A local formula of binding energy for heavy and superheavy nuclei has very recently been proposed [Dong and Ren, Phys. Rev. C 72, 064331 (2005)]. In this paper, the limit of the predictive ability of this local formula is investigated. It is found that the neutron-proton correlations should be considered when higher precision is required. On the one hand, we introduce a new term $|N-Z-50|/A$, and on the other hand we consider the different strengths of proton-proton, neutron-neutron, and neutron-proton pairing correlations. For the first time, the standard deviation $\sqrt{{\sigma }^2}$ of the binding energies for 117 nuclei with $Z⩾90$ and $N⩾140$ is reduced to 0.105 MeV. The α decay energies $Q_{\alpha }$ and half-lives $T_{\alpha }$ of nuclei with $Z=102\text{−}118$ are reproduced quite well. The proton drip line of superheavy elements from Md ($Z=101$) to Ds ($Z=110$) are predicted.

Isotopic fluctuations in fragment formation are investigated in a quasianalytical description of the spinodal decomposition scenario. By exploiting the fluctuation-dissipation relations the covariance matrix of density fluctuations is derived as a function of the wave vector $\mathbf{k}$ for nuclear matter at given values of density, charge asymmetry, temperature, and the time that the system spends in the instability region. Then density fluctuations in ordinary space are implemented with a Fourier transform performed in a finite cubic lattice. Inside this box, domains with different density coexist, from which clusters of nucleons eventually emerge. Within our approach, the isotopic distributions are determined by the $N/Z$ ratio of the leading unstable isoscalar-like modes and by isovector-like fluctuations present in the matter undergoing the spinodal decomposition. Hence the average value of the $N/Z$ ratio of clusters and the width of the relative distribution reflect the properties of the symmetry energy. By generating a large number of events, these calculations allow a careful investigation of the cluster isotopic content as a function of the cluster density. A uniform decrease of the average charge asymmetry and of the width of the isotopic distributions with increasing density is observed. Finally, we remark that the results essentially refer to the early breakup of the system.

In view of its relation to Big Bang nucleosynthesis and a reported discrepancy between nuclear models and data taken at S-DALINAC, electro-induced deuteron breakup ${}^2\mathrm{H}(e,e^{\text{'}}p)n$ is studied at momentum transfer $q<100$ MeV and close to threshold in the low-energy nuclear effective field theory without dynamical pions, EFT($\pi /$). The result at next-to-next-to-leading order (N${}^2\mathrm{LO}$) for electric dipole currents and at next-to-leading order (NLO) for magnetic ones converges order-by-order better than quantitatively predicted and contains no free parameter. It is at this order determined by simple, well-known observables. Decomposing the triple differential cross section into the longitudinal-plus-transverse ($L+T$), transverse-transverse (TT), and longitudinal-transverse interference ($\mathit{LT}$) terms, we find excellent agreement with a potential-model calculation by Arenhövel and co-workers, based on the Bonn potential. Theory and data also agree well on ${\sigma }_{L+T}$. There is however no space on the theory side for the discrepancy of up to $30\%(3\sigma )$ between theory and experiment in ${\sigma }_{\mathit{LT}}$. From universality of EFT($\pi /$), we conclude that no theoretical approach with the correct deuteron asymptotic wave function can explain the data. Undetermined short-distance contributions that could affect ${\sigma }_{\mathit{LT}}$ enter only at high orders (i.e., at the few-percent level). We notice some issues with the kinematics and normalization of the data reported.

Two-pion exchange parity-violating nucleon-nucleon interactions from recent effective field theories and earlier fully covariant approaches are investigated. The potentials are compared with the goal of obtaining better insight into the role of low-energy constants appearing in the effective field theory approach and its convergence in terms of a perturbative series. The results are illustrated by considering the longitudinal asymmetry of polarized protons scattering off protons, $\overrightarrow{p}+p\to p+p$, and the asymmetry of the photon emission in radiative capture of polarized neutrons by protons, $\overrightarrow{n}+p\to d+\gamma$.

