More Like this

1. High‑precision measurements of half‐lives for 69Ge, 73Se, 83Sr, 85mSr, and 63Zn radionuclides relevant to the astrophysical p‑process via photoactivation at the Madison Accelerator Laboratory

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07589-5  

   hain, T. A.; Pendeton, J. A.; Silano, S. A.; Banu, A. (January 