Abstract: The current work presents the determination of lifetimes of nuclear excited states using the Recoil Distance Doppler Shift Method, in combination with spectrometers for ion identification, normalizing the intensity of the peaks by the ions detected in the spectrometer as a valid technique that produces results comparable to the ones obtained by the conventional shifted-to-unsifted peak ratio method. The technique has been validated using data measured with the gamma-ray array AGATA, the PRISMA spectrometer and the Cologne plunger setup. In this paper a test performed with the AGATA-PRISMA setup at LNL and the advantages of this new approach with respect to the conventional Recoil Distance Doppler Shift Method are discussed.

Abstract: .We perform a calculation of the -M1M2, with M1,M2 either pseudoscalar or vector mesons using the basic weak interaction and angular momentum algebra to relate the different processes. The formalism also leads to a different interpretation of the role played by G-parity in these decays. We also observe that, while PPp-wave production is compatible with chiral perturbation theory and experiment, VP and VVp-wave production is clearly incompatible with experiment and we develop the formalism also in this case, producing the VP or VV pairs in s-wave. We compare our results with experiment and other theoretical approaches for rates and invariant mass distributions and make predictions for unmeasured decays. We show the value of these reactions, particularly if the M1M2 mass distribution is measured, as a tool to learn about the meson-meson interaction and the nature of some resonances, coupling to two mesons, which are produced in such decays.

Abstract: We study the amplitudes of the -VP decay for the different polarizations of the vector meson V, using a formalism where the mapping from the quark degrees of freedom to the meson ones is done with the P-3(0) model. We extend the formalism to a case, with the operator -5, that can account for different models beyond the Standard Model and study in detail the -K*0K- reaction for the different polarizations of the K*0. The results are shown in terms of the parameter that differs for each model. We find that is very different for each of the third components of the vector spin, M=+/- 1,0, and in particular the magnitude |M=-1 is very sensitive to the parameter, which makes the investigation of this magnitude very useful to test different models beyond the Standard Model.

Abstract: Analyses of the pion valence-quark distribution function (DF), u(pi) (x; sigma), which explicitly incorporate the behaviour of the pion wave function prescribed by quantum chromodynamics (QCD), predict u(pi) (x similar or equal to 1; sigma) similar to (1 – x)(beta(sigma)), beta(sigma greater than or similar to m(p)) > 2, where mp is the proton mass. Nevertheless, more than forty years after the first experiment to collect data suitable for extracting the x similar or equal to 1 behaviour of up, the empirical status remains uncertain because some methods used to fit existing data return a result for up that violates this constraint. Such disagreement entails one of the following conclusions: the analysis concerned is incomplete; not all data being considered are a true expression of qualities intrinsic to the pion; or QCD, as it is currently understood, is not the theory of strong interactions. New, precise data are necessary before a final conclusion is possible. In developing these positions, we exploit a single proposition, viz. there is an effective charge which defines an evolution scheme for parton DFs that is all-orders exact. This proposition has numerous corollaries, which can be used to test the character of any DF, whether fitted or calculated.

Abstract: Angular distributions of.-rays for selected transitions in Ar-40,Ar-41,Ar-42 isotopes have been studied with the PRISMA magnetic spectrometer coupled to the CLARA gamma array. These transitions were populated in Ar isotopes reached via neutron transfer in the Ar-40 + Pb-208 reaction. By comparison with the shape of the experimental angular distribution of the known E2 transitions we established more firmly the spin and parity of excited states. In particular, in Ar-41 for the (11/2(-)) state through the (11/2(-)) -> 7/2(-) transition whose structure was discussed in terms of a phonon-fermion coupled state. The comparison with the expected fully aligned spin indicated that a high level of spin alignment has been reached.