Opportunities for production and property research of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126 at HIAF

The study of nuclide production and its properties in the N=126 neutron-rich region is prevalent in nuclear physics and astrophysics research.The upcoming High-energy FRagment Separator(HFRS)at the High-Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility(HIAF),an in-flight separator at relativistic energies,is characterized by high beam intensity,large ion-optical acceptance,high magnetic rigidity,and high momentum resolution power.This provides an opportunity to study the production and properties of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126.In this paper,an experimental scheme is proposed to produce neutron-rich nuclei around N=126 and simultaneously measure their mass and lifetime based on the HFRS separator;the feasibility of this scheme is evaluated through simulations.The results show that under the high-resolution optical mode,many new neutron-rich nuclei approaching the r-process abundance peak around A=195 can be produced for the first time,and many nuclei with unknown masses and lifetimes can be produced with high statistics.Using the time-of-flight corrected by the measured dispersive position and energy loss information,the cocktails produced from 208 Pb fragmentation can be unambiguously identified.Moreover,the masses of some neutron-rich nuclei near N=126 can be measured with high precision using the time-of-flight magnetic rigidity technique.This indicates that the HIAF-HFRS facility has the potential for the production and property research of neutron-rich nuclei around N=126,which is of great significance for expanding the chart of nuclides,developing nuclear theories,and understanding the origin of heavy elements in the universe.

Experimental study of intruder components in light neutron-rich nuclei via single-nucleon transfer reaction

With the development of radioactive beam facilities,studies concerning the shell evolution of unstable nuclei have recently gained prominence.Intruder components,particularly s-wave intrusion,in the low-lying states of light neutron-rich nuclei near N=8 are of importance in the study of shell evolution.The use of single-nucleon transfer reactions in inverse kinematics has been a sensitive tool that can be used to quantitatively investigate the single-particle orbital component of selectively populated states.The spin-parity,spectroscopic factor(or single-particle strength),and effective singleparticle energy can all be extracted from such reactions.These observables are often useful to explain the nature of shell evolution,and to constrain,check,and test the parameters used in nuclear structure models.In this article,the experimental studies of the intruder components in lowlying states of neutron-rich nuclei of He,Li,Be,B,and C isotopes using various single-nucleon transfer reactions are reviewed.The focus is laid on the precise determination of the intruder s-wave strength in low-lying states.

β-Decay of Light Neutron-Rich Nuclei

The β-decays of neutron-rich carbon, nitrogen and fluorine isotopes have been systematically studied using the OXBASH shell Model. In the psd, spsd and spsdpf model space, we use the WBP interaction to calculate the half-lives and neutron emission probabilities of neutron- rich carbon and nitrogen isotopes, respectively. With the USD （W） and CW interactions, we calculate the half-lives and neutron emission probabilities of neutron-rich fluorine isotope in the sd model space, respectively. The calculated half-lives and neutron emission probabilities reproduce recent experimental data very well. It seems to show that the particles of the neutron-rich carbon and nitrogen isotopes are mainly excited in the spsd space. The β-decay of 21N to the neutron bound states in 210 is mostly the first forbidden transition which makes the neutron emission probability increase. The theoretical calculation of β-decay of 25F to 25Ne with CW interaction shows that CW interaction is better than USD interaction.

Production of heavy neutron-rich nuclei with radioactive beams in multinucleon transfer reactions

The production mechanism of heavy neutronrich nuclei is investigated by using the multinucleon transfer reactions of ^(136;148)Xe+^(208)Pb and ^(238)U+^(208)Pb in the framework of a dinuclear system model. The evaporation residual cross sections of target-like fragments are studied with the reaction system ^(148)Xe+^(208)Pb at near barrier energies. The results show that the final isotopic production cross sections in the neutron-deficient side are very sensitive to incident energy while it is not sensitive in the neutron-rich side. Comparing the isotopic production cross sections for the reactions of ^(208)Pb bombarded with stable and radioactive projectiles, we find that neutron-rich radioactive beams can significantly increase the production cross sections of heavy neutron-rich nuclei.

