We present a data-driven analysis within a quantum evolutionary microscopic framework to constrain the in-medium bottomonium potential. In relativistic heavy-ion collisions, bottomonium bound states serve as invaluable probes of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) owing to their negligible production in the QGP phase. Meanwhile, their nonrelativistic nature allows a straightforward theoretical description via effective field theories such as potential models. Recent lattice QCD calculations of the bottomonium interaction potential have yielded qualitatively distinct results. These discrepancies motivate a data-driven extraction of the potential based on heavy-ion experiments. In this work, we perform a Bayesian analysis to constrain the bottomonium interaction potential. The relationship between potential parameters and observables is established by numerically solving the nonrelativistic time-dependent Schrödinger equation. By comparing these simulations with experimental measurements, our Bayesian framework provides the effective potential that is readily testable in future experiments.

I discuss the peculiarities of scattering in a three-proton system induced by the presence of an entangled proton-proton Bell-like state in the initial configuration. I formulate the problem using the standard spin formalism of nuclear physics in order to follow in detail the reaction pathways leading to the teleportation of a quantum-mechanical state within this system. By performing numerical simulations of the system and calculations based on a realistic nucleon-nucleon potential, I evaluate the relevant spin observables and search for a simple, experimentally feasible signal that could provide clear evidence of quantum teleportation. For the case in which proton 2, belonging to the entangled proton pair 23, interacts with hydrogen target 1, thereby triggering the teleportation process, I find clear evidence of teleportation through measurements of the final polarization of proton $3^{\prime }$, even for small values of the polarization of target proton 1. The dominant component of this polarization is transferred almost entirely from target proton 1 to proton $3^{\prime }$ in the angular region characterized by strong entanglement. For an unpolarized target proton 1, quantum teleportation is no longer possible. The only unambiguous signature of the residual quantum correlations would be provided by measurements of the spin correlations within the strongly entangled final-state proton pair $1^{\prime }{2}^{\prime }$. Indirect evidence may also be obtained from measurements of the polarization of proton $2^{\prime }$ in the final state, although the corresponding effect is relatively weak.

We study fluctuations and correlations of conserved charges in QCD using a string-based description of the hadronic mass spectrum. Mesons and baryons are modeled as open relativistic strings with quark-antiquark and quark-diquark endpoints, respectively, leading to an exponential Hagedorn growth of states with a limiting temperature fixed by the string tension. We find that continuous Hagedorn spectra constrained by experimentally established hadrons underestimate net-baryon number fluctuations obtained in lattice QCD (LQCD) calculations. By extracting the Hagedorn string spectrum directly from lattice QCD through a fit to the second-order net-baryon number susceptibility, we obtain a consistent description of a broad set of fluctuations of conserved charges from LQCD with the Hagedorn temperature $T_H\simeq 323\mathrm{MeV}$, without introducing additional free parameters. Our results provide thermodynamic evidence in support of a string quark-diquark picture of baryons in the confined phase of QCD.

For a long time, studies of femtoscopic correlations have provided information about space-time characteristics of particle sources in high-energy collisions. Recently, the correlation functions have also been used to determine interaction parameters of correlated particles, which is especially important for short-lived particles, for which scattering experiments are impossible. The abundance of experimental data and their high accuracy require an improved theoretical approach to femtoscopic correlations. The aim of this paper is to systematically discuss relativistic effects and their role in femtoscopy. Since a general relativistic approach is currently unavailable due to serious theoretical difficulties, the correlation functions must be computed in the center-of-mass frame where the correlated particles are mostly nonrelativistic. This requires transforming the source function to this frame, the consequences of which are discussed. Since the deuteron formation has a similar physical origin to femtoscopic correlations, relativistic effects are also discussed in the former process. The considerations are illustrated with calculations of some correlation functions and the deuteron coalescence coefficient to demonstrate the magnitude of relativistic effects. It is also argued that a discrepancy between the coalescence coefficient computed with the source radii inferred from the baryon-baryon correlation functions and the experimental data can be removed by taking into account the relativistic elongation of the source radius in the center of mass of correlated particles.