We describe a procedure for mapping a self-consistent mean-field theory (also known as density functional theory) onto a shell-model Hamiltonian that includes quadrupole-quadrupole and monopole pairing interactions in a truncated space. We test our method in the deformed $N=Z\hspace{0.5em}\mathit{sd}$-shell nuclei ${}^{20}\mathrm{Ne}$, ${}^{24}\mathrm{Mg}$, and ${}^{36}\mathrm{Ar}$, starting from the Hartree-Fock plus Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) approximation of the universal $\mathit{sd}$ shell-model interaction. A similar method is then followed using the SLy4 Skyrme energy density functional in the particle-hole channel plus a zero-range density-dependent force in the pairing channel. Based on the ground-state solution of this density functional theory at the Hartree-Fock plus BCS level, an effective shell-model Hamiltonian is constructed. We apply this mapped Hamiltonian to extract quadrupolar and pairing correlation energies beyond the mean-field approximation. The rescaling of the mass quadrupole operator in the truncated shell-model space is found to be almost independent of the coupling strength used in the pairing channel of the underlying mean-field theory.

Bound excited states in the neutron-deficient nucleus ${}^{21}\mathrm{Mg}$ were probed in the one-neutron knockout reaction ${}^9\mathrm{Be}({}^{22}\mathrm{Mg},{}^{21}\mathrm{Mg}+\gamma )\mathrm{X}$ at 74 MeV/nucleon projectile energy. The low-lying level scheme of ${}^{21}\mathrm{Mg}$ was investigated for the first time with $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy. Contrary to the interpretation of previous particle spectroscopy data, our proposed excitation scheme is in agreement with the mirror nucleus and shell-model calculations in the $p\text{−}\mathit{sd}$ shell. Spectroscopic factors for the one-neutron removal from ${}^{22}\mathrm{Mg}$ to ${}^{21}\mathrm{Mg}$ are extracted and compared to shell-model calculations using the WBP effective interaction.

In this paper we study a methodical problem related to the magnetic scenario recently suggested and initiated by Liao and Shuryak [Phys. Rev. C 75, 054907 (2007)] to understand the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (sQGP): the electric flux tube in a monopole plasma. A macroscopic approach, in which we interpolate between a Bose condensed (dual superconductor) medium and a classical gas medium, is developed first. Then we work out a microscopic approach based on detailed quantum mechanical calculations of the monopole scattering on the electric flux tube, evaluating induced currents for all partial waves. As expected, the flux tube loses its stability when particles can penetrate it: We make this condition precise by calculating the critical value for the product of the flux tube size times the particle momentum, above which the flux tube dissolves. Lattice static potentials indicate that flux tubes seem to dissolve at $T>T_{\mathrm{dissolution}}\approx 1.3T_c$. Using our criterion one gets an estimate of the magnetic density $n\approx 4.4-6.6$ fm${}^{-3}$ at this temperature.

We discuss how electromagnetic properties provide useful tests of the nature of resonances, and we study these properties for the $N^{*}(1535)$ that appears dynamically generated from the strong interaction of mesons and baryons. Within this coupled-channels chiral unitary approach, we evaluate the $A_{1/2}$ and $S_{1/2}$ helicity amplitudes as a function of $Q^2$ for the electromagnetic $N^{*}(1535)\to {\gamma }^{*}N$ transition. Within the same formalism we evaluate the cross section for the reactions $\gamma N\to \eta N$. We find a fair agreement for the absolute values of the transition amplitudes, as well as for the $Q^2$ dependence of the amplitudes, within theoretical and experimental uncertainties discussed in the article. The ratios obtained between the $S_{1/2}$ and $A_{1/2}$ for the neutron or proton states of the $N^{*}(1535)$ are in qualitative agreement with experiment and there is agreement on the signs. The same occurs for the ratio of cross sections for the $\eta$ photoproduction on neutron and proton targets in the vicinity of the $N^{*}(1535)$ energy. The global results support the idea of this resonance as being dynamically generated, hence, largely built up from meson baryon components. However, the details of the model indicate that an admixture with a genuine quark state is also demanded that could help obtain a better agreement with experimental data.

The first measurements of the polarized structure function ${\sigma }_{{\mathit{LT}}^{\text{'}}}$ for the reaction ${}^1\mathrm{H}$$(\overrightarrow{e},e^{\text{'}}{K}^{+})\Lambda$ in the nucleon resonance region are reported. Measurements are included from threshold up to $W=2.05$ GeV for central values of $Q^2$ of 0.65 and 1.00 GeV${}^2$, and nearly the entire kaon center-of-mass angular range. ${\sigma }_{{\mathit{LT}}^{\text{'}}}$ is the imaginary part of the longitudinal-transverse response and is expected to be sensitive to interferences between competing intermediate $s$-channel resonances, as well as resonant and nonresonant processes. The results for ${\sigma }_{{\mathit{LT}}^{\text{'}}}$ are comparable in magnitude to previously reported results from CLAS for ${\sigma }_{\mathit{LT}}$, the real part of the same response. An intriguing sign change in ${\sigma }_{{\mathit{LT}}^{\text{'}}}$ is observed in the high $Q^2$ data at $W\approx 1.9$ GeV. Comparisons to several existing model predictions are shown.