Structures of Light Neutron-Rich Nuclei with Orbit-Orbit Coupling

The properties of N = 7, 8, 9 isotones with Z = 4 - 8 are studied in the framework of the single-particle shell model. A tentative orbit-orbit coupling is introduced in the average nuclear potential. Calculations give a unified description of the structures of N- 7, 8, 9 isotones. The neutron level inversion in N = 7 and N = 9 isotones is discussed. The ground-state level inversion in 11Be and ^15C is reproduced. The inversion between 2s1/2 and 1d5/2 neutron levels in 14B and 13Be is predicted. The possible halo structures in N = 7 and N = 9 isotones are analysed. The numerical results confirm the one-neutron halo structures in ^11Be（2s1/2）, ^11 Be（1p1/2）, ^12B（2s1/2）, ^133C（2s1/2）, ^14B（2s1/2） and ^15C（2s1/2）. The study implies that the attempt of considering orbit orbit interaction in the shell model may be a feasible way to explain the anomalous properties of exotic light nuclei.

Improved mass relations of mirror nuclei

In this study,we revisit the previous mass relations of mirror nuclei by considering 1/N-and 1/Z-dependent terms and the shell effect across a shell.The root-mean-squared deviation is 66 keV for 116 nuclei with neutron number N≥10,as com-pared with experimental data compiled in the AME2020 database.The predicted mass excesses of 173 proton-rich nuclei,including 98 unknown nuclei,are tabulated in the Supplemental Material herein with competitive accuracy.

The breaking of spin symmetry in the single-particle resonances in deformed nuclei

The exploration of spin symmetry (SS) in nuclear physics has been instrumental in identifying atomic nucleus structures.In this study,we solve the Dirac equation from the relativistic mean field (RMF) in complex momentum representation.We investigated SS and its breaking in single-particle resonant states within deformed nuclei,with a focus on the illustrative nucleus168Er.This was the initial discovery of a resonant spin doublet in a deformed nucleus,with the expectation of the SS approaching the continuum threshold.With increasing single-particle energy,the splitting of the resonant spin doublets widened significantly.This escalating splitting implies diminishing adherence to the SS,indicating a departure from the expected behavior as the energy levels increase.We also analyzed the width of the resonant states,showing that lower orbital angular momentum resonances possess shorter decay times and that SS is preserved within broad resonant doublets,as opposed to narrow resonant doublets.Comparing the radial density of the upper components for the bound-state and resonant-state doublets,it becomes evident that while SS is well-preserved in the bound states,it deteriorates in the resonant states.The impact of nuclear deformation (β_(2)) on SS was examined,demonstrating that an increase in β_(2) resulted in higher energy and width splitting in the resonant spin doublets,which is attributed to increased component mixing.Furthermore,the sensitivity of spin doublets to various potential parameters such as surface diffuseness (a),radius (R),and depth (Σ0) is discussed,emphasizing the role of these parameters in SS.This study provides valuable insights into the behavior of spin doublets in deformed nuclei and their interplay with the nuclear structure,thereby advancing our understanding of SS in the resonance state.

Systematic study on heavy-particle radioactivity of superheavy nuclei ^(297–300)119

In the current study,we examined every possible cluster-daughter combination in the heavy-particle decay of isotopes ^(297-300)119 and computed the decay half-lives using the modified generalized liquid drop model(MGLDM)with the preformation factor depending on the disintegration energy.The predicted half-life of every heavy cluster(Z_(C)≥32)was within the experimentally observable limits.These results aligned with the predictions of Poenaru et al.[Phys.Rev.Lett.107,062503(2011)]that superheavy nuclei(SHN)with Z>110 will release heavy particles with a penetrability comparable to or greater than theα-decay.The half-lives predicted using the MGLDM for clusters^(89)Rb,^(91)Rb,and^(92)Rb from parents^(297)119,^(299)119,and^(300)119,respectively,agreed with the predictions of Poenaru et al.[Eur.Phys.J.A 54,14(2018)].It was found that the isotopes of heavy clusters Kr,Rb,Sr,Pa,In,and Cd had half-lives comparable to theαhalf-life;and isotopes of clusters I,Xe,and Cs had the minimum half-life(10^(-14)s).These observations revealed the role of the shell closure(Z=82,N=82,and N=126)of the cluster and daughter nuclei in heavy-cluster radioactivity.We predicted that isotope ^(297,299)119 decayed by 4αdecay chains and isotope^(300)119 decayed by 6αdecay chains,while^(298)119 decayed by continuousαdecay chains.The predicted half-lives and modes of decay of the nuclei in the decay chains of^(297-300)119 agreed with the experimental data,proving the reliability of our calculations.The present study determined the most favorable heavy-cluster emissions from these nuclei and provided suitable projectile-target combinations for their synthesis.

