Based on the particle-rotor model with one particle coupled to a triaxially deformed rotor, the experimental excitation energy relative to a reference $E^{*}-\mathit{aI}(I+1)$ and the ratio between interband and intraband electromagnetic transitions are well reproduced for ${}^{167}\mathrm{Ta}$ with $\gamma ={19}^{°}$. The same parameter set for the angular-momentum-dependent rigid-body moments of inertia attains good agreement with experimental data for the positive-parity triaxial, strongly deformed (TSD) band levels in ${}^{167}\mathrm{Lu}$. An attempt is made to investigate the negative-parity TSD band in ${}^{167}\mathrm{Lu}$.

Isomers in the neutron-rich nucleus ${}^{190}\mathrm{W}$ have been characterized. A ${10}^{-}$ state from the $9/2^{-}[505]\otimes 11/2^{+}[615]$ two-neutron configuration with a 240-$\mu$s lifetime decays via a $K$-allowed, 97-keV, $M2$ transition to an $8^{+}$ state with a 160-ns lifetime from the $9/2^{-}[505]\otimes 7/2^{-}[503]$ neutron configuration. New states have also been identified in ${}^{188}\mathrm{W}$, including a $K^{\pi }=8^{-}$, 158-ns isomer from the $9/2^{-}[614]\otimes 7/2^{+}[404]$ two-proton configuration. The $K$ hindrance is observed to decrease with increasing neutron number, consistent with a trend toward increasing triaxial softness.

A powerful method of investigating proton-unbound nuclear states by tracking their decay products in flight is discussed in detail. To verify the method, four known levels in ${}^{15}\mathrm{F}$, ${}^{16}\mathrm{Ne}$, and ${}^{19}\mathrm{Na}$ were investigated by measuring the angular correlations between protons and the respective heavy-ion fragments stemming from the precursor decays in flight. The parent nuclei of interest were produced in nuclear reactions of one-neutron removal from ${}^{17}\mathrm{Ne}$ and ${}^{20}\mathrm{Mg}$ projectiles at energies of 410–450 $A$ MeV. The trajectories of the respective decay products, ${}^{14}\mathrm{O}$ $+$ p $+$ p and ${}^{18}\mathrm{Ne}$ $+$ p $+$ p, were measured by applying a tracking technique with microstrip detectors. These data were used to reconstruct the angular correlations of the fragments, which provided information on energies and widths of the parent states. In addition for reproducing properties of known states, evidence for hitherto unknown excited states in ${}^{15}\mathrm{F}$ and ${}^{16}\mathrm{Ne}$ was found. This tracking technique has an advantage in studies of exotic nuclei beyond the proton drip line measuring the resonance energies and widths with a high precision although by using low-intensity beams and very thick targets.

The structure and decay properties of high-$K$ isomers in ${}^{176}\mathrm{Hf}$ have been studied using beam sweeping techniques and the Gammasphere multidetector array. A new $\Delta K=8$ decay branch, from a $K^{\pi }={22}^{-}$, six-quasiparticle, isomeric ($t_{1/2}=43\mu$s) state at 4864 keV to the 20${}^{-}$ state of a $K^{\pi }={14}^{-}$ band, has been identified. The reduced hindrance factor per degree of $K$ forbiddenness for this decay is measured to be unusually low ($f_{\nu }=3.2$), which suggests $K$ mixing in the states involved. The deduced interaction matrix elements are discussed within the context of relevant $K$-mixing scenarios. The 3266-keV state, previously interpreted as a $K^{\pi }={16}^{+}$ intrinsic state, is reassigned as the $J^{\pi }={16}^{+}$ member of the band based on the $K^{\pi }={15}^{+}$ state at 3080 keV. The systematics of $f_{\nu }$ values as a function of the degree of forbiddenness is discussed in light of this change.

The proton-neutron interaction between the last proton and the last two neutrons, $V_{1p-2n}$, and that between the last two protons and the last neutron, $V_{2p-1n}$, for nuclei with mass number $A⩾60$, are extracted by using experimental binding energies of neighboring nuclei. By using a simple function to describe $V_{1p-2n}$ and $V_{2p-1n}$, we present new relations connecting the masses of neighboring nuclei with improved accuracies.