A study of first and second order nuclear shape phase transitional behavior in yrast states of even-even nuclei in the context of the Interacting Boson Model-1 is presented. Finite boson number effects are identified using calculations with up to 150 bosons, and the role of the rotational degree of freedom of observables in first and second order quantum phase transitional nuclei is discussed. We aim to provide a first investigation of the angular momentum dependence of experimentally accessible phase transitional signatures in finite-sized quantum nuclear systems.

We investigate the medium-induced change of mass and width of $J/\psi$ and ${\eta }_c$ across the phase transition in hot gluonic matter using QCD sum rules. In the QCD sum rule approach, the medium effect on heavy quarkonia is induced by the change of both scalar and twist-2 gluon condensates, whose temperature dependencies are extracted from the lattice calculations of energy density and pressure. Although the stability of the operator product expansion side seems to break down at $T>1.06T_c$ for the vector channel and $T>1.04T_c$ for the pseudoscalar channel, we find a sudden change of the spectral property across the critical temperature $T_c$, which originates from an equally rapid change of the scalar gluon condensate characterized by $\varepsilon -3p$. By parametrizing the ground state of the spectral density by the Breit-Wigner form, we find that for both $J/\psi$ and ${\eta }_c$, the masses suddenly decrease maximally by a few hundreds of MeV and the widths broaden to $~100$ MeV slightly above $T_c$. The implications for recent and future heavy-ion experiments are discussed. We also carry out a similar analysis for charmonia in nuclear matter, which could serve as a testing ground for observing the precursor phenomena of the QCD phase transition. We finally discuss the possibility of observing the mass shift at nuclear matter at the FAIR project at GSI.

The Friedberg-Lee model is studied at finite temperature and density. By using the finite temperature field theory, the effective potential of the Friedberg-Lee model and the bag constant $B(T)$ and $B(T,\mu )$ have been calculated at different temperatures and densities. It is shown that there is a critical temperature $T_C\simeq 106.6$ MeV when $\mu =0$ MeV and a critical chemical potential $\mu \simeq 223.1$ MeV for fixing the temperature at $T=50$ MeV. We also calculate the soliton solutions of the Friedberg-Lee model at finite temperature and density. It turns out that when $T⩽T_C$ (or $\mu ⩽{\mu }_C$), there is a bag constant $B(T)$ [or $B(T,\mu )$] and the soliton solutions are stable. However, when $T>T_C$ (or $\mu >{\mu }_C$) the bag constant $B(T)=0$ MeV [or $B(T,\mu )=0$ MeV] and there is no soliton solution anymore, therefore, the confinement of quarks disappears quickly.

An empirical fit is described to measurements of inclusive inelastic electron-deuteron cross sections in the kinematic range of four-momentum transfer $0⩽Q^2<10$ GeV${}^2$ and final state invariant mass $1.1<W<3.2$ GeV. The deuteron fit relies on a fit of the ratio $R_p$ of longitudinal to transverse cross sections for the proton, and the assumption $R_p=R_n$. The underlying fit parameters describe the average cross section for a free proton and a free neutron, with a plane-wave impulse approximation used to fit to the deuteron data. Additional fit parameters are used to fill in the dip between the quasi-elastic peak and the $\Delta (1232)$ resonance. The mean deviation of data from the fit is 3%, with less than 4% of the data points deviating from the fit by more than 10%.