On joint analysing XMM-NuSTAR spectra of active galactic nuclei

A recently released XMM-Newton note revealed a significant calibration issue between nuclear spectroscopic telescope array(NuSTAR)and XMM-Newton European Photon Imaging Camera(EPIC)and provided an empirical correction to the EPIC effective area.To quantify the bias caused by the calibration issue in the joint analysis of XMM-NuSTAR spectra and verify the effectiveness of the correction,in this work,we perform joint-fitting of the NuSTAR and EPIC-pn spectra for a large sample of 104 observation pairs of 44 X-ray bright active galactic nuclei(AGN).The spectra were extracted after requiring perfect simultaneity between the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR exposures(merging good time intervals(GTIs)from two missions)to avoid bias due to the rapid spectral variability of the AGN.Before the correction,the EPIC-pn spectra are systematically harder than the corresponding NuSTAR spectra by■subsequently yielding significantly underestimated cutoff energy E_(cut)and the strength of reflection component R when performing joint-fitting.We confirm that the correction is highly effective and can commendably erase the discrepancy in best-fitΓ,E_(cut),and R.We thus urge the community to apply the correction when joint-fitting XMM-NuSTAR spectra,but note that the correction is limited to 3–12 keV and therefore not applicable when the soft X-ray band data are included.Besides,we show that as merging GTIs from two missions would cause severe loss of NuSTAR net exposure time,in many cases,joint-fitting yields no advantage compared with utilizing NuSTAR data alone.Finally,We present a technical note on filtering periods of high background flares for XMM-Newton EPIC-pn exposures in the small window(SW)mode.

RETRACTED: Nuclear Structure Study of Odd-Odd Yttrium Nuclei within Interacting-Boson Fermi-Fermion Model (IBFFM)

Short Retraction NoticeThe paper does not meet the standards of "Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics". This article has been retracted to straighten the academic record. In making this decision the Editorial Board follows COPE's Retraction Guidelines. The aim is to promote the circulation of scientific research by offering an ideal research publication platform with due consideration of internationally accepted standards on publication ethics. The Editorial Board would like to extend its sincere apologies for any inconvenience this retraction may have caused.Editor guiding this retraction: Prof. Wen-Xiu Ma (EiC of JAMP)The full retraction notice in PDF is preceding the original paper, which is marked "RETRACTED".

Production mechanism of neutron-rich nuclei around N =126 in the multi-nucleon transfer reaction ^(132)Sn+^(208)Pb

The time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach in three dimensions is employed to study the multi-nucleon transfer reaction 132Sn ＋ 208spb at various incident energies above the Coulomb barrier. Probabilities for different transfer channels are calculated by using the particle-number projection method. The results indicate that neutron stripping （transfer from the projectile to the target） and proton pick-up （transfer from the target to the projectile） are favored. De-excitation of the primary fragments is treated by using the state-of-art statistical code GEMINI＋＋. Primary and final production cross sections of the target-like fragments （with Z=77 to Z=87） are investigated. The results reveal that fission decay of heavy nuclei plays an important role in the de-excitation process of nuclei with Z 〉 82. It is also found that the final production cross sections of neutron-rich nuclei depend only slightly on the incident energy, while those of neutron-deficient nuclei depend strongly on the incident energy.