The neutron-rich ${}^{11}\mathrm{Li}$ halo nucleus is unique among nuclei with known separation energies in its ability to emit a proton and a neutron in a $\beta$-decay process. The branching ratio toward this rare decay mode is evaluated within a three-body model for the initial bound state and with Coulomb three-body final scattering states. The branching ratio should be comprised between two extreme cases, i.e., a lower bound $6\times {10}^{-12}$ obtained with a pure Coulomb wave and an upper bound $5\times {10}^{-10}$ obtained with a plane wave. A simple model with modified Coulomb waves provides plausible values between $0.8\times {10}^{-10}$ and $2.2\times {10}^{-10}$, with most probable total energies of the proton and neutron between 0.15 and 0.3 MeV.

A Monte Carlo simulation of the fission fragment deexcitation process was developed in order to analyze and predict postfission-related nuclear data which are of crucial importance for basic and applied nuclear physics. The basic ideas of such a simulation were already developed in the past. In the present work, a refined model is proposed in order to make a reliable description of the distributions related to fission fragments as well as to prompt neutron and $\gamma$ energies and multiplicities. This refined model is mainly based on a mass-dependent temperature ratio law used for the initial excitation energy partition of the fission fragments and a spin-dependent excitation energy limit for neutron emission. These phenomenological improvements allow us to reproduce with a good agreement the ${}^{252}\mathrm{Cf}$(sf) experimental data on prompt fission neutron multiplicity $\overline{\nu }(A)$, $\overline{\nu }(TKE)$, the neutron multiplicity distribution $P(\nu ),$ as well as their energy spectra $N(E)$, and lastly the energy release in fission.

The coupled-channels density-matrix technique for nuclear reaction dynamics, which is based on the Liouville-von Neumann equation with Lindblad dissipative terms, is developed with the inclusion of full angular momentum couplings. It allows a quantitative study of the role and importance of quantum decoherence in nuclear scattering. Formulas of asymptotic observables that can reveal effects of quantum decoherence are given. A method for extracting energy-resolved scattering information from the time-dependent density matrix is introduced. As an example, model calculations are carried out for the low-energy collision of the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ projectile on the ${}^{154}\mathrm{Sm}$ target.

We analyze the photon rates from a hadronic gas in equilibrium using chiral-reduction formulas and a density expansion. The chiral reduction is carried to second order in the pion density, which in principal includes all kinetic processes of the type $X\to \pi \gamma$ and $X\to \pi \pi \gamma$. The resulting rates are encoded in the form of vacuum correlation functions, which are amenable to experiment. The hadronic rates computed in this work along with the known perturbative quark gluon plasma rates are integrated over the space-time evolution of a hydrodynamic model tuned to hadronic observables. The resulting yields are compared to the recent photon and low-mass dilepton measurements at the Super Proton Synchrotron and Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Predictions for the Large Hadron Collider are made.

We consider the two-flavor version of the linear sigma model as well as of the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model, at finite temperature and quark chemical potential, beyond the mean field approximation. Using parameter values for the pion and quark current masses which weakly break chiral symmetry, we show that both models can present more than one critical end point. In particular, we explicitly show that the appearance of a new critical point associated with a first-order line at high temperature and low densities could help to conciliate some lattice results with model predictions. Using different techniques, we perform an extensive thermodynamical analysis to understand the physical nature of the different critical points. For both models, our results suggest that the new first-order line which starts at vanishing chemical potential has a more chiral character than the usual line which displays a character more reminiscent of a liquid-gas phase transition.

It is noted that the staggering parameters used to describe even-odd effects for isotope shifts can in some cases exhibit very rapidly varying behavior as a function of neutron number. On the other hand, a three-parameter formula (3P) with fixed coefficients can explain the same behavior in the $A=40$ region.

Within the framework of the improved isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (ImIQMD) model, the dynamics of strangeness ($K^{0,+}$, $\Lambda$, and ${\Sigma }^{-,0,+}$) production in heavy-ion collisions near threshold energies is investigated systematically, with the strange particles considered to be produced mainly by inelastic collisions of baryon-baryon and pion-baryon. Collisions in the region of suprasaturation densities of the dense baryonic matter formed in heavy-ion collisions dominate the yields of strangeness production. Total multiplicities as functions of incident energies and collision centralities are calculated with the Skyrme parameter SLy6. The excitation function of strangeness production is analyzed and also compared with the KaoS data for $K^{+}$ production in the reactions ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ and ${}^{197}\mathrm{Au}+{}^{197}\mathrm{Au}$.

We derive a nonlocal effective Lagrangian for the chiral magnetic effect. An electric field is generated by winding number fluctuations of the nonabelian gauge field in the presence of a strong magnetic field. We estimate the magnitude of charge asymmetry fluctuations with respect to the reaction plane induced by the chiral magnetic effect in relativistic heavy-ion collisions to be less than ${10}^{-6}$, several orders of magnitude smaller than the signal observed in the STAR experiment.

