The PHENIX Collaboration has measured $\varphi$ meson production in $d+\text{Au}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV using the dimuon and dielectron decay channels. The $\varphi$ meson is measured in the forward (backward) $d$-going (Au-going) direction, $1.2<y<2.2$ ($-2.2<y<-1.2$) in the transverse-momentum ($p_T$) range from 1–7 $\mathrm{GeV}/c$ and at midrapidity $\left|y\right|<0.35$ in the $p_T$ range below 7 GeV/$c$. The $\varphi$ meson invariant yields and nuclear-modification factors as a function of $p_T$, rapidity, and centrality are reported. An enhancement of $\varphi$ meson production is observed in the Au-going direction, while suppression is seen in the $d$-going direction, and no modification is observed at midrapidity relative to the yield in $p+p$ collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. Similar behavior was previously observed for inclusive charged hadrons and open heavy flavor, indicating similar cold-nuclear-matter effects.

The ${}^{90}\mathrm{Zr}(\alpha ,\gamma ){}^{94}\mathrm{Mo},{}^{92}\mathrm{Zr}(\alpha ,\gamma ){}^{96}\mathrm{Mo}$, and ${}^{74}\mathrm{Ge}(\alpha ,\gamma ){}^{78}\mathrm{Se}$ reaction cross sections were measured for the first time in an effort to expand the existing experimental database for $(\alpha ,\gamma )$ reactions relevant for the production of $p$ nuclei in the universe. In particular, the ${}^{90}\mathrm{Zr}(\alpha ,\gamma ){}^{94}\mathrm{Mo}$ reaction was identified by a sensitivity study for its potential impact on the $\gamma$-process mass flow in the region of light $p$ nuclei. The measurements were performed for energies $E_{\alpha }=9.5–12.0$ MeV at the University of Notre Dame using the SuN detector and the $\gamma$-summing technique. The results are compared to theoretical calculations from the talys and non-smoker nuclear reaction codes, and it is shown that the data greatly reduce the uncertainty in the cross section for the measured energies. The talys parameters that provide the best description of the experimental data are reported.

Mass distributions of the fragments in the fission of ${}^{206}\mathrm{Po}$ and the $N=126$ neutron shell closed nucleus ${}^{210}\mathrm{Po}$ have been measured. No significant deviation of mass distributions has been found between ${}^{206}\mathrm{Po}$ and ${}^{210}\mathrm{Po}$, indicating the absence of shell correction at the saddle point in both the nuclei, contrary to the reported angular anisotropy and prescission neutron multiplicity results. This result provides benchmark data to test the new fission dynamical models to study the effect of shell correction on the potential energy surface at saddle point.

Background: A large number of hypernuclei, where a considerable fraction of nucleons is replaced with strange baryons, and even pure hyperonic species are expected to be bound. However, the hypernuclear landscape remains largely unknown because of scarce constraints on the $NY$ and $YY$ interactions.

Purpose: We want to estimate the number of potentially bound hypernuclei. To evaluate realistic error bars within the theoretical uncertainties associated with the spherical mean-field approach and the present information from already synthesized hypernuclei on the $N\text{−}Y$ and $Y\text{−}Y$ channels, we limit ourselves to purely $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hypernuclei, to magic numbers of $\mathrm{\Lambda }$'s (for $Z\le 120$ and $\mathrm{\Lambda }\le 70$), and to even-even-even systems.

Method: We consider a density-functional approach adjusted to microscopic Bruckner-Hartree-Fock calculations, where the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda }$ term is corrected in a phenomenological way, to reproduce present experimental constraints. Different models which strongly deviate at large densities, but giving the same bond energy, are generated to take into account the uncertainties related to the high-density equation of state.

