{\Xi }\left(1620\right)$ and $\mathrm{\Xi }\left(1690\right)$ resonances have $J^P=1/2^{-}$. It is found that a clear peak for the $\mathrm{\Xi }\left(1690\right)$ is seen in the $\pi \mathrm{\Xi }$ and $\overline{K}\mathrm{\Lambda }$ spectra. We also suggest that the ratios of the $\pi \mathrm{\Xi },\overline{K}\mathrm{\Lambda }$, and $\overline{K}\mathrm{\Sigma }$ final states are useful to distinguish whether the peak is originated from the $\mathrm{\Xi }\left(1690\right)$ resonance or it is a $\overline{K}\mathrm{\Sigma }$ threshold effect.

With a newly improved isospin- and momentum-dependent interaction and an isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck transport model, we have investigated the effects of the slope parameter $L$ of the nuclear symmetry energy and the isospin splitting of the nucleon effective mass $m_{n-p}^{*}=(m_n^{*}-m_p^{*})/m$ on the centroid energy of the isovector giant dipole resonance and the electric dipole polarizability in ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$. With the isoscalar nucleon effective mass $m_s^{*}=0.7m$ constrained by the empirical optical potential, we obtain a constraint of $L=64.29\pm 11.84\left(\mathrm{MeV}\right)$ and $m_{n-p}^{*}=(-0.019\pm 0.090)\delta$, with $\delta$ being the isospin asymmetry of nuclear medium. With the isoscalar nucleon effective mass $m_s^{*}=0.84m$ extracted from the excitation energy of the isoscalar giant quadruple resonance in ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$, we obtain a constraint of $L=53.85\pm 10.29\left(\mathrm{MeV}\right)$ and $m_{n-p}^{*}=(0.216\pm 0.114)\delta$.

We have measured the $K$-shell internal conversion coefficient, ${\alpha }_K$, for the 88.2-keV $M4$ transition from the 106-day isomer to the ground state in ${}^{127}\mathrm{Te}$ to be 484(6). When compared with Dirac-Fock calculations of ${\alpha }_K$, this result agrees well with the version of the theory that incorporates the effect of the $K$-shell atomic vacancy and disagrees with the one that does not. As a byproduct of this measurement, we have determined the $\beta$ branching from the isomer to be 2.14(3)%.

We compute from chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions the energy per particle of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter at third-order in perturbation theory including self-consistent second-order single-particle energies. Particular attention is paid to the third-order particle-hole ring diagram, which is often neglected in microscopic calculations of the equation of state. We provide semianalytic expressions for the direct terms from central and tensor model-type interactions that are useful as theoretical benchmarks. We investigate uncertainties arising from the order-by-order convergence in both many-body perturbation theory and the chiral expansion. Including also variations in the resolution scale at which nuclear forces are resolved, we provide new error bands on the equation of state, the isospin-asymmetry energy, and its slope parameter. We find in particular that the inclusion of third-order diagrams reduces the theoretical uncertainty at low densities, while in general the largest error arises from omitted higher-order terms in the chiral expansion of the nuclear forces.

It is proposed to identify a strong electric field—created during relativistic collisions of asymmetric nuclei—via the observation of pseudorapidity and transverse momentum distributions of hadrons with the same mass but opposite charge. The results of detailed calculations within the parton-hadron string dynamics (PHSD) approach for the charge-dependent directed flow $v_1$ are presented for semicentral Cu+Au collision at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV incorporating the inverse Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (iLPM) effect, which accounts for a delay in the electromagnetic interaction with the charged degrees of freedom. By including the iLPM effect, we achieve a reasonable agreement of the PHSD results for the charge splitting in $v_1\left(p_T\right)$ in line with the recent measurements by the STAR Collaboration for Cu+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV while an instant appearance and coupling of electric charges at the hard collision vertex overestimates the splitting by about a factor of 10. We predict that the iLPM effect should practically disappear at energies of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}\approx 9$ GeV, which should lead to a significantly larger charge splitting of $v_1$ at the future FAIR/NICA facilities.

The $\alpha$-decay half-lives of recently synthesized superheavy nuclei (SHN) are investigated by employing a generalized liquid drop model (GLDM) and Royer's analytical formula. The excellent agreement with the experimental data indicates the GLDM and the analytical formula are useful tools to investigate $\alpha$-decay half-lives. The competition between $\alpha$ decay and spontaneous fission is analyzed in detail and $\alpha$-decay half-lives and decay modes are predicted for the unknown nuclei ${}^{293,295–297}\mathrm{Og}$.

We estimate the strong coupling constant between the negative parity nucleons with $\pi$ meson within the light-cone QCD sum rules. A method for eliminating the unwanted contributions coming from the nucleon-nucleon and nucleon–negative parity nucleon transition is presented. It is observed that the value of the strong coupling constant of the negative parity nucleon $N^{*}{N}^{*}\pi$ transition is smaller by about 50% compared to the coupling constant of the positive parity $NN\pi$ transition.