The capture-fission cross section for the ${}^{36}\mathrm{S}+{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ reaction was measured for seven center-of-mass energies ranging from 147.5 to 210.2 MeV. A comparison of the deduced interaction barriers from “distribution of barriers” measurements and simple $1/E_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}$ plots for 13 well-characterized systems shows the validity of the latter approach for deducing interaction barriers, especially for reaction systems involving radioactive beams where the former measurements are not currently feasible. Application of the $1/E_{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}$ plot technique for the ${}^{36}\mathrm{S}+{}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ reaction gives an interaction barrier height of $140.4\pm 1.4$ MeV. This value as well as the deduced interaction barriers for all known studies of capture cross sections with radioactive beams are in good agreement with recent predictions of an improved isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics model and a modified version of capture cross-section systematics by Swiatecki et al. The deduced barriers for these n-rich systems are lower than one would expect from semiempirical systematics based upon the Bass potential. In addition to the barrier lowering, there is an enhanced subbarrier cross section in these n-rich systems not predicted by the Bass potential systematics. These enhanced subbarrier cross sections may be important in the synthesis of the heaviest nuclei.

Excited states of ${}^{118}\mathrm{Sb}$ were populated via the ${}^{116}\mathrm{Cd}$$({}^7\mathrm{Li}$,5n)${}^{118}\mathrm{Sb}$ fusion-evaporation reaction at a beam energy of 50 MeV. The previously known level scheme has been considerably extended, and about 36 new transitions were added into the level scheme of ${}^{118}\mathrm{Sb}$. One new rotational band has been identified, and assigned the $\pi g_{9/2}^{-1}\otimes \nu g_{7/2}$ configuration. The configuration-fixed constrained triaxial relativistic mean-field approaches and the particle-rotor model calculations are employed for analysis of the level structure of ${}^{118}\mathrm{Sb}$.

Equilibration and equilibration rates have been measured by colliding Sn nuclei with different isospin asymmetries at beam energies of $E/A=35$ MeV. Using the yields of mirror nuclei of ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ and ${}^7\mathrm{Be}$, we have studied the diffusion of isospin asymmetry by combining data from asymmetric ${}^{112}\mathrm{Sn}+{}^{124}\mathrm{Sn}$ and ${}^{124}\mathrm{Sn}+{}^{112}\mathrm{Sn}$ collisions with those from symmetric ${}^{112}\mathrm{Sn}+{}^{112}\mathrm{Sn}$ and ${}^{124}\mathrm{Sn}+{}^{124}\mathrm{Sn}$ collisions. We use these measurements to probe isospin equilibration in central collisions where nucleon-nucleon collisions are strongly blocked by the Pauli exclusion principle. The results are consistent with transport theoretical calculations that predict a degree of transparency in these collisions, but inconsistent with the emission of intermediate mass fragments by a single chemically equilibrated source. Comparisons with quantum molecular dynamics calculations are consistent with results obtained at higher incident energies that provide constraints on the density dependence of the symmetry energy.

We present a computation of ${\pi }^0$ nuclear modification factor with respect to the reaction plane in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathit{NN}}}=200$ GeV, based on a Monte Carlo model of elastic energy loss of hard partons traversing the bulk hydrodynamical medium created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We find the incoherent nature of elastic energy loss incompatible with the measured data.

We construct the Liouville operator for the SU(2) classical colored Coulomb plasma for arbitrary values of the Coulomb coupling $\Gamma =V/K$, the ratio of the mean Coulomb to kinetic energy. We show that its resolvent in the classical colored phase space obeys a hierarchy of equations. We use a free-streaming approximation to close the hierarchy and derive an integral equation for the time-dependent structure factor. Its reduction by projection yields hydrodynamical equations in the long-wavelength limit. We discuss the character of the hydrodynamical modes at strong coupling. The shear viscosity is shown to exhibit a minimum at $\Gamma \approx 8$ near the liquid point. This minimum follows from the crossover between the single-particle collisional regime which drops as $1/{\Gamma }^{5/2}$ and the hydrodynamical collisional regime which rises as ${\Gamma }^{1/2}$. The self-diffusion constant drops as $1/{\Gamma }^{3/2}$ irrespective of the regime. We compare our results to molecular-dynamics simulations of the SU(2) colored Coulomb plasma. We also discuss the relevance of our results for the quantum and strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (sQGP).