Abstract: We examine the capabilities of the DUNE experiment as a probe of the neutrino mixing paradigm. Taking the current status of neutrino oscillations and the design specifications of DUNE, we determine the experiment's potential to probe the structure of neutrino mixing and CP violation. We focus on the poorly determined parameters theta(23) and delta(cp) and consider both two and seven years of run. We take various benchmarks as our true values, such as the current preferred values of theta(23) and delta(cp), as well as several theory-motivated choices. We determine quantitatively DUNE's potential to perform a precision measurement of theta(23), as well as to test the CP violation hypothesis in a model-independent way. We find that, after running for seven years, DUNE will make a substantial step in the precise determination of these parameters, bringing to quantitative test the predictions of various theories of neutrino mixing.

Abstract: We study the single electron spectra from D- and B-meson semileptonic decays in Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200, 62.4, and 19.2 GeV by employing the parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach that has been shown to reasonably describe the charm dynamics at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and Large Hadron Collider energies on a microscopic level. In this approach the initial charm and bottom quarks are produced by using the PYTHIA event generator which is tuned to reproduce the fixed-order next-to-leading logarithm calculations for charm and bottom production. The produced charm and bottom quarks interact with off-shell (massive) partons in the quark-gluon plasma with scattering cross sections which are calculated in the dynamical quasiparticle model that is matched to reproduce the equation of state of the partonic system above the deconfinement temperature T-c. At energy densities close to the critical energy density (approximate to 0.5 GeV/fm(3)) the charm and bottom quarks are hadronized intoD and B mesons through either coalescence or fragmentation. After hadronization the D and B mesons interact with the light hadrons by employing the scattering cross sections from an effective Lagrangian. The final D and B mesons then produce single electrons through semileptonic decay. We find that the PHSD approach well describes the nuclear modification factor R-AA and elliptic flow upsilon(2) of single electrons in d + Au and Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV and the elliptic flow in Au + Au reactions at root s(NN) = 62.4 GeV from the PHENIX Collaboration, however, the large RAA at root s(NN) = 62.4 GeV is not described at all. Furthermore, we make predictions for the RAA of D mesons and of single electrons at the lower energy of root s(NN) = 19.2 GeV. Additionally, the medium modification of the azimuthal angle phi between a heavy quark and a heavy antiquark is studied. We find that the transverse flow enhances the azimuthal angular distributions close to phi = 0 because the heavy flavors strongly interact with nuclear medium in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and almost flow with the bulk matter.

Abstract: We present an approach that allows one to obtain information on the compositeness of molecular states from combined information of the scattering length of the hadronic components, the effective range, and the binding energy. We consider explicitly the range of the interaction in the formalism and show it to be extremely important to improve on the formula of Weinberg obtained in the limit of very small binding and zero range interaction. The method allows obtaining good information also in cases where the binding is not small. We explicitly apply it to the case of the deuteron and the D-s0* (2317) and D-s1* (2460) states and determine simultaneously the value of the compositeness within a certain range, as well as get qualitative information on the range of the interaction.

Abstract: In this work we present a comparison between the two liquid scintillators BC-501A and BC-537 in terms of their performance regarding the pulse-shape discrimination between neutrons and gamma rays. Special emphasis is put on the application of artificial neural networks. The results show a systematically higher gamma-ray rejection ratio for BC-501A compared to BC-537 applying the commonly used charge comparison method. Using the artificial neural network approach the discrimination quality was improved to more than 95% rejection efficiency of gamma rays over the energy range 150 to 1000 keV for both BC-501A and BC-537. However, due to the larger light output of BC-501A compared to BC-537, neutrons could be identified in BC-501A using artificial neural networks down to a recoil proton energy of 800 keV compared to a recoil deuteron energy of 1200 keV for BC-537. We conclude that using artificial neural networks it is possible to obtain the same gamma-ray rejection quality from both BC-501A and BC-537 for neutrons above a low-energy threshold. This threshold is, however, lower for BC-501A, which is important for nuclear structure spectroscopy experiments of rare reaction channels where low-energy interactions dominates.

Abstract: Scaling features of the nuclear electromagnetic response functions unveil aspects of nuclear dynamics that are crucial for interpreting neutrino-and electron-scattering data. In the large momentum-transfer regime, the nucleon-density response function defines a universal scaling function, which is independent of the nature of the probe. In this work, we analyze the nucleon-density response function of C-12, neglecting collective excitations. We employ particle and hole spectral functions obtained within two distinct many-body methods, both widely used to describe electroweak reactions in nuclei. We show that the two approaches provide compatible nucleon-density scaling functions that for large momentum transfers satisfy first-kind scaling. Both methods yield scaling functions characterized by an asymmetric shape, although less pronounced than that of experimental scaling functions. This asymmetry, only mildly affected by final state interactions, is mostly due to nucleon-nucleon correlations, encoded in the continuum component of the hole spectral function.