Abstract: Reduced transition strengths of the deexciting transitions from the first two excited states in Ar-33 were measured in a relativistic Coulomb excitation experiment at the GSI Helmholtz center. The radioactive ion beam was produced by fragmentation of a primary Ar-36 beam on a Be-9 target followed by the selection of the reaction product of interest via the GSI Fragment Separator. The (33A)r beam hit a secondary Au-197 target with an energy of approximately 145 MeV/nucleon. An array of high-purity germanium cluster detectors and large-volume BaF2 scintillator detectors were employed for gamma-ray spectroscopy at the secondary target position. The Lund-York-Cologne Calorimeter was used to track the outgoing ions and to identify the nuclear reaction channels. For the two lowest energy excited states of Ar-33 the reduced transition strengths have been determined. With these first results the T-z = -3/2 nucleus Ar-33 is now, together with Na-21 (T-z = -1/2), the only neutron-deficient odd-A sd shell nucleus in which experimental transition strengths are available. The experimental values are compared to results of shell-model calculations which describe simultaneously mirror-energy differences and transition-strength values of mirror pairs in the sd shell in a consistent way.

Abstract: The structure of the neutron-rich bismuth isotope Bi-217 has been studied for the first time. The fragmentation of a primary U-238 beam at the FRS-RISING setup at GSI was exploited to perform gamma-decay spectroscopy, since μs isomeric states were expected in this nucleus. Gamma rays following the decay of a t(1/2) = 3 μs isomer were observed, allowing one to establish the low-lying structure of Bi-217. The level energies and the reduced electric quadrupole transition probability B(E2) from the isomeric state are compared to large-scale shell-model calculations.

Abstract: A measurement of event-plane correlations involving two or three event planes of different order is presented as a function of centrality for 7 μb(-1) Pb + Pb collision data at v root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Fourteen correlators are measured using a standard event-plane method and a scalar-product method, and the latter method is found to give a systematically larger correlation signal. Several different trends in the centrality dependence of these correlators are observed. These trends are not reproduced by predictions based on the Glauber model, which includes only the correlations from the collision geometry in the initial state. Calculations that include the final-state collective dynamics are able to describe qualitatively, and in some cases also quantitatively, the centrality dependence of the measured correlators. These observations suggest that both the fluctuations in the initial geometry and the nonlinear mixing between different harmonics in the final state are important for creating these correlations in momentum space.

Abstract: The pp -> nK(+)Sigma(+)(1385) reaction is a very good isospin 3/2 filter for studying Delta(++)* resonance decaying to K+Sigma(+)(1385). Within the effective Lagrangian method, we investigate the Sigma (1385) (spin parity J(P) = 3/2(+)) hadronic production in the pi(+) p -> K+Sigma(+)(1385) and pp -> nK(+)Sigma(+)(1385) reactions. For the pi(+) p -> K+Sigma(+)(1385) reaction, in addition to the “background” contributions from t-channel K*(0) exchange and u-channel Lambda(1115) and Sigma(0)(1193) exchange, we also consider the contribution from the s-channel Delta*(1940) resonance, which has significant coupling to the K Sigma(1385) channel. We show that the inclusion of the Delta*(1940) resonance leads to a fairly good description of the low-energy experimental total cross section data of pi(+)p -> K+Sigma(+)(1385) reaction. Basing on the study of the pi(+)p -> K+Sigma(+)(1385) reaction and with the assumption that the excitation of Delta*(1940) resonance dominates the pp -> nK(+)Sigma(+)(1385) reaction, we calculate the total and differential cross sections of the pp -> nK(+)Sigma(+)(1385) reaction. It is shown that the new experimental data support the important role played by the Delta*(1940) resonance with a mass in the region of 1940 MeV and a width of around 200 MeV. We also demonstrate that the invariant mass distribution and the Dalitz plot provide direct information of the Sigma(+)(1385) production, which can be tested by future experiments.

Abstract: The Brussels-Montreal Skyrme functionals have been successful in describing properties of both finite nuclei and infinite homogeneous nuclear matter. In their latest version, these functionals have been equipped with two extra density-dependent terms in order to reproduce simultaneously ground state properties of nuclei and infinite nuclear matter properties while avoiding at the same time the arising of ferromagnetic instabilities. In the present article, we extend our previous results of the linear response theory to include such extra terms at both zero and finite temperature in pure neutron matter. The resulting formalism is then applied to derive the neutrino mean free path. The predictions from the Brussels-Montreal Skyrme functionals are compared with ab initio methods.