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Wilson, J. N. et al, & Algora, A. (2021). Angular momentum generation in nuclear fission. Nature, 590(7847), 566–570.
Abstract: When a heavy atomic nucleus splits (fission), the resulting fragments are observed to emerge spinning(1); this phenomenon has been a mystery in nuclear physics for over 40 years(2,3). The internal generation of typically six or seven units of angular momentum in each fragment is particularly puzzling for systems that start with zero, or almost zero, spin. There are currently no experimental observations that enable decisive discrimination between the many competing theories for the mechanism that generates the angular momentum(4-12). Nevertheless, the consensus is that excitation of collective vibrational modes generates the intrinsic spin before the nucleus splits (pre-scission). Here we show that there is no significant correlation between the spins of the fragment partners, which leads us to conclude that angular momentum in fission is actually generated after the nucleus splits (post-scission). We present comprehensive data showing that the average spin is strongly mass-dependent, varying in saw-tooth distributions. We observe no notable dependence of fragment spin on the mass or charge of the partner nucleus, confirming the uncorrelated post-scission nature of the spin mechanism. To explain these observations, we propose that the collective motion of nucleons in the ruptured neck of the fissioning system generates two independent torques, analogous to the snapping of an elastic band. A parameterization based on occupation of angular momentum states according to statistical theory describes the full range of experimental data well. This insight into the role of spin in nuclear fission is not only important for the fundamental understanding and theoretical description of fission, but also has consequences for the gamma-ray heating problem in nuclear reactors(13,14), for the study of the structure of neutron-rich isotopes(15,16), and for the synthesis and stability of super-heavy elements(17,18). gamma-ray spectroscopy experiments on the origin of spin in the products of nuclear fission of spin-zero nuclei suggest that the fission fragments acquire their spin after scission, rather than before.
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Khachatryan, M. et al, Coloma, P. (2021). Electron-beam energy reconstruction for neutrino oscillation measurements. Nature, 599(7886), 565–570.
Abstract: Neutrinos exist in one of three types or 'flavours'-electron, muon and tau neutrinos-and oscillate from one flavour to another when propagating through space. This phenomena is one of the few that cannot be described using the standard model of particle physics (reviewed in ref. (1)), and so its experimental study can provide new insight into the nature of our Universe (reviewed in ref. (2)). Neutrinos oscillate as a function of their propagation distance (L) divided by their energy (E). Therefore, experiments extract oscillation parameters by measuring their energy distribution at different locations. As accelerator-based oscillation experiments cannot directly measure E, the interpretation of these experiments relies heavily on phenomenological models of neutrino-nucleus interactions to infer E. Here we exploit the similarity of electron-nucleus and neutrino-nucleus interactions, and use electron scattering data with known beam energies to test energy reconstruction methods and interaction models. We find that even in simple interactions where no pions are detected, only a small fraction of events reconstruct to the correct incident energy. More importantly, widely used interaction models reproduce the reconstructed energy distribution only qualitatively and the quality of the reproduction varies strongly with beam energy. This shows both the need and the pathway to improve current models to meet the requirements of next-generation, high-precision experiments such as Hyper-Kamiokande (Japan)(3) and DUNE (USA)(4). Electron scattering measurements are shown to reproduce only qualitatively state-of-the-art lepton-nucleus energy reconstruction models, indicating that improvements to these particle-interaction models are required to ensure the accuracy of future high-precision neutrino oscillation experiments.
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Angles-Castillo, A., Perucho, M., Marti, J. M., & Laing, R. A. (2021). On the deceleration of Fanaroff-Riley Class I jets: mass loading of magnetized jets by stellar winds. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 500(1), 1512–1530.
Abstract: In this paper, we present steady-state relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations that include a mass-load term to study the process of jet deceleration. The mass load mimics the injection of a proton-electron plasma from stellar winds within the host galaxy into initially pair plasma jets, with mean stellar mass-losses ranging from 10(-14) to 10(-9) M-circle dot yr(-1). The spatial jet evolution covers similar to 500 pc from jet injection in the grid at 10 pc from the jet nozzle. Our simulations use a relativistic gas equation of state and a pressure profile for the ambient medium. We compare these simulations with previous dynamical simulations of relativistic, non-magnetized jets. Our results show that toroidal magnetic fields can prevent fast jet expansion and the subsequent embedding of further stars via magnetic tension. In this sense, magnetic fields avoid a runaway deceleration process. Furthermore, when the mass load is large enough to increase the jet density and produce fast, differential jet expansion, the conversion of magnetic energy flux into kinetic energy flux (i.e. magnetic acceleration), helps to delay the deceleration process with respect to non-magnetized jets. We conclude that the typical stellar population in elliptical galaxies cannot explain jet deceleration in classical Fanaroff-Riley type I radio galaxies. However, we observe a significant change in the jet composition, thermodynamical parameters, and energy dissipation along its evolution, even for moderate values of the mass load.
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Di Valentino, E., & Mena, O. (2021). A fake interacting dark energy detection? Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 500(1), L22–L26.
Abstract: Models involving an interaction between the dark matter and the dark energy sectors have been proposed to alleviate the long-standing Hubble constant tension. In this paper, we analyse whether the constraints and potential hints obtained for these interacting models remain unchanged when using simulated Planck data. Interestingly, our simulations indicate that a dangerous fake detection for a non-zero interaction among the dark matter and the dark energy fluids could arise when dealing with current cosmic microwave background (CMB) Planck measurements alone. The very same hypothesis is tested against future CMB observations, finding that only cosmic variance limited polarization experiments, such as PICO or PRISM, could be able to break the existing parameter degeneracies and provide reliable cosmological constraints. This paper underlines the extreme importance of confronting the results arising from data analyses with those obtained with simulations when extracting cosmological limits within exotic cosmological scenarios.
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ANTARES Collaboration(Albert, A. et al), Colomer, M., Gozzini, R., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Khan-Chowdhury, N. R., et al. (2021). Constraining the contribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts to the high-energy diffuse neutrino flux with 10 yr of ANTARES data. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 500(4), 5614–5628.
Abstract: Addressing the origin of the astrophysical neutrino flux observed by IceCube is of paramount importance. Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are among the few astrophysical sources capable of achieving the required energy to contribute to such neutrino flux through p gamma interactions. In this work, ANTARFS data have been used to search for upward going muon neutrinos in spatial and temporal coincidence with 784 GRBs occurred from 2007 to 2017. For each GRB, the expected neutrino flux has been calculated in the framework of the internal shock model and the impact of the lack of knowledge on the majority of source redshifts and on other intrinsic parameters of the emission mechanism has been quantified. It is found that the model parameters that set the radial distance where shock collisions occur have the largest impact on neutrino flux expectations. In particular, the bulk Lorentz factor of the source ejecta and the minimum variability time-scale are found to contribute significantly to the GRB-neutrino flux uncertainty. For the selected sources, ANTARES data have been analysed by maximizing the discovery probability of the stacking sample through an extended maximum-likelihood strategy. Since no neutrino event passed the quality cuts set by the optimization procedure, 90 per cent confidence level upper limits (with their uncertainty) on the total expected diffuse neutrino flux have been derived, according to the model. The GRB contribution to the observed diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux around 100 TeV is constrained to be less than 10 percent.
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