The ${}^{138}\mathrm{La}$ ($T_{1/2}=102$ Gyr)-${}^{138}\mathrm{Ce}$-${}^{136}\mathrm{Ce}$ system is proposed to be used as a nuclear cosmochronometer for measuring the time elapsed from a supernova neutrino process. This chronometer is applied to examine a sample affected by a single nucleosynthesis episode as presolar grains in primitive meteorites. A feature of this chronometer is to evaluate the initial abundance ratio of ${}^{136}\mathrm{Ce}$/${}^{138}\mathrm{Ce}$ using an empirical scaling law, which was found in the solar abundances. We calculate the age of the sample as a function of isotopic ratios ${}^{136}\mathrm{Ce}$/${}^{138}\mathrm{Ce}$ and ${}^{138}\mathrm{La}$/${}^{138}\mathrm{Ce}$ and evaluate the age uncertainty due to theoretical and observational errors. It is concluded that this chronometer can work well for a sample with the abundance ratio of ${}^{138}\mathrm{La}$/${}^{138}\mathrm{Ce}$ ≥ 20 when the ratios of ${}^{136}\mathrm{Ce}$/${}^{138}\mathrm{Ce}$ and ${}^{138}\mathrm{La}$/${}^{138}\mathrm{Ce}$ are measured within the uncertainty of 20%. The availability of such samples becomes clear in recent studies of the presolar grains. We also discuss the effect of the nuclear structure to the ν process origin of ${}^{138}\mathrm{La}$.

We study fusion reactions of the ${}^{64}\mathrm{Ni}{+}^{64}\mathrm{Ni}$ system using the density-constrained time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) formalism. In this formalism the fusion barriers are directly obtained from TDHF dynamics. In addition, we incorporate the entrance channel alignments of the slightly deformed (oblate) ${}^{64}\mathrm{Ni}$ nuclei resulting from dynamical Coulomb excitation. We show that alignment leads to a fusion barrier distribution and alters the naive picture for defining which energies are actually sub-barrier. We also show that core orientation effects could play a significant role in fusion cross section calculations.

Traditional cutoff regularization schemes of the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model limit the applicability of the model to energy-momentum scales much below the value of the regularizing cutoff. In particular, the model cannot be used to study quark matter with Fermi momenta larger than the cutoff. In the present work, an extension of the model to high temperatures and densities recently proposed by Casalbuoni, Gatto, Nardulli, and Ruggieri is used in connection with an implicit regularization scheme. This is done by making use of scaling relations of the divergent one-loop integrals that relate these integrals at different energy-momentum scales. Fixing the pion decay constant at the chiral symmetry breaking scale in the vacuum, the scaling relations predict a running coupling constant that decreases as the regularization scale increases, implementing in a schematic way the property of asymptotic freedom of quantum chromodynamics. If the regularization scale is allowed to increase with density and temperature, the coupling will decrease with density and temperature, extending in this way the applicability of the model to high densities and temperatures. These results are obtained without specifying an explicit regularization. As an illustration of the formalism, numerical results are obtained for the finite density and finite temperature quark condensate and applied to the problem of color superconductivity at high quark densities and finite temperature.

We examine the shift in the chiral condensate due to a constant electromagnetic field at $\mathcal{O}(p^6)$ using SU(2) chiral perturbation theory and a realistic $M_{\pi }=140\hspace{1em}\mathrm{MeV}$. We find that this value differs significantly from the value calculated using $M_{\pi }=0$, while the magnitude of the two-loop correction is unclear due to the uncertainty in the experimentally determined value of the relevant ${\mathcal{L}}_6$ LEC.

We examine the effect of adding pion exchange between quarks and pion self-energy corrections to the Los Alamos relativistic quark model with a short-distance cutoff of the Bethe form. The contributions to the nucleon and the $\Delta$ baryon are small. We conclude that the model is stable under this change in the sense that significant changes to the model parameters are not required.

We present a model for the description of nuclear matter and finite nuclei, and at the same time, for the study of medium modifications of nucleon properties. The nucleons are described as nontopological solitons which interact through the self-consistent exchange of scalar and vector mesons. The model explicitly incorporates quark degrees of freedom into nuclear many-body systems and provides satisfactory results on the nuclear properties. The present model predicts a significant increase of the nucleon radius at normal nuclear matter density. It is very interesting to see the nucleon properties change from the nuclear surface to the nuclear interior.

The cross sections of proton-capture reactions on ${}^{104}\mathrm{Pd}$, ${}^{105}\mathrm{Pd}$, and ${}^{106}\mathrm{Pd}$ were measured by means of the 4π γ-summing method at energies from 2.6 to 7.2 MeV. Angle-integrated γ fluxes were measured using a large volume (${12}^{\text{'}\text{'}}\times {12}^{\text{'}\text{'}}$) NaI(Tl) detector. Astrophysical $S$ factors and reaction rates were deduced from the measured cross sections. Statistical model calculations were performed using the TALYS code and were compared with the new data as well as with other data on ${}^{102}\mathrm{Pd}$ available in the literature. A very good agreement between theory and experiment was found.