Results: The number of bound even-even-even $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hypernuclei is estimated to $491680\pm 34400$. This relatively low uncertainty is attributable to the fact that the well-constrained low-density and highly unconstrained high-density behavior of the energy functional turn out to be largely decoupled. Results in $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hypernuclei appear to be almost independent of the choice for the high-density part of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda }$ interaction. The location of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hyperdriplines is also evaluated. Significant deviations from iron-nickel elements can be found for $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hypernuclei with the largest binding energy per baryon. Proton, neutron, and $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-hyperon magicity evolution and triple magic $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hypernuclei are studied. Possible bubble and halo effects in $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hypernuclei are also discussed.

Conclusions: The present results provide a first microscopic evaluation of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-hypernuclear landscape. They shall benefit from the more and more accurate design of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-based functionals. The measurements of $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ and multi-$\mathrm{\Lambda }$ hypernuclei together with additional constraints of the $\mathrm{\Xi }\mathrm{\Lambda }$ and $\mathrm{\Xi }\mathrm{\Xi }$ interaction are mandatory to improve such critical information.

We have studied the giant dipole resonance (GDR) in the hot and rotating nucleus ${}^{152}\mathrm{Gd}$ within the framework of the thermal shape fluctuation model (TSFM) built on the microscopic-macroscopic calculations of the free energies with a macroscopic approach for the GDR. Our results for GDR cross sections are in good agreement with the experimental values except for a component peaking around 17 MeV, where the data has large uncertainties. Such a component is beyond our description which properly takes care of the splitting of GDR components due to the deformation and Coriolis effects. Around 17 MeV lies the half maximum in experimental cross sections, and hence the extracted GDR widths and deformations (estimated from these widths) turn out to be overestimated and less reliable. Reproducing these widths with empirical formulas could conceal the information contained in the cross sections. Fully microscopic GDR calculations and a more careful look at the data could be useful to understand the GDR component around 17 MeV. We also discuss the occurrence of $\gamma$ softness in the free energy surfaces of ${}^{152}\mathrm{Gd}$ and its role on GDR.

We study the effects of hadronic rescattering on hadron distributions in high-energy nuclear collisions by using an integrated dynamical approach. This approach is based on a hybrid model combining (3 + 1)-dimensional ideal hydrodynamics for the quark gluon plasma (QGP) and a transport model for the hadron resonance gas. Since the hadron distributions are the result of the entire expansion history of the system, understanding the QGP properties requires investigating how rescattering during the hadronic stage affects the final distributions of hadrons. We include multistrange hadrons in our study and quantify the effects of hadronic rescattering on their mean transverse momenta and elliptic flow. We find that multistrange hadrons scatter less during the hadronic stage than nonstrange particles, and thus their distributions reflect the properties of the system in an earlier stage than the distributions of nonstrange particles.

In this work we question the hypothesis that the previously reported structure X(2265) in $p+p$ data is due to the kaonic nuclear bound state “$pp{K}^{-}$”. We will show that it is rather unlikely that X(2265), as reported by the DISTO collaboration, corresponds to a kaonic nuclear bound state. The main argument is based on the repetition of the DISTO analysis applied to a HADES data sample, which contains $p+p$ reactions at 3.5 GeV. We further discuss many aspects in connection with the $p{K}^{+}\mathrm{\Lambda }$ final state and the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\left(1405\right)$ resonance. The results point to possible problems in the interpretation of the DISTO data.

Systematic investigation of the known even-even transactinide cluster emitters has been carried out by considering the cluster as a point particle and using the exact quantum mechanical treatment of the decay process. It is shown that the cluster decay phenomenon can be described reasonably well using a simple Woods-Saxon mean field. Sensitivity of the half-lives on various aspects of the mean field has been investigated in detail.

Background: Although local phenomenological optical potentials have been standardly used to interpret nuclear reactions, recent studies suggest the effects of nonlocality should not be neglected.

Purpose: In this work we investigate the effects of nonlocality in $(p,d)$ transfer reactions using nonlocal optical potentials. We compare results obtained with the dispersive optical model to those obtained using the Perey-Buck interaction.

