STCF conceptual design report (Volume 1): Physics & detector

The superτ-charm facility(STCF)is an electron–positron collider proposed by the Chinese particle physics community.It is designed to operate in a center-of-mass energy range from 2 to 7 GeV with a peak luminosity of 0.5×10^(35) cm^(–2)·s^(–1) or higher.The STCF will produce a data sample about a factor of 100 larger than that of the presentτ-charm factory—the BEPCII,providing a unique platform for exploring the asymmetry of matter-antimatter(charge-parity violation),in-depth studies of the internal structure of hadrons and the nature of non-perturbative strong interactions,as well as searching for exotic hadrons and physics beyond the Standard Model.The STCF project in China is under development with an extensive R&D program.This document presents the physics opportunities at the STCF,describes conceptual designs of the STCF detector system,and discusses future plans for detector R&D and physics case studies.

Ordering-induced Elinvar effect over a wide temperature range in a spinodal decomposition titanium alloy

Temperature-independent elastic modulus is termed as Elinvar effect,which is available by tuning the continuous spin transition of ferromagnetic alloys via composition optimization and the first-order martensitic transformation of shape memory alloys via plastic deformation.However,these reversible mechanisms are restricted generally in a narrow temperature range of less than 300 K.Here reports,by tuning a spinodal decomposition in a Ti-Nb-based titanium alloy via aging treatment,both the Elinvar effect in a wide temperature range of about 500 K and a high strength-to-modulus ratio of about 1.5%can be obtained by a continuous and reversible crystal ordering mechanism.The results demonstrate that the alloy aged at 723 K for 4 h has a nanoscale plate-like modulatedβ+α"two-phase microstructure and its elastic modulus keeps almost constant from 100 to 600 K.Synchrotron and in-situ X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the crystal ordering parameter of theα"phase increases linearly with temper-ature from 0.88 at 133 K to 0.97 at 523 K but its volume fraction keeps a constant of about 33.8%.This suggests that the continuous ordering of theα"phase toward the high modulusαphase induces a posi-tive modulus-temperature relation to balance the negative relation of the elastically stableβphase.The aged alloy exhibits a high yield strength of 1200 MPa,good ductility of 16%and a high elastic admissible strain of 1.5%.Our results provide a novel strategy to extend the Elinvar temperature range and enhance the strength by tuning the crystal ordering of decomposition alloys.

Tuning thermal expansion by a continuing atomic rearrangement mechanism in a multifunctional titanium alloy

As to multifunctional titanium alloys with high strength and low elastic modulus, thermal training is crucial to tune their thermal expansion from positive to negative, resulting in a novel linear expansion which is stable in a wide temperature range. Aided by the high-order Hooke's law of elastic solids,a reversible atomic rearrangement mechanism was proposed to explain the novel findings which are unexpected from typical shape memory alloys. To confirm this continuous mechanism, a Ti-Nb based alloy, which possesses a nanoscale spongy microstructure consisting of the interpenetrated Nb-rich and Nb-lean domains produced by spinodal decomposition, was used to trace the crystal structure change by in-situ high energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction analyses. By increasing exposure time, the overlapped diffraction peaks can be separated accurately. The calculated results demonstrate that, in the nanoscale Nb-lean domains, the crystal structure parameters vary linearly with changing temperature along the atomic pathway of the bcc-hcp transition. This linear relationship in a wide temperature range is unusual for first-order martensitic shape memory alloys but is common for Invar alloys with high-order spin transitions. Furthermore, the alloy exhibits smooth DSC curves free of transformation-induced heat peaks observed in shape memory alloys, which is consistent with the proposed mechanism that the reversible transition is of high-order.