Abstract: 2(+) and 1(-) states in Zr-90 were populated via the (O-17, O-17 'gamma) reaction at 340 MeV. The gamma decay was measured with high resolution using the AGATA (advanced gamma tracking array demonstrator array). Differential cross sections were obtained at few different angles for the scattered particle. The results of the elastic scattering and inelastic excitation of 2(+), 3(,)(-) and 1(-) states are compared with distorted-wave Born approximation (DWBA) calculations, using both the standard collective form factor and a form factor obtained by folding microscopically calculated transition densities. This allowed to extract the isoscalar component of the 1(-) state at 6.424 MeV. The comparison of the present (17O, 17O 'gamma) data with existing (gamma,gamma') and (p, p') data in the corresponding region of the gamma continuum (6-11 MeV), characterized by a large E1 component, shows completely different behaviors of the cross section as a function of the nuclear excitation energy. The comparison of the data with DWBA calculations suggests a decrease of the isoscalar strength in the cross section with increasing excitation energy.

Abstract: A 6.8 nb(-1) sample of pp collision data collected under low-luminosity conditions at root s = 7 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to study diffractive dijet production. Events containing at least two jets with p(T) > 20 GeV are selected and analysed in terms of variables which discriminate between diffractive and non-diffractive processes. Cross sections are measured differentially in Delta eta(F), the size of the observable forward region of pseudorapidity which is devoid of hadronic activity, and in an estimator, (xi) over tilde, of the fractional momentum loss of the proton assuming single diffractive dissociation (pp -> pX). Model comparisons indicate a dominant non-diffractive contribution up to moderately large Delta eta(F) and small (xi) over tilde, with a diffractive contribution which is significant at the highest Delta eta(F) and the lowest (xi) over tilde. The rapidity-gap survival probability is estimated from comparisons of the data in this latter region with predictions based on diffractive parton distribution functions.

Abstract: A Bayesian approach to comparing the effects of accretion disks, dark matter or clouds of ultra-light bosons on gravitational waveforms from a black hole binary system concludes that detectors such as LISA can distinguish between these environments. Future gravitational wave interferometers such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, Taiji, DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory and TianQin will enable precision studies of the environment surrounding black holes. These detectors will probe the millihertz frequency range, as yet unexplored by current gravitational wave detectors. Furthermore, sources will remain in band for durations of up to years, meaning that the inspiral phase of the gravitational wave signal, which can be affected by the environment, will be observable. In this paper, we study intermediate and extreme mass ratio binary black hole inspirals, and consider three possible environments surrounding the primary black hole: accretion disks, dark matter spikes and clouds of ultra-light scalar fields, also known as gravitational atoms. We present a Bayesian analysis of the detectability and measurability of these three environments. Focusing for concreteness on the case of a detection with LISA, we show that the characteristic imprint they leave on the gravitational waveform would allow us to identify the environment that generated the signal and to accurately reconstruct its model parameters.