Method: We solve the scattering and bound-state equations for the nonlocal version of the dispersive optical model. Then, using the distorted-wave Born approximation, we calculate the transfer cross section for $(p,d)$ on ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ at $E_p=20$, 35, and 50 MeV.

Results: The inclusion of nonlocality in the bound state has a larger effect than that in the scattering states. The overall effect on the transfer cross section is very significant. We found an increase due to nonlocality in the transfer cross section of $\approx 30–50\%$ when using the Perey-Buck interaction and of $\approx 15–50\%$ when using the dispersive optical potential.

Conclusions: Although the details of the nonlocal interaction can change the magnitude of the effects, our study shows that qualitatively the results obtained using the dispersive optical potential and the Perey-Buck interaction are consistent, in both cases the transfer cross sections are significantly increased.

We present a detailed analysis of the elastic scattering and breakup channel for the reaction of ${}^{11}\mathrm{Li}$ on ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ at incident laboratory energies of 24.3 and 29.8 MeV, measured at the radioactive ion beam facility of TRIUMF, in Vancouver, Canada. A large yield of ${}^9\mathrm{Li}$ fragments was detected by four charged particle telescopes in a wide angular range. The experimental angular and energy distributions of these ${}^9\mathrm{Li}$ fragments have been compared to coupled-reaction-channel and continuum-discretized coupled-channel calculations. The large production of ${}^9\mathrm{Li}$ fragments at small angles can be explained by considering a direct breakup mechanism, while at medium-large angles a competition between direct breakup and neutron transfer to the continuum of the ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ target was observed.

We discuss the role of channel coupling in the surface properties of an internuclear potential for heavy-ion reactions. To this end, we analyze the experimental quasielastic cross sections for the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{105,106}\mathrm{Pd}$ and ${}^{13}\mathrm{C}+{}^{105,106}\mathrm{Pd}$ systems using the coupled-channels approach by including the vibrational excitations in the target nuclei. While earlier studies have reported a negligible influence of vibrational excitation on the surface diffuseness parameter for spherical systems, we find a significant effect for the C + Pd systems. Our systematic study also reveals influence of transfer couplings on the surface diffuseness parameter.

Dynamically exact calculations of a quasibound state in the $\overline{K}\overline{K}N$ three-body system are performed using Faddeev-type AGS equations. As input two phenomenological and one chirally motivated $\overline{K}N$ potentials are used, which describe the experimental information on the $\overline{K}N$ system equally well and produce either a one- or two-pole structure of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\left(1405\right)$ resonance. For the $\overline{K}\overline{K}$ interaction separable potentials are employed that are fitted to phase shifts obtained from two theoretical models. The first one is a phenomenological $\overline{K}\overline{K}$ potential based on meson exchange, which is derived by SU(3) symmetry arguments from the Jülich $\pi \pi -\overline{K}K$ coupled-channels model. The other interaction is a variant of the first one, which is adjusted to the $KK s$-wave scattering length recently determined in lattice QCD simulations. The position and width of the $\overline{K}\overline{K}N$ quasibound state is evaluated in two ways: (i) by a direct pole search in the complex energy plane and (ii) using an “inverse determinant” method, where one needs to calculate the determinant of the AGS system of equations only for real energies. A quasibound state is found with binding energy $B_{\overline{K}\overline{K}N}=12\text{–}26$ MeV and width ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}_{\overline{K}\overline{K}N}=61\text{–}102$ MeV, which could correspond to the experimentally observed $\mathrm{\Xi }\left(1950\right)$ state.

