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Di Valentino, E., Gariazzo, S., Gerbino, M., Giusarma, E., & Mena, O. (2016). Dark radiation and inflationary freedom after Planck 2015. Phys. Rev. D, 93(8), 083523–28pp.
Abstract: The simplest inflationary models predict a primordial power spectrum (PPS) of the curvature fluctuations that can be described by a power-law function that is nearly scale invariant. It has been shown, however, that the low-multipole spectrum of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies may hint at the presence of some features in the shape of the scalar PPS, which could deviate from its canonical power-law form. We study the possible degeneracies of this nonstandard PPS with the active neutrino masses, the effective number of relativistic species, and a sterile neutrino or a thermal axion mass. The limits on these additional parameters are less constraining in a model with a nonstandard PPS when including only the temperature autocorrelation spectrum measurements in the data analyses. The inclusion of the polarization spectra noticeably helps in reducing the degeneracies, leading to results that typically show no deviation from the Lambda CDM model with a standard power-law PPS. These findings are robust against changes in the function describing the noncanonical PPS. Albeit current cosmological measurements seem to prefer the simple power-law PPS description, the statistical significance to rule out other possible parametrizations is still very poor. Future cosmological measurements are crucial to improve the present PPS uncertainties.
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n_TOF Collaboration(Diakaki, M. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., & Tain, J. L. (2016). Neutron-induced fission cross section of Np-237 in the keV to MeV range at the CERN n_TOF facility. Phys. Rev. C, 93(3), 034614–12pp.
Abstract: The neutron-induced fission cross section of Np-237 was experimentally determined at the high-resolution and high-intensity facility n_TOF, at CERN, in the energy range 100 keV to 9 MeV, using the U-235(n, f) and U-238(n, f) cross section standards below and above 2 MeV, respectively. A fast ionization chamber was used in order to detect the fission fragments from the reactions and the targets were characterized as far as their mass and homogeneity are concerned by means of a spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy respectively. Theoretical calculations within the Hauser-Feshbach formalism have been performed, employing the EMPIRE code, and the model parameters were tuned in order to successfully reproduce the experimental fission cross-sectional data and simultaneously all the competing reaction channels.
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Dias, J. M., Navarra, F. S., Nielsen, M., & Oset, E. (2016). f(0)(980) production in D-s(+)-> pi(+) pi(+) pi(-) and D-s(+) -> pi(+) K+ K- decays. Phys. Rev. D, 94(9), 096002–8pp.
Abstract: We study the D-s(+)-> pi(+) pi(+) pi(-) and D-s(+) -> pi(+) K+ K- decays adopting a mechanism in which the D-s(+) meson decays weakly into a pi+ and a q (q) over bar component, which hadronizes into two pseudoscalar mesons. The final state interaction between these two pseudoscalar mesons is taken into account by using the chiral unitary approach in coupled channels, which gives rise to the f(0)(980) resonance. Hence, we obtain the invariant mass distributions of the pairs pi(+) pi(-) and K+ K- after the decay of that resonance and compare our theoretical amplitudes with those available from the experimental data. Our results are in a fair agreement with the shape of these data, within large experimental uncertainty, and a f(0)(980) signal is seen in both the pi(+) pi(-) and K+ K- distributions. Predictions for the relative size of pi(+) pi(-) and K+ K- distributions are made.
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Domingo-Pardo, C. (2016). Beta-delayed neutron emission: first measurements in the heavy mass region and future prospects. Acta Phys. Pol. B, 47(3), 729–737.
Abstract: Beta-delayed neutrons play a key role in the formation of heavy elements in explosive stellar environments. The final r-process abundance distribution, including the rare-earth peak, is tailored to a large extent by the neutrons released after the beta decay of very exotic neutron-rich nuclei encountered along the r-process path and during the freeze-out phase. Such scenarios involve a vast amount of – yet undiscovered – nuclei, and most of them are expected to be neutron emitters. In this respect, existing beta-delayed neutron emission data is rather scarce, spanning from the lightest isotopes up to the region of the fission-fragments with masses up to A similar to 150. This contribution gives an overview on the latest measurements of neutron branching ratios in the heavy mass region around N = 126, which was practically unexplored in the past. Present plans to access very exotic nuclei at the RIB-facility of RIKEN in the framework of the BRIKEN project, are presented, together with the expected impact in r-process nucleosynthesis studies.
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Domingo-Pardo, C. (2016). i-TED: A novel concept for high-sensitivity (n,gamma) cross-section measurements. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 825, 78–86.
Abstract: A new method for measuring (n, gamma) cross-sections aiming at enhanced signal-to-background ratio is presented. This new approach is based on the combination of the pulse-height weighting technique with a total energy detection system that features gamma-ray imaging capability (i-TED). The latter allows one to exploit Compton imaging techniques to discriminate between true capture gamma-rays arising from the sample under study and background gamma-rays coming from contaminant neutron (prompt or delayed) captures in the surrounding environment. A general proof-of-concept detection system for this application is presented in this paper together with a description of the imaging method and a conceptual demonstration based on Monte Carlo simulations.
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