The gap equations lie at the core of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory, a standard tool in the description of superfluidity. As a set of non-inear integral equations, the gap equations' inherent difficulties oftentimes hinder even the crudest descriptions of superfluid states. Hard-core potentials, high-density superfluids, and coupled-channel pairing are all reasons that have historically required one to provide special treatment to the gap equations to get a solution. In this paper we present a new method for solving the gap equations that holds the promise of being an efficient universal solver that requires the minimum amount of a priori knowledge of the targeted solutions. With theoretical evidence of exotic nuclear superfluidity posing new questions to our understanding of this fundamental property of nuclear systems, the presented method can be a valuable tool when exploring new pairing states, finite-temperature properties, or the development of sophisticated descriptions of nuclear superfludity.

We report new data from a ${}^{150}\mathrm{Nd}(p,t){}^{148}\mathrm{Nd}$ experiment performed at the John D. Fox Accelerator Laboratory of Florida State University. In total, 54 excited states of ${}^{148}\mathrm{Nd}$ were observed up to an excitation energy of 3500 keV. In this work, we focus on $0^{+}$ states and their band members. In contrast to previous work, the $0_3^{+}$ band is proposed as the candidate for the two-phonon octupole vibrational band. Supporting $spdf$ IBM-1 calculations are presented. To test the robustness of the IBM calculations, several observables were interrogated and are discussed in this publication. In addition, we make the case that neither the $0_2^{+}$ nor the $0_3^{+}$ states of the other $N=88$ isotones are likely good candidates for two-phonon octupole states. Based on our new data for ${}^{148}\mathrm{Nd}$, we propose candidates in ${}^{150}\mathrm{Sm}$ and ${}^{152}\mathrm{Gd}$. Using available $\gamma$-decay data for states with moderate spins in the yrast sequence and a comparison to IBM calculations, we also show how the staggering of the $B\left(E1\right)/B\left(E2\right)$ ratios in the yrast sequence can possibly be used to probe the appearance of bands with multiple octupole phonons.

Based on relativistic mean field theory for atomic nuclei, we compute the mass radius and other radii associated with the energy momentum tensor for dozens of spin-0 nuclei across the nuclear chart. We also compute the D-term of these nuclei, the forward limit of the gravitational form factor $D(t=0)=D$. The dependence on the neutron number $N$ is systematically studied for calcium (Ca), nickel (Ni), zirconium (Zr), tin (Sn), and lead (Pb) isotopes. Remarkably, $\left|D\right|$ does not monotonically increase with $N$. Instead, it exhibits local maxima and minima when $N$ equals a magic number and even a submagic number. This results in characteristic kinks in the mass, scalar, tensor, and shear radii of these isotopes. Our work for the first time elucidates the strong sensitivity of the various mechanical properties of nuclei to the nuclear shell structure.

The production cross sections of 23 fission fragments in the mass range $71\le A\le 141$ have been measured in the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{193}\mathrm{Ir}$ reaction at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=83.99\pm 0.013, 80.99\pm 0.007$, and $74.82\pm 0.026\mathrm{MeV}$ using the recoil-catcher activation technique followed by offline $\gamma$-ray spectroscopy. The mass and charge distributions of the fission fragments have been analyzed to study the isotopic and isobaric yield distributions. The mass dispersion parameter (${\sigma }_A^2$) for iodine isotopes is found to be $4.66\pm 0.82, 4.04\pm 0.52$, and $3.13\pm 0.39$ at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}=83.99\pm 0.013, 80.99\pm 0.007$, and $74.82\pm 0.026\mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. The charge dispersion parameter (${\sigma }_Z$) for iodine isotopes is estimated to be 0.862, 0.799, and 0.709 at the respective energies. It has been observed that the fission fragment mass distribution displays well-described Gaussian functions, consistent with compound-nucleus fission. The variance of the fission-fragment mass distribution has been analyzed as a function of compound-nucleus temperature and found to increase exponentially with it. The variance is strongly influenced by entrance-channel mass asymmetry, highlighting the role of entrance-channel parameters. The present study also explores a linear dependence of mass variance on the deformation parameter (${\beta }_2$) of the target nuclei at the same excitation energy for ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{193}\mathrm{Ir}$ and ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{169}\mathrm{Tm}$ systems.