We study nuclear symmetry energy and the thermodynamic instabilities of asymmetric nuclear matter in a self-consistent manner by using a modified quark-meson coupling model where the confining interaction for quarks inside a nucleon is represented by a phenomenologically averaged potential in an equally mixed scalar-vector harmonic form. The nucleon-nucleon interaction in nuclear matter is then realized by introducing additional quark couplings to $\sigma ,\omega$, and $\rho$ mesons through mean-field approximations. We find an analytic expression for the symmetry energy ${\mathcal{E}}_{\mathrm{sym}}$ as a function of its slope $L$. Our result establishes a linear correlation between $L$ and ${\mathcal{E}}_{\mathrm{sym}}$. We also analyze the constraint on neutron star radii in $\left(pn\right)$ matter with $\beta$ equilibrium.

Using the thermal quasiparticle random-phase approximation, we study the process of neutrino and antineutrino capture on hot nuclei in supernova environments. For the sample nuclei ${}^{56}\mathrm{Fe}$ and ${}^{82}\mathrm{Ge}$ we perform a detailed analysis of thermal effects on the strength distribution of allowed Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions which dominate low-energy charged-current neutrino reactions. The finite-temperature cross sections are calculated taking into account the contributions of both allowed and forbidden transitions. The enhancement of the low-energy cross sections is explained by considering thermal effects on the ${\mathrm{GT}}_{\pm }$ strength. For ${}^{56}\mathrm{Fe}$ we compare the calculated finite-temperature cross sections with those obtained from large-scale shell-model calculations.

The odd-odd ${}^{54,56,58,60,62,64}\mathrm{Mn}$ isotopes ($Z=25$) were studied using bunched-beam collinear laser spectroscopy at ISOLDE, CERN. From the measured hyperfine spectra the spins and magnetic moments of Mn isotopes up to $N=39$ were extracted. The previous tentative ground state spin assignments of ${}^{58,60,62,64}\mathrm{Mn}$ are now firmly determined to be $I=1$ along with an $I=4$ assignment for the isomeric states in ${}^{58,60,62}\mathrm{Mn}$. The $I=1$ magnetic moments show a decreasing trend with increasing neutron number while the $I=4$ moments remain quite constant between $N=33$ and $N=37$. The results are compared to large-scale shell-model calculations using the GXPF1A and LNPS effective interactions. The excellent agreement of the ground state moments with the predictions from the LNPS calculations illustrates the need for an increasing amount of proton excitations across $Z=28$ and neutron excitations across $N=40$ in the ground state wave functions from $N=37$ onwards.

The majority of the next generation of nuclear power plants (GEN-IV) will work in the fast-neutron-energy region, as opposed to present day thermal reactors. This leads to new and more accurate nuclear-data needs for some minor actinides and structural materials. Following those upcoming demands, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency performed a sensitivity study. Based on the latter, an improvement in accuracy from the present 20% to 5% is required for the ${}^{242}\mathrm{Pu}(n,f)$ cross section. Within the same project both the ${}^{240}\mathrm{Pu}(n,f)$ cross section and the ${}^{242}\mathrm{Pu}(n,f)$ cross section were measured at the Van de Graaff accelerator of the Joint Research Centre at the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, where quasimonoenergetic neutrons were produced in an energy range from 0.3 MeV up to 3 MeV. A twin Frisch-grid ionization chamber has been used in a back-to-back configuration as fission-fragment detector. The ${}^{242}\mathrm{Pu}(n,f)$ cross section has been normalized to three different isotopes: ${}^{237}\mathrm{Np}(n,f), {}^{235}\mathrm{U}(n,f)$, and ${}^{238}\mathrm{U}(n,f)$. A comprehensive study of the corrections applied to the data and the uncertainties associated is given. The results obtained are in agreement with previous experimental data at the threshold region up to 0.8 MeV. The resonance-like structure at 0.8 to 1.1 MeV, visible in the evaluations and in most previous experimental values, was not reproduced with the same intensity in this experiment. For neutron energies higher than 1.1 MeV, the results of this experiment are slightly lower than the Evaluated Nuclear Data File/B-VII.1 evaluation but in agreement with the experiment of Tovesson et al. (2009) as well as Staples and Morley (1998). Finally, for energies above 1.5 MeV, the results show consistency with the present evaluations.