Background: The ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(p,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{F}$ reaction plays an important role in hydrogen burning processes in several different stages of stellar evolution. The rate of this reaction must therefore be known with high accuracy at the relevant temperatures in order to provide the necessary input for astrophysical models.

Purpose: The cross section of  ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(p,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{F}$ is characterized by a complicated resonance structure at low energies which needs to be reproduced by theoretical models if a reliable extrapolation to astrophysical energies is required. Experimental data, however, are scarce in a wide energy range, which increases the uncertainty of the extrapolations. The purpose of the present work is therefore to provide consistent and precise cross section values in a wide energy range for the ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(p,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{F}$ reaction.

Method: The cross section is measured using the activation method. This method provides directly the total cross section which can be compared with model calculations. With this technique some typical systematic uncertainties encountered in in-beam $\gamma$-spectroscopy experiments can be avoided.

Results: The cross section was measured between 500 keV and 1.8 MeV proton energies with a total uncertainty of typically 10%. The results are compared with earlier measurements and it is found that the gross features of the ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(p,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{F}$ excitation function are relatively well reproduced by the present data. Deviation of roughly a factor of 1.5 is found in the case of the total cross section when compared with the only high energy dataset. At the lowest measured energy our result is in agreement with two recent datasets within one standard deviation and deviates by roughly two standard deviations from a third one. An $R$-matrix analysis of the present and previous data strengthens the reliability of the extrapolated zero energy astrophysical $S$ factor.

Conclusions: Using an independent experimental technique, the literature cross section data of ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(p,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{F}$ is confirmed in the energy region of the resonances while a lower direct capture cross section is recommended at higher energies. The present dataset provides a constraint for the theoretical cross sections.

$p-{}^3\mathrm{H}$ and $n-{}^3\mathrm{He}$ scattering in the energy range above the $n-{}^3\mathrm{He}$ but below the $d-d$ thresholds is studied by solving the four-nucleon problem with a realistic nucleon-nucleon interaction. Three different methods—Alt, Grassberger, and Sandhas, hyperspherical harmonics, and Faddeev–Yakubovsky—have been employed and their results for both elastic and charge-exchange processes are compared. We observe a good agreement between the three different methods, thus the obtained results may serve as a benchmark. A comparison with the available experimental data is also reported and discussed.

Background: In the neutron-rich $A\approx 100$ mass region, rapid shape changes as a function of nucleon number as well as coexistence of prolate, oblate, and triaxial shapes are predicted by various theoretical models. Lifetime measurements of excited levels in the molybdenum isotopes allow the determination of transitional quadrupole moments, which in turn provides structural information regarding the predicted shape change.

Purpose: The present paper reports on the experimental setup, the method that allowed one to measure the lifetimes of excited states in even-even molybdenum isotopes from mass $A=100$ up to mass $A=108$, and the results that were obtained.

Method: The isotopes of interest were populated by secondary knock-out reaction of neutron-rich nuclei separated and identified by the GSI fragment separator at relativistic beam energies and detected by the sensitive PreSPEC-AGATA experimental setup. The latter included the Lund-York-Cologne calorimeter for identification, tracking, and velocity measurement of ejectiles, and AGATA, an array of position sensitive segmented HPGe detectors, used to determine the interaction positions of the $\gamma$ ray enabling a precise Doppler correction. The lifetimes were determined with a relativistic version of the Doppler-shift-attenuation method using the systematic shift of the energy after Doppler correction of a $\gamma$-ray transition with a known energy. This relativistic Doppler-shift-attenuation method allowed the determination of mean lifetimes from 2 to 250 ps.

Results: Even-even molybdenum isotopes from mass $A=100$ to $A=108$ were studied. The decays of the low-lying states in the ground-state band were observed. In particular, two mean lifetimes were measured for the first time: $\tau =29.7_{-9.1}^{+11.3}$ ps for the $4^{+}$ state of ${}^{108}\mathrm{Mo}$ and $\tau =3.2_{-0.7}^{+0.7}$ ps for the $6^{+}$ state of ${}^{102}\mathrm{Mo}$.

Conclusions: The reduced transition strengths $B\left(E2\right)$, calculated from lifetimes measured in this experiment, compared to beyond-mean-field calculations, indicate a gradual shape transition in the chain of molybdenum isotopes when going from $A=100$ to $A=108$ with a maximum reached at $N=64$. The transition probabilities decrease for ${}^{108}\mathrm{Mo}$ which may be related to its well-pronounced triaxial shape indicated by the calculations.

