A direct fit of the isoscalar spin-orbit (SO) and both isoscalar and isovector tensor coupling constants to the $f_{5/2}–f_{7/2}$ SO splittings in ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$, ${}^{56}\mathrm{Ni}$, and ${}^{48}\mathrm{Ca}$ nuclei requires a drastic reduction of the isoscalar SO strength and strong attractive tensor coupling constants. The aim of this work is to address further consequences of these strong attractive tensor and weak SO fields on binding energies, nuclear deformability, and high-spin states. In particular, the contribution to the nuclear binding energy from the tensor field shows a generic magic structure with tensorial magic numbers $N(Z)=14,32,56$, or $90$, corresponding to the maximum spin asymmetries in $1d_{5/2}$, $1f_{7/2}\oplus 2p_{3/2}$, $1g_{9/2}\oplus 2d_{5/2}$, and $1h_{11/2}\oplus 2f_{7/2}$ single-particle configurations, respectively, and that these numbers are smeared out by pairing correlations and deformation effects. The consequences of strong attractive tensor fields and weak SO interaction for nuclear stability at the drip lines are also examined, particularly those close to the tensorial doubly magic nuclei. The possibility of an entirely new tensor-force-driven deformation effect is discussed.

The low-lying structure of ${}^{188,190,192}\mathrm{W}$ has been studied following $\beta$ decays of the neutron-rich mother nuclei ${}^{188,190,192}\mathrm{Ta}$ produced following the projectile fragmentation of a 1-GeV-per-nucleon ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ primary beam on a natural beryllium target at the GSI Fragment Separator. The $\beta$-decay half-lives of ${}^{188}\mathrm{Ta}$, ${}^{190}\mathrm{Ta}$, and ${}^{192}\mathrm{Ta}$ have been measured, with $\gamma$-ray decays of low-lying states in their respective W daughter nuclei, using heavy-ion $\beta -\gamma$ correlations and a position-sensitive silicon detector setup. The data provide information on the low-lying excited states in ${}^{188}\mathrm{W}$, ${}^{190}\mathrm{W}$, and ${}^{192}\mathrm{W}$, which highlight a change in nuclear shape at ${}^{190}\mathrm{W}$ compared with that of lighter W isotopes. This evolution of ground-state structure along the W isotopic chain is discussed as evidence for a possible proton subshell effect for the $A~$ 190 region and is consistent with maximization of the $\gamma$-softness of the nuclear potential around $N~116$.

We consider calculations of direct two-proton removal reactions from a relativistic-energy ${}^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ beam incident on a ${}^9\mathrm{Be}$ target, leading to the population of two-proton-hole isomeric configurations in ${}^{206}\mathrm{Hg}$. The calculated $5^{-}$ and ${10}^{+}$ isomeric state population ratios of $18.8\%$ and $4.7\%$, respectively, are in fair agreement with the values deduced experimentally (${21.9}_{-2.9}^{+1.2}\%$ and ${3.1}_{-1.2}^{+1.0}\%$); however, the high density of final states in this case complicates the prediction of isomeric ratios for those states fed by unobserved prompt $\gamma$-ray cascades. We also consider and quantify the effects of selection of events, according to the longitudinal momenta of the reaction residues, on the measured isomeric ratios for high-spin final states and, hence, of the potential to exploit such sensitivity to gain further insight into the reaction mechanism.

The relativistic projectile fragmentation of a 750 MeV per nucleon beam of ${}^{107}\mathrm{Ag}$ was used to populate isomeric states in neutron-deficient nuclei around $A=80\text{–}90$. Reaction products were separated and unambiguously identified using the GSI FRagment Separator (FRS) and its ancillary detectors. At the final focal plane, the fragments were slowed from relativistic energies by means of an aluminium degrader and implanted in a passive stopper in the center of the high-efficiency, high-granularity Stopped Rare Isotope Spectroscopic INvestigation at GSI (RISING) germanium array. This allowed the identification of excited states in the $N=Z$ nuclei ${}_{43}^{86}\mathrm{Tc}$ and, for the first time, ${}_{41}^{82}\mathrm{Nb}$. Isomeric states have also been identified for the first time in ${}^{87,88}\mathrm{Tc}$, and a previously unreported isomer was observed in ${}^{84}\mathrm{Nb}$. Experimental results are presented along with a discussion on the structure of these nuclei based on interpretations provided by several theoretical models.