Hanbury-Brown–Twiss interferometry is a technique which yields effective widths (i.e., “HBT radii”) of homogeneity regions in the fireballs produced in heavy ion collisions. Because the initial conditions of these collisions are stochastically fluctuating, the measured HBT radii also exhibit variation on an event-by-event basis. However, HBT measurements have, to date, been performed only on an ensemble-averaged basis, due to inherent limitations of finite particle statistics. In this paper, we show that experimental measurements to date are best characterized theoretically as weighted averages of the event-by-event HBT radii, and we propose a new method for extracting experimentally both the arithmetic mean and the variance of the event-by-event distribution of HBT radii. We demonstrate the extraction of the mean and variance of this distribution for a particular ensemble of numerically generated events, and offer some ideas to extend and generalize the method to enable measurement of higher moments of the HBT distribution as well.

The first direct mass measurement of the neutron-deficient nucleus ${}^{24}\mathrm{Al}$ was performed via Penning-Trap Mass Spectrometry (PTMS) using TRIUMF's Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear science (TITAN). This measurement was facilitated by the use of TRIUMF's new Ion-Guide Laser Ion Source (IG-LIS), which reduced $A=24$ isobaric contamination in the delivered beam by nearly six orders of magnitude. The measured mass excess was found to be $\mathrm{\Delta }=-48.86\left(23\right)$ keV, which is five times more precise than the value quoted in the most recent atomic mass evaluation. When combined with the relevant ${}^{24}\mathrm{Al}$ excitation energy, and a recent measurement of the ${}^{23}\mathrm{Mg}$ mass, the astrophysical ${}^{23}\mathrm{Mg}{(p,\gamma )}^{24}\mathrm{Al}$ reaction resonance energy is extracted as $E_r=480.8\left(14\right)$ keV. The presented value shows a $2\sigma$ disagreement with the direct measurement of this quantity by the DRAGON recoil spectrometer.

The dipole strength distribution of ${}^{74}\mathrm{Ge}$ was studied in photon-scattering experiments using bremsstrahlung produced with electron beams of energies of 7.0 and 12.1 MeV at the linear accelerator ELBE. We identified 94 levels with spin $J$ = 1 up to an excitation energy of 8.9 MeV and analyzed the strength in the quasicontinuum of states. Simulations of statistical $\gamma$-ray cascades were performed to estimate intensities of inelastic transitions and to correct the intensities of the ground-state transitions for their branching ratios. The photoabsorption cross section below the neutron-separation energy derived in this way is combined with the photoabsorption cross section obtained from an earlier $(\gamma ,n)$ experiment and compared with phenomenological approximations.

An experiment aiming to study shape coexistence in ${}^{193}\mathrm{Bi}$ has been performed. Due to its transitional character, it has an exceptionally large number of structures identified close to the yrast line. Many new states have been found, significantly extending the previously known level scheme of ${}^{193}\mathrm{Bi}$, including several new rotational bands. The $\pi i_{13/2}$ band was extended to $I^{\pi }=45/2^{+}$. The $I^{\pi }=31/2^{+}$ member of the $\pi i_{13/2}$ band was found to de-excite also to a long-lived isomeric state. This isomeric state is located at 2350 keV and has a spin and parity of $29/2^{+}$. The half-life of the isomeric state was measured to be 85(3) $\mu \mathrm{s}$ and it decays via the emission of an 84 keV $E2$ transition. A level structure feeding this isomeric state was constructed. A low-energy, 49 keV transition has been identified to depopulate the ($29/2^{-}$) isomeric state, which places it at an energy 2405 keV in the level scheme. This is the first time such a decay has been observed in the neutron-deficient Bi isotopes. A superdeformed band almost identical to that present in the neighboring isotope ${}^{191}\mathrm{Bi}$, based on the 1/2[651] Nilsson orbital, has also been identified.