Abstract: A compact ion source combining electron impact and thermal ionization has been developed and commissioned in two Multiple-Reflection Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (MR-TOF-MS) setups at the Fragment Separator Ion Catcher at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, Darmstadt, Germany, and at TRIUMF's Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear science at TRIUMF Canada's particle accelerator center, Vancouver, Canada. The ion source is notable for its compact dimensions of 50 mm in height and 68 mm in diameter. The ion source is currently in daily operation at both facilities. Design, simulations, and results of combining ions from thermal and electron-impact ionization of different gases (perfluoropropane and sulfur hexafluoride) are presented in this work. The systematic effects of heating power on the thermal source were studied in detail. The source has demonstrated stable and long-term production of reference ions over a wide mass range for the MR-TOF-MS. This versatile ion source has also been used to optimize and investigate the transport of ions with different chemical reactivity and ionization potentials.

Abstract: beta-delayed one-neutron and two-neutron branching ratios (P-1n and P-2n) have been measured in the decay of A = 84 to 87 Ga isotopes at the Radioactive-Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) at the RIKEN Nishina Center using a high-efficiency array of He-3 neutron counters (BRIKEN). Two-neutron emission was observed in the decay of Ga-84,Ga-85,Ga-87 for the first time and the branching ratios were measured to be P-2n = 1.6(2)%, 1.3(2)%, and 10.2(28)(stat)(5)(sys)%, respectively. One-neutron branching ratio of Ga-87 (P-1n = 81(9)(stat)(8)(sys)%) and half-life of 29(4) ms were measured for the first time. The branching ratios of Ga-86 were also measured to be P-1n = 74(2)(stat)(8)(sys)% and 16.2(9)(stat)(6)(sys)% with better precision than a previous study. The observation that P-1n > P-2n for both Ga-86,Ga-87 was unexpected and is interpreted as a signature of dominating one-neutron emission from the two-neutron unbound excited states in Ge-86,Ge-87. In order to interpret the experimental results, shell-model and Hauser-Feshbach statistical model calculations of delayed particle and gamma-ray emission probabilities were performed. This model framework reproduces the experimental results. The shell model alone predicts P-2n significantly larger than P-1n for the Ga-87 decay, and it is necessary to invoke a statistical description to successfully explain the observation that P-1n > P-2n. Our new results demonstrate the relevance and importance of a statistical description of neutron emission for the prediction of the decay properties of multineutron emitters and that it must be included in the r-process modeling.

Abstract: Isomer spectroscopy of heavy neutron-rich nuclei beyond the N = 126 closed shell has been performed for the first time at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory of the RIKEN Nishina Center. New millisecond isomers have been identified at low excitation energies, 985.3(19) keV in Tl-213 and 874(5) keV in Tl-215. The measured half-lives of 1.34(5) ms in Tl-213 and 3.0(3) ms in Tl-215 suggest spins and parities 11/2(-) with the single proton-hole configuration pi h(11/2) as leading component. They are populated via E1 transitions by the decay of higher-lying isomeric states with proposed spin and parity 17/2(+), interpreted as arising from a single pi s(1/2) proton hole coupled to the 8(+) seniority isomer in the PbA + 1 cores. The lowering of the 11/2(-) states is ascribed to an increase of the pi h(11/2) proton effective single-particle energy as the second nu g(9/2) orbital is filled by neutrons, owing to a significant reduction of the proton-neutron monopole interaction between the pi h(11/2) and nu g(9/2) orbitals. The new ms isomers provide the first experimental observation of shell evolution in the almost unexplored N > 126 nuclear region below doubly magic Pb-208.

Abstract: Neutral current single pion production induced by neutrinos and antineutrinos on nucleon targets has been investigated in manifestly relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory with explicit Delta(1232) degrees of freedom up to O(p(3)). At low energies, where chiral perturbation theory is applicable, the total cross sections for the different reaction channels exhibit a sizable non-resonant contribution, which is not present in event generators of broad use in neutrino oscillation and cross section experiments such as GENIE and NuWro.

Abstract: Interacting dark energy models may play a crucial role in explaining several important observational issues in modern cosmology and also may provide a solution to current cosmological tensions. Since the phenomenology of the dark sector could be extremely rich, one should not restrict the interacting models to have a coupling parameter which is constant in cosmic time, rather allow for its dynamical behaviour, as it is common practice in the literature when dealing with other dark energy properties, as the dark energy equation of state. We present here a compendium of the current cosmological constraints on a large variety of interacting models, investigating scenarios where the coupling parameter of the interaction function and the dark energy equation of state can be either constant or dynamical. For the most general schemes, in which both the coupling parameter of the interaction function and the dark energy equation of state are dynamical, we find 95% CL evidence for a dark energy component at early times and slightly milder evidence for a dynamical dark coupling for the most complete observational data set exploited here, which includes CMB, BAO and Supernova Ia measurements. Interestingly, there are some cases where a dark energy component different from the cosmological constant case at early times together with a coupling different from zero today, can alleviate both the H-0 and S-8 tension for the full dataset combination considered here. Due to the energy exchange among the dark sectors, the current values of the matter energy density and of the clustering parameter sigma(8) are shifted from their ACDM-like values. This fact makes future surveys, especially those focused on weak lensing measurements, unique tools to test the nature and the couplings of the dark energy sector. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons .org /licenses /by /4 .0/).