We present a thorough analysis of the effects of tensor interaction on the multipole response of magic nuclei, using the fully self-consistent random phase approximation model with Skyrme interactions. We disentangle the modifications to the static mean field induced by the tensor terms, and the specific features of the residual particle-hole (p-h) tensor interaction, for quadrupole ($2^{+}$), octupole ($3^{-}$), and also magnetic dipole ($1^{+}$) responses. It is pointed out that the tensor force has a larger effect on the magnetic dipole states than on the natural parity states $2^{+}$ and $3^{-}$, especially at the mean-field level. Perspectives for a better assessment of the tensor force parameters are discussed.

The half-life of ${}^{151}\mathrm{Sm}$ was redetermined and compared with literature values. A ${}^{151}{\mathrm{Sm}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$ sample was produced by exposing ${}^{150}{\mathrm{Sm}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3$ to the high neutron flux of the heavy water research reactor at the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). The number of atoms and the activity of ${}^{151}\mathrm{Sm}$ in the sample were measured by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) and liquid scintillation counting (LSC), respectively. The half-life of ${}^{151}\mathrm{Sm}$ determined in this work is $96.6$ yr, with a standard uncertainty of $2.4$ yr based on a quadratic summation of the uncertainty components from the measurements of the number of atoms and the activity of ${}^{151}\mathrm{Sm}$.

High-spin states in ${}^{168}\mathrm{Hf}$ were populated in the ${}^{96}\mathrm{Zr}$(${}^{76}\mathrm{Ge}$,$4n$) reaction and the decay $\gamma$ rays measured with the Gammasphere spectrometer array. Previously known bands were extended to significantly higher spins and seven new bands were established. The results were interpreted within the framework of the cranked shell model with the help of comparisons with neighboring nuclei. The observation of full alignment in band crossings at a rotational frequency $\hslash \omega ~0.55$ MeV revealed that these crossings are associated with proton alignments involving $h_{11/2}$ and $h_{9/2}$ orbitals. The characteristics of one strongly coupled high-$K$ band indicate that the deformation-aligned configuration is built on the same six quasiparticles that constitute the high-spin structure of a rotationally aligned band. This leads to the coexistence of two coupling schemes, deformation and rotation alignment, in six-quasiparticle structures involving the same orbitals.

We investigate whether the apparent discrepancy between proton electric form factors from measurements using the Rosenbluth separation technique and those obtained with the polarization transfer method is attributable to the standard approximations employed in radiative correction procedures. Inaccuracies attributable to both the peaking approximation and the soft-photon approximation have been removed in our simulation approach. In contrast to results from $(e,e^{\text{'}}p)$ experiments, we find those in this case to be too small to explain the discrepancy.

There is an increasing interest in studying transfer reactions to probe the nuclear structure of exotic nuclei. For these loosely bound systems, the role of the continuum needs to be well understood. In this study, we concentrate on $(p,d)$ and $(d,p)$ reactions and compare two formulations for the transfer process that take into account breakup states. Applications to ${}^{11}\mathrm{Be}$$(p,d)$${}^{10}\mathrm{Be}$ at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=38.4$ MeV/nucleon and ${}^{10}\mathrm{Be}$$(d,p)$${}^{11}\mathrm{Be}$ at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=12.5$ MeV/nucleon are presented, as is a detailed discussion of convergence rates.

The volume component of the phenomenological optical potential is traced to the microscopic theory of nuclear matter. The latter is based on the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach with three-body force, which recently has proved to be able to reproduce the empirical saturation properties of nuclear matter. The self-energy is calculated and its on-shell matrix elements are related to the volume part of the optical potential. A previous investigation, where the real part of the microscopic potential was compared with an empirical one, which is a fit of the experimental nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering, is here extended to the absorptive component. Moreover, the isospin splitting of the optical potential is discussed in connection with the proton and neutron effective masses of isospin asymmetric nuclear systems.