Continuum Skyrme Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory with Green’s function method for neutron-rich Ca,Ni,Zr,and Sn isotopes

The possible exotic nuclear properties in the neutron-rich Ca,Ni,Zr,and Sn isotopes are examined with the continuum Skyrme Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory in the framework of the Green’s function method.The pairing correlation,the couplings with the continuum,and the blocking effects for the unpaired nucleon in odd-A nuclei are properly treated.The Skyrme interaction SLy4 is adopted for the ph channel and the density-dependentinteraction is adopted for the pp chan-nel,which well reproduce the experimental two-neutron separation energies S_(2n)and one-neutron separation energies Sn.It is found that the criterion S_(n)>0 predicts a neutron drip line with neutron numbers much smaller than those for S_(2n)>0.Owing to the unpaired odd neutron,the neutron pairing energies−E_(pair)in odd-A nuclei are much lower than those in the neighbor-ing even-even nuclei.By investigating the single-particle structures,the possible halo structures in the neutron-rich Ca,Ni,and Sn isotopes are predicted,where sharp increases in the root-mean-square(rms)radii with significant deviations from the traditional rA^(1∕3)rule and diffuse spatial density distributions are observed.Analyzing the contributions of various partial waves to the total neutron densityρlj(r)∕ρ(r)reveals that the orbitals located around the Fermi surface-particularly those with small angular momenta-significantly affect the extended nuclear density and large rms radii.The number of neutrons Nλ(N_(0))occupying above the Fermi surfacen(continuum threshold)is discussed,whose evolution as a function of the mass number A in each isotope is consistent with that of the pairing energy,supporting the key role of the pairing correlation in halo phenomena.

Yield ratios and directed flows of light fragments from reactions induced by neutron-rich nuclei at intermediate energy

The yield ratios of neutron/proton and ^3H/^3He and the directed flow per nucleon for these projectile-like fragments at large impact parameters are studied for ^50Ca ＋ ^40Ca and ^50Cr ＋ ^40Ca for comparison at 50 MeV/u using the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics（IQMD model.It is found that the yield ratios and the directed flows per nucleon are different for reactions induced by the neutron-rich nucleus ^50Ca and the stable isobaric nucleus ^50Cr,and depend on the hardness of the EOS.The ratios of neutron/proton and ^3H/^3He and the difference of directed flow per nucleon of neutron-proton are suggested to be possible observables to investigate the isospin effects.

Structure analysis of ^(159)Sm and properties of odd-mass neutron-rich nuclei in mass-160 region

Recent fission experiment data provide interesting structure information for neutron-rich nuclei in the mass A ～ 160 region. We apply the projected shell model to study the strongly-deformed, neutron-rich Sm isotopes. We perform calculations for rotational bands up to spin I = 20 (29/2) for even-even (odd-neutron) Sm isotopes, and analyze the band structure of low-lying states with quasiparticle excitations. Emphasis is given to rotational bands based on one-quasiparticle (1-qp) configurations in the odd-mass 159Sm. The 159 Sm result is discussed together with those of the even-even isotopes 158,160Sm. New bands in 159Sm based on neutron 1-qp 1/2 and 5/2+ configurations are predicted. Electromagnetic transition probabilities are discussed.

Shell-model studies of the N=14 and 16 shell closures in neutron-rich nuclei

Shell-model studies on the N =14 and 16 shell closures in neutron-rich Be, C, O and Ne isotopes are presented. We calculate, with the WBT interaction, the excited states in these nuclei. The calculations agree with recent experiment data. Excited energies and B(E2) values are displayed to discuss the shell closures. Our results support the N =16 shell closure in these isotopes, while indicating a disappearance of N =14 shell closure in Be and C isotopes.

New multi-phonon gamma vibrational bands in A～110 neutron-rich nuclei

The high spin states of neutron-rich 103Nb, 107Tc and 109Tc nuclei in A^110 region have been investigated by measuring prompt γ-γ-γ coincident measurements populated with the spontaneous fission of 252Cf with the Gammasphere detector array. In 103Nb, one-phonon K = 9/2 and two-phonon K = 13/2 γ-vibrational bands have been identified. In 107Tc and 109Tc, one-phonon K = 11/2 and two-phonon K = 15/2 γ-vibrational bands, in which the zero-phonon bands are based on K=7/2 excited states, have also been identified. The two-phonon bands are first observed in odd-Z nuclei. The characteristics for these band structures have been discussed.