The collective structure of low-lying states in the $N=50$ nucleus ${}^{92}\mathrm{Mo}$ $(Z=42)$ has been investigated through sub-barrier Coulomb excitation using the CHICO2 device coupled to the $\gamma$-ray energy tracking in-beam nuclear array (GRETINA). Quadrupole and octupole collective properties are measured for the $2_1^{+}$, $2_2^{+}$, $2_3^{+}$, $2_4^{+}$, and $3_1^{-}$ states. The spectroscopic quadrupole moment for the $2_1^{+}$ state is measured to be $Q_s=0.23\left(8\right)e\mathrm{b}$, showing a weakly deformed oblate nature in good agreement with recent state-of-the-art Shell-Model calculations. A modest reduced electric-octupole transition strength of $B(E3;3_1^{-}\to 0_1^{+})=15\left(3\right)\mathrm{W}.\mathrm{u}.$ is obtained, in disagreement with the literature, revealing an emerging tension in the strength of octupole collectivity for the $N=50$ nuclei between historic $(e,e^{\prime })$ and $(p,p^{\prime })$ experiments and more recent experiments utilizing Coulomb excitation and lifetime plus branching-ratio data.

Quantum computing is increasingly offering concrete solutions toward the simulation of nuclear structure, with the potential to overcome the exponential scaling that limits classical diagonalization methods in large spaces. A particularly efficient encoding scheme, based on collective like-nucleon pairing modes, reduces the qubit requirements by half and avoids the nonlocal operator strings of standard fermion-to-qubit mappings. While this quasiparticle framework provides accurate results for semimagic nuclei, it does not adequately describe open-shell systems where proton-neutron correlations become important. In this work, we apply Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory to systematically improve the quasiparticle description of open-shell nuclei in the $sd$ shell, reaching an energy relative error below $0.2\%$ compared with the nuclear shell model. Furthermore, to make the effective Hamiltonian suitable for quantum simulation, we introduce a mean-field Hartree-Fock approximation of the nonquasiparticle resolvent, achieving ground-state energies typically within $2\%$ of the exact shell-model result. This represents a systematic improvement over the bare quasiparticle Hamiltonian while remaining within the reach of near-term quantum devices.

This study investigates nuclear responses to two-body external fields, interpreted as double-phonon excitations, within the subtracted second random-phase approximation (SSRPA) for ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ and ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$. To clarify the underlying characteristics of these modes, Hartree–Fock and SSRPA with the diagonal approximation are first examined. The resulting strength distributions are nearly identical, indicating that residual interactions in the one-particle–one-hole (1p-1h) sector contribute only weakly. This behavior contrasts with that of one-body excitations, where coupling between 1p-1h and two-particle–two-hole (2p-2h) configurations is essential for generating collectivity. In the full SSRPA calculation, which incorporates the residual interaction among 2p-2h configurations, the strength distributions are substantially modified. The double isoscalar $0^{+}$ and $2^{+}$ modes show pronounced redistribution, with peaks shifted to lower energies and additional strength emerging at higher energies, whereas the double isovector $1^{-}$ mode shifts predominantly to higher energies due to a largely repulsive interaction, resulting in a resonance around twice the peak energy of the single giant dipole resonance. Analysis of single transition amplitudes reveals that low-lying resonances are formed coherently through constructive neutron-neutron, proton-proton, and neutron-proton configurations, while high-lying resonances are dominated by neutron-proton configurations, reflecting their higher state density. These results demonstrate that double-phonon excitations cannot be described by simple folding of one-body responses; a fully microscopic treatment of 2p-2h mixing, as provided by SSRPA, is essential.