Elliptic flow in heavy-ion collisions at incident energies $E_{\text{lab}}\simeq (1–160)A$ GeV is analyzed within the model of three-fluid dynamics (3FD). We show that a simple correction factor, taking into account dissipative effects, allows us to adjust the 3FD results to experimental data. This single-parameter fit results in a good reproduction of the elliptic flow as a function of the incident energy, centrality of the collision, and rapidity. The experimental scaling of pion eccentricity-scaled elliptic flow versus charged-hadron-multiplicity density per unit transverse area also turns out to be reasonably described. Proceeding from values of the Knudsen number, deduced from this fit, we estimate the upper limit of the shear viscosity-to-entropy ratio as $\eta /s~1–2$ at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) incident energies. This value is of the order of minimal $\eta /s$ observed in water and liquid nitrogen.

We show that the single, nonphotonic electron nuclear modification factor $R_{\mathit{AA}}^e$ is affected by the thermal enhancement of the heavy-baryon-to-heavy-meson ratio in relativistic heavy-ion collisions with respect to proton-proton collisions. We make use of the dynamical quark recombination model to compute such a ratio and show that this produces a sizable suppression factor for $R_{\mathit{AA}}^e$ at intermediate transverse momenta. We argue that this suppression factor needs to be considered, in addition to the energy loss contribution, in calculations of $R_{\mathit{AA}}^e$.

The dynamics of transfer reactions in collisions of two very heavy nuclei ${}^{238}\mathrm{U}+{}^{238}\mathrm{U}$ is studied within the dinuclear system (DNS) model. Collisions of two actinide nuclei form a superheavy composite system during a very short time, in which a large number of charge and mass transfers may take place. Such reactions have been investigated experimentally as an alternative way for the production of heavy and superheavy nuclei. The role of collision orientation in the production cross sections of heavy nuclides is analyzed systematically. Calculations show that the cross sections decrease drastically as the charged numbers of the heavy fragments increase. The transfer mechanism is favorable to synthesizing heavy neutron-rich isotopes, such as nuclei around the subclosure at $N=162$ from No ($Z=102$) to Db ($Z=105$).

We analyze experimental data obtained for the mass distribution of fission fragments in the reactions ${}^{36}\mathrm{S}+{}^{238}\mathrm{U}$ and ${}^{30}\mathrm{Si}+{}^{238}\mathrm{U}$ at several incident energies, which were performed by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) group. The analysis of the mass distribution of fission fragments is a powerful tool for understanding the mechanism of the reaction in the heavy and superheavy-mass regions. Using the dynamical model with the Langevin equation, we precisely investigate the incident energy dependence of the mass distribution of fission fragments. This study is the first attempt to treat such experimental data systematically. We also consider the fine structures in the mass distribution of fission fragments caused by the nuclear structure at a low incident energy. It is explained why the mass distribution of fission fragments has different features in the two reactions. The fusion cross sections are also estimated.

The semi-inclusive properties of the system of neutral and charged particles with net charge equal to zero are considered in the grand canonical, canonical and microcanonical ensembles as well as in a microcanonical ensemble with scaling volume fluctuations. Distributions of neutral-particle multiplicity and charged-particle momentum are calculated as a function of the number of charged particles. Different statistical ensembles lead to qualitatively different dependencies. They are being compared with the corresponding experimental data on multihadron production in $p+p$ interactions at high energies.

Contributions of $D$ waves to physical observables for neutral pion photoproduction from the proton in the near-threshold region are studied and means to isolate them are proposed. Various approaches to describe the multipoles are employed—a phenomenological one, a unitary one, and heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The results of these approaches are compared and found to yield essentially the same answers. $D$ waves are seen to enter together with $S$ waves in a way that any means which attempt to obtain the $E_{0+}$ multipole accurately must rely on knowledge of $D$ waves and that consequently the latter cannot be dismissed in analyses of low-energy pion photoproduction. It is shown that $D$ waves have a significant impact on double-polarization observables that can be measured. This importance of $D$ waves is due to the soft nature of the $S$ wave and is a direct consequence of chiral symmetry and the Nambu-Goldstone nature of the pion. $F$-wave contributions are shown to be negligible in the near-threshold region.