Constraining nuclear symmetry energy with the charge radii of mirror-pair nuclei

The nuclear charge radius plays a vital role in determining the equation of state of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter.Based on the correlation between the differences in charge radii of mirror-partner nuclei and the slope parameter(L)of symmetry energy at the nuclear saturation density,an analysis of the calibrated slope parameter L was performed in finite nuclei.In this study,relativistic and nonrelativistic energy density functionals were employed to constrain the nuclear symmetry energy through the available databases of the mirror-pair nuclei^(36)Ca–^(36)S,^(38)Ca–^(38)Ar,and ^(54)Ni–^(54)Fe.The deduced nuclear symmetry energy was located in the range 29.89–31.85 MeV,and L of the symmetry energy essentially covered the range 22.50–51.55 MeV at the saturation density.Moreover,the extracted L_(s) at the sensitivity density p_(s)=0.10 fm^(-3) was located in the interval range 30.52–39.76 MeV.

Production of neutron-rich actinide isotopes in isobaric collisions via multinucleon transfer reactions

We systematically calculated the multinucleon transfer reactions of ^(208)Os,^(208)Pt,^(208)Hg,^(208)Pb,^(208)Po,^(208)Rn,^(208)Ra,and ^(132,136) Xe when bombarded on ^(232) Th and ^(248) Cm at Coulomb barrier energies within the dinuclear system model.These results are in good agreement with the available experimental data.The influence of Coulomb and shell effects on actinide production in these reactions has been rigorously studied.We calculated and analyzed the potential energy surface (PES) and total kinetic energy (TKE) mass distributions for the reactions involving ^(208)Hg,^(208)Pb,and ^(208) Po with ^(248) Cm and ^(232)Th.The PES and TKE spectra shed light on the fragment formation mechanisms in multinucleon transfer reactions,with clear indications of isospin and shell effects.The production cross sections for multinucleon transfer products show a strong dependence on isobar projectiles with a mass number A=208.Isobar projectiles with high N/Z ratios are advantageous for generating neutron-rich target-like fragments.Conversely,products induced by isobar projectiles with larger charge numbers tend to shift toward proton-rich regions.The intertwining of the Coulomb potential and shell effect is evident in the production cross sections of actinide isotopes.Drawing from reactions induced by radioactive projectiles,we anticipate the discovery of several new actinide isotopes near the nuclear drip lines,extending our reach into the superheavy nuclei domain.

Gamma Vibrational Bands and Chiral Doublet Bands in A≈100 Neutron-rich Nuclei

The level structures of neutron-rich 105Mo,106Mo,108Mo and 110Ru nuclei in A ≈ 100 region have been carefully investigated by coincidence measurements of the prompt γ-rays populated in the spontaneous fission of 252Cf with the Gammasphere detector array. In 105Mo,one-phonon K=9/2 and two-phonon K=13/2 γ-vibrational bands have been identified. In 108Mo,one-phonon γ-vibrational band is expanded and two-phonon γ-vibrational band has been identified. Two similar sets of bands in 106Mo and 110Ru are observed to high spins,which have been proposed as the soft chiral γ-vibrational bands. The characteristics for these γ-vibrational bands and chiral doublet bands have been discussed.

Nuclei Segmentation in Histopathology Images Using Structure-Preserving Color Normalization Based Ensemble Deep Learning Frameworks

This paper presents a novel computerized technique for the segmentation of nuclei in hematoxylin and eosin(H&E)stained histopathology images.The purpose of this study is to overcome the challenges faced in automated nuclei segmentation due to the diversity of nuclei structures that arise from differences in tissue types and staining protocols,as well as the segmentation of variable-sized and overlapping nuclei.To this extent,the approach proposed in this study uses an ensemble of the UNet architecture with various Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN)architectures as encoder backbones,along with stain normalization and test time augmentation,to improve segmentation accuracy.Additionally,this paper employs a Structure-Preserving Color Normalization(SPCN)technique as a preprocessing step for stain normalization.The proposed model was trained and tested on both single-organ and multi-organ datasets,yielding an F1 score of 84.11%,mean Intersection over Union(IoU)of 81.67%,dice score of 84.11%,accuracy of 92.58%and precision of 83.78%on the multi-organ dataset,and an F1 score of 87.04%,mean IoU of 86.66%,dice score of 87.04%,accuracy of 96.69%and precision of 87.57%on the single-organ dataset.These findings demonstrate that the proposed model ensemble coupled with the right pre-processing and post-processing techniques enhances nuclei segmentation capabilities.