Half-lives of yrast excited states in ${}^{94}\mathrm{Pd}$ were measured using isomeric decay spectroscopy. The experiment was performed at Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory, where ${}^{94}\mathrm{Pd}$ ions were produced via in-flight fragmentation of a ${}^{124}\mathrm{Xe}$ beam impinging on a ${}^9\mathrm{Be}$ target. These ions were implanted into the GARi active stopper array, and isomeric delayed $\gamma$ rays were detected with the IDATEN fast-timing array consisting of 48 ${\mathrm{LaBr}}_3$(Ce) detectors. The half-lives were determined using the generalized centroid difference method, yielding the $T_{1/2}$ values of $\le 15$ ps, 13(11) ps, $\le 13$ ps, 693(72) ps, and $\le 19$ ps for the $\left(2_1^{+}\right), \left(4_1^{+}\right), \left(6_1^{+}\right), \left(8_1^{+}\right)$, and $\left({10}_1^{+}\right)$ states, respectively. Reduced transition probabilities were deduced from the measured half-lives and discussed in the context of shell-model calculations employing the JUN45 effective interaction. The results indicate that ${}^{94}\mathrm{Pd}$, with $N=Z+2$, lies in a transitional regime between the $N=Z$ isoscalar-pairing domain (${}^{92}\mathrm{Pd}$) and the $N=50$ isovector-dominated region (${}^{96}\mathrm{Pd}$).

A framework for computing $\gamma$-ray feeding probabilities in nuclear decay schemes based on absorbing Markov chains is presented. In this approach, excited nuclear states are treated as transient states and long-lived levels as absorbing states, allowing feeding fractions to be obtained exactly from the transition matrix. Experimental uncertainties are propagated via Monte Carlo sampling from Dirichlet distributions, which naturally maintains the physical constraint of unit normalization for branching-ratio vectors. This framework is applied to the key $E_r=92$ keV resonance in the ${}^{25}\mathrm{Mg}(p,\gamma ){}^{26}\mathrm{Al}$ reaction $(E_x=6398 \mathrm{keV})$, which governs the production of ${}^{26}\mathrm{Al}$ in hydrogen-burning environments. Combining multiple experimental datasets within a Hierarchical Bayesian framework, a ground-state feeding probability of $f_0=0.68\pm 0.06\left(1\sigma \right)\pm 0.13\left(2\sigma \right)$ is found, and the dominant $\gamma$-decay transitions contributing to its uncertainty are identified. The formalism reproduces traditional cascade calculations while providing analytic sensitivity information and a transparent uncertainty decomposition. This approach offers a general and computationally efficient tool for propagating nuclear-structure uncertainties to astrophysical reaction rates and can be readily extended to other nuclei.

The electrostatic field strength inside heavy nuclei far exceeds the famous Schwinger critical field strength and most intense laser fields available nowadays. Under such an extreme electric field, the quantum electrodynamics (QED) effect dominated by vacuum polarization in the nuclear system turns out to dramatically enhance the nuclear decay probability against $\alpha$-decay, cluster radioactivity, and proton radioactivity by several times to even dozens of times, resulting in the reduced stability of nuclei. And it can even push the proton drip line toward the less proton-rich side. These extraordinary QED effects thus establish nuclear systems as a novel platform for probing strong-field QED physics.