We study the properties of $D$ and $D^{*}$ mesons in nuclear matter within a simultaneous self-consistent coupled-channel unitary approach that implements heavy-quark symmetry. The in-medium solution accounts for Pauli blocking effects and for the $D$ and $D^{*}$ self-energies in a self-consistent manner. We pay special attention to renormalization of the intermediate propagators in the medium beyond the usual cutoff scheme. We analyze the behavior in the nuclear medium of the rich spectrum of dynamically generated baryonic resonances in the $C=1$ and $S=0$ sector and their influence on the self-energy and, hence, the spectral function of $D$ and $D^{*}$ mesons. The $D$ meson quasiparticle peak mixes with ${\Sigma }_c(2823)N^{-1}$ and ${\Sigma }_c(2868)N^{-1}$ states, whereas the ${\Lambda }_c(2595)N^{-1}$ mode is present in the low-energy tail of the spectral function. The $D^{*}$ spectral function incorporates $J=3/2$ resonances, and ${\Sigma }_c(2902)N^{-1}$ and ${\Lambda }_c(2941)N^{-1}$ fully determine the behavior of $D^{*}$ meson spectral function at the quasiparticle peak. As the density increases, these resonant-hole modes tend to smear out and the spectral functions become broad. We also obtain the $D$ and $D^{*}$ scattering lengths and the optical potentials for different density regimes. The $D$ meson potential stays attractive, whereas the $D^{*}$ meson one is repulsive with increasing densities up to twice that of the normal nuclear matter. Compared to previous in-medium SU(4) models, we obtain similar values for the real part of the $D$ meson potential but much smaller imaginary parts. This result could have important implications for the observation of $D^0$-nucleus bound states.

A detailed study of the ${}^4\mathrm{He}$ longitudinal response function $R_L(\omega ,q)$ is performed at different kinematics, with particular emphasis on the role of three-nucleon forces. The effects reported are the results of an $\mathrm{ab}\hspace{1em}\mathrm{initio}$ calculation where the full four-body continuum dynamics is considered via the Lorentz integral transform method. The contributions of the various multipoles to the longitudinal response function are analyzed, and integral properties of the response are discussed as well. The Argonne V18 nucleon-nucleon interaction and two three-nucleon force models (Urbana IX and Tucson-Melbourne′) are used. At lower momentum transfers ($q⩽200\hspace{0.5em}\hspace{0.5em}\mathrm{MeV}/c$) three-nucleon forces play an important role. One even finds a dependence of $R_L$ on the three-nucleon force model itself, with differences of up to 10%. Thus a Rosenbluth separation of the inclusive electron scattering cross section of ${}^4\mathrm{He}$ at low momentum transfers would be of great value for differentiating among force models.

Toward a universal description of pairing properties in nuclei far from stability, we extend the energy density functional by enriching the isovector density dependence in the particle-particle channel (pair density functional, pair-DF). We emphasize the necessity of both the linear and quadratic isovector density terms. The parameters are optimized by the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculation for 156 nuclei of mass number $A=118$ to $196$ and asymmetry parameter $(N-Z)/A<0.25$. We clarify that the pair-DF should include the isovector density dependence in order to take into account in a consistent manner the effect of the isoscalar and isovector effective masses in the particle-hole channel. The different Skyrme forces can give the small difference in the pairing gaps toward the neutron drip line if the optimal pair-DF, consistent with the particle-hole channel, is employed.

We study systematically the impact of the time-even tensor terms of the Skyrme energy density functional, i.e., terms bilinear in the spin-current tensor density, on deformation properties of closed-shell nuclei corresponding to $20,28,40,50,82$, and $126$ neutron or proton shell closures. We compare results obtained with three different families of Skyrme parametrizations whose tensor terms have been adjusted on properties of spherical nuclei: (i) $\mathrm{T}\mathit{IJ}$ interactions proposed in the first article of this series [T. Lesinski et al., Phys. Rev. C 76, 014312 (2007)] that were constructed through a complete readjustment of the rest of the functional and (ii) parametrizations whose tensor terms have been added perturbatively to existing Skyrme interactions, with or without readjusting the spin-orbit coupling constant. We analyze in detail the mechanisms at play behind the impact of tensor terms on deformation properties and how studying the latter can help screen out unrealistic parametrizations. It is expected that findings of the present article  are to a large extent independent of remaining deficiencies of the central and spin-orbit interactions and will be of great value for the construction of future, improved energy functionals.