One can adopt two-step $G$-matrix approximations for the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) calculations. The first $G$ matrix is to soften the bare force, and the second one is to include the high-order correlations of the interaction in medium. The first $G$-matrix calculation for two-nucleon interaction should be done in the center-of-mass coordinate. As another alternative BHF approach, we have adopted the $V_{\text{low-}k}$ technique to soften the interaction and used the $G$ matrix to include high-order correlations. The $V_{\text{low-}k}$ renormalization leads to high-momentum and low-momentum components of the interaction decoupled. With the $V_{\text{low-}k}$ potential, we have performed the BHF calculations for finite nuclei. The $G$-matrix elements with exact Pauli exclusions are calculated in the self-consistent BHF basis. To see effects from further possible correlations beyond BHF, we have simultaneously performed renormalized BHF (RBHF) calculations with the same potential. In RBHF, the mean field derived from realistic forces is modified by introducing the particle-occupation depletion resulting from many-body correlations. The ground-state energies and radii of the closed-shell nuclei, ${}^4\mathrm{He}$, ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$, and ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$, have been investigated. The convergences of the BHF and RBHF calculations have been discussed and compared with other ab initio calculations with the same potential.

The Doppler-shift attenuation method following inelastic neutron scattering was used to determine the lifetimes of nuclear levels to 3.3-MeV excitation in ${}^{124}\mathrm{Te}$. Level energies and spins, $\gamma$-ray energies and branching ratios, and multipole-mixing ratios were deduced from measured $\gamma$-ray angular distributions at incident neutron energies of 2.40 and 3.30 MeV, $\gamma$-ray excitation functions, and $\gamma \gamma$ coincidence measurements. The newly obtained reduced transition probabilities and level energies for ${}^{124}\mathrm{Te}$ were compared to critical-point symmetry model predictions. The $E\left(5\right)$ and ${\beta }^4$ potential critical-point symmetries were also investigated in ${}^{122}\mathrm{Te}$ and ${}^{126}\mathrm{Te}$.

The microscopic optical potential for ${}^6\mathrm{He}$ with no free parameters is obtained by folding the microscopic optical potentials of its constituent nucleons with the internal wave function of ${}^6\mathrm{He}$. We use the isospin-dependent nucleon microscopic optical potential, which is derived by using the Green's function method through the nuclear matter approximation and the local density approximation based on the Skyrme nucleon-nucleon effective interaction. The internal wave function of ${}^6\mathrm{He}$ is described in a harmonic-oscillator form. The ${}^6\mathrm{He}$ microscopic optical potential is used to calculate the reaction cross sections and elastic-scattering angular distributions for target nuclei in the mass range $12\le \mathrm{A}\le 209$ at incident energies up to 350 MeV. The results are compared with the experimental data and those calculated by a global phenomenological optical potential; in most cases, the microscopic optical potential reproduces the experimental data less well than the global potential. The sensitivity of scattering to the potentials as a function of radius has been investigated by using the notch perturbation method. The investigation shows that the scattering is sensitive to the optical potential in the nuclear surface region. It is concluded from the discussion that the microscopic optical potential can be improved by increasing the surface absorption contribution.

We present measurements of long-range angular correlations and the transverse momentum dependence of elliptic flow $v_2$ in high-multiplicity $p+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\mathit{NN}}}}=200$ GeV. A comparison of these results to previous measurements in high-multiplicity $d+\mathrm{Au}$ and ${}^3\mathrm{He}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions demonstrates a relation between $v_2$ and the initial collision eccentricity ${\varepsilon }_2$, suggesting that the observed momentum-space azimuthal anisotropies in these small systems have a collective origin and reflect the initial geometry. Good agreement is observed between the measured $v_2$ and hydrodynamic calculations for all systems, and an argument disfavoring theoretical explanations based on initial momentum-space domain correlations is presented. The set of measurements presented here allows us to leverage the distinct intrinsic geometry of each of these systems to distinguish between different theoretical descriptions of the long-range correlations observed in small collision systems.

The unpolarized semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) differential cross sections in ${}^3\mathrm{He}(e,e^{\prime }{\pi }^{\pm })X$ have been measured for the first time in Jefferson Lab experiment E06-010 with a $5.9\mathrm{GeV}{e}^{-}$ beam on a ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ gas target. The experiment focuses on the valence quark region, covering a kinematic range $0.12<x_{bj}<0.45,1<Q^2<4{\left(\mathrm{GeV}/c\right)}^2,0.45<z_h<0.65$, and $0.05<P_t<0.55\mathrm{GeV}/c$. The extracted SIDIS differential cross sections of ${\pi }^{\pm }$ production are compared with existing phenomenological models while the ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ nucleus approximated as two protons and one neutron in a plane-wave picture, in multidimensional bins. Within the experimental uncertainties, the azimuthal modulations of the cross sections are found to be consistent with zero.