High-spin states in the neutron-deficient nucleus ${}_{61}{}^{131}\mathrm{Pm}_{70}$ have been investigated using the Jurogam 3 $\gamma$-ray spectrometer. This is the lightest promethium isotope with known excited states. The proton intruder $h_{11/2}$ rotational structure has been extended to both higher and lower spin, and its unfavored-signature partner identified. This rotational structure is established down to a presumed $I^{\pi }=5/2^{-}$ bandhead of the $\pi h_{11/2}\left[532\right]5/2^{-}$ Nilsson orbital, which is also expected to form the ground state of this deformed nucleus. Systematic comparisons are made with cranked shell-model calculations.

We investigate the finite-temperature evolution of microscopic free-energy corrections in nuclear fission, focusing on pairing and shell effects near scission. The analysis is based on a finite-temperature BCS treatment combined with the Strutinsky method and is performed for representative deformation points along the fission path. Both pairing and shell contributions exhibit regular thermal attenuation, but their deformation dependencies differ substantially. In particular, pairing remains strongly deformation dependent in the scission region, and its free-energy contribution differs markedly between the constant and surface-dependent pairing-strength prescriptions. The shell correction near scission is also significant at low temperature and is progressively suppressed with increasing excitation energy. These results support the interpretation of odd-even staggering in fragment charge yields as a manifestation of pairing correlations surviving into the strongly deformed prescission configuration. They also show that pairing and shell effects should be treated separately in finite-temperature dynamical calculations, with distinct deformation- and temperature-dependent attenuation laws.

We study deformed neutron halo nuclei in the mass region $40<A<90$ and their soft electric dipole $\left(E1\right)$ excitations based on the deformed relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov theory in continuum. Three candidates, ${}^{43}\mathrm{Si}$, ${}^{69}\mathrm{Ti}$, and ${}^{75}\mathrm{Cr}$, are selected for detailed analysis. Unique features are identified in the decoupled densities of possible $s$- and $p$-wave deformed halo nuclei in this mass region, which are influenced by large high-$l$ configurations. It is shown that the dipole response is a highly sensitive observable to detect the halo component of the single-particle wave function in deformed halo nuclei, and it helps identify the configuration and the magnitude of deformation for halo nuclei in the $40<A<90$ mass region. Experimental confirmation of the dipole strength in the low-energy region is highly desirable to explore possible deformed halo candidates in the medium-heavy mass region.

We extend previous halo effective field theory analyses of low-energy elastic scattering of ${}^3\mathrm{He}\text{−}{}^4\mathrm{He}$, including the ${\frac{7}{2}}^{-}$ $f$-wave resonance as an explicit degree of freedom. The presence of this resonance necessitates a changing power counting scheme depending on the kinematic region. Therefore, we construct a theory uncertainty model at the partial wave amplitude level, allowing us to generate a sophisticated theory covariance matrix that captures the way the theory error structure changes as energy increases. We then perform a Bayesian analysis and simultaneously estimate the joint posterior distributions of the effective range theory parameters and the parameters that characterize the effective field theory truncation uncertainty. We compare two different analyses: no $f$-wave interactions for data up to $E_{\text{max}}=2.6$ MeV and including $f$-wave interactions for data up to $E_{\text{max}}=5.5$ MeV. The inferred breakdown scales in each analysis are consistent with previous work. We find that $f$-wave interactions are needed to describe data for $E_{\mathrm{lab}}\gtrsim 3.6$ MeV.

The present study provides an extension to our recent work on the vector (V) electromagnetic single-nucleon current and associated response functions, both for unpolarized situations and in situations where the target nucleon is polarized. Here the axial-vector (A) single-nucleon current matrix element is developed in detail and the full set of vector and axial-vector currents is used to obtain the electroweak VV, AA, and VA response functions. Only the unpolarized case is studied in the present work. The general forms for all of these elements are developed together with various approximation schemes in which numerical studies are provided to indicate where these approximations may be expected to be valid. The results of this work provide the basis for a deeper understanding of the roles played by the various single-nucleon form factors in weak interaction reactions on free nucleons and when using the standard “prescription for nuclear physics” in reactions involving nucleons in nuclei.