Abstract: Geoneutrinos can provide a unique insight into Earth's interior, its central engine, and its formation history. We study the detection of geoneutrinos in large direct detection experiments, which has been considered nonfeasible. We compute the geoneutrino-induced electron and nuclear recoil spectra in different materials, under several optimistic assumptions. We identify germanium as the most promising target element due to the low nuclear recoil energy threshold that could be achieved. The minimum exposure required for detection would be O(10) ton-years. The realistic low thresholds achievable in germanium and silicon permit the detection of K-40 geoneutrinos. These are particularly important to determining Earth's formation history, but they are below the kinematic threshold of inverse beta decay, the detection process used in scintillator-based experiments.

Abstract: Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions starting from the T-z = +2 nucleus Zn-64 to the T-z = +1 nucleus Ga-64 were studied in a (p, n)-type (He-3,t) charge-exchange reaction at a beam energy of 140 MeV/nucleon and scattering angles close to 0 degrees. Here, T-z is the z component of the isospin T. The experiment was conducted at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP) in Osaka, Japan. An energy resolution of approximate to 34 keV was achieved by applying beam matching techniques to the Grand Raiden magnetic spectrometer system. With our good resolution, we could observe GT strength fragmented in many states up to an excitation energy of approximate to 11 MeV. By performing angular distribution analysis, we could identify states in Ga-64 excited by GT transitions. The reduced GT transition strengths [B(GT)values] were calculated assuming the proportionality between the cross sections and the B(GT)values. Shell-model calculations using the GXPF1J interaction reproduced the B(GT)strength distribution throughout the spectrum. States with isospin T = 3 were identified by comparing the Zn-64(He-3,t)Ga-64 spectrum with a Zn-64(d, He-2)Cu-64 spectrum. Relative excitation energies of the corresponding structures are in good agreement, supporting the robustness of isospin symmetry in the mass number A = 64 nuclei.

Abstract: A search for heavy charged long-lived particles is performed using a data sample of 36.1 fb(-1) of protonproton collisions at root s = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The search is based on observables related to ionization energy loss and time of flight, which are sensitive to the velocity of heavy charged particles traveling significantly slower than the speed of light. Multiple search strategies for a wide range of lifetimes, corresponding to path lengths of a few meters, are defined as model independently as possible, by referencing several representative physics cases that yield long-lived particles within supersymmetric models, such as gluinos/squarks (R-hadrons), charginos and staus. No significant deviations from the expected Standard Model background are observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are provided on the production cross sections of long-lived R-hadrons as well as directly pair-produced staus and charginos. These results translate into lower limits on the masses of long-lived gluino, sbottom and stop R-hadrons, as well as staus and charginos of 2000, 1250, 1340, 430, and 1090 GeV, respectively.

Abstract: The beta-delayed gamma-ray spectroscopy of neutron-rich Ag-123,Ag-325 isotopes is investigated at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory of RIKEN, and the long-predicted 1/2(-) beta-emitting isomers in Ag-123,Ag-325 are identified for the first time. With the new experimental results, the systematic trend of energy spacing between the lowest 9/2(+) and 1/2(-) levels is extended in Ag isotopes up to N = 78, providing a clear signal for the reduction of the Z = 40 subshell gap in Ag towards N = 82. Shell-model calculations with the state-of-the-art V-MU plus M3Y spin-orbit interaction give a satisfactory description of the low-lying states in Ag-123,Ag-325. The tensor force is found to play a crucial role in the evolution of the size of the Z = 40 subshell gap. The observed inversion of the single-particle levels around Ag-123 can be well interpreted in terms of the monopole shift of the pi 1g(9/2) orbitals mainly caused by the increasing occupation of nu 1h(11/2) orbitals.

Abstract: A search for charge-parity (CP) violation in D-0 -> K-K+ and D-0 -> pi(-)pi(+) decays is reported, using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.9 fb(-1) collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the LHCb detector. The flavor of the charm meson is inferred from the charge of the pion in D* (2010)(+) -> D-0 pi(+) decays or from the charge of the muon in (B) over bar -> D-0 mu(-)(nu) over bar X-mu decays. The difference between the CP asymmetries in D-0 -> K-K+ and D-0 -> pi(-)pi(+) decays is measured to be Delta A(CP) = [-18.2 +/- 3.2(stat) +/- 0.9(syst)] x 10(-4) for pi-tagged and Delta A(CP) = [-9 +/- 8(stat) +/- 5(syst)] x 10(-4) for mu-tagged D-0 mesons. Combining these with previous LHCb results leads to Delta A(CP) = (-15.4 +/- 2.9) x 10(-4), where the uncertainty includes both statistical and systematic contributions. The measured value differs from zero by more than 5 standard deviations. This is the first observation of CP violation in the decay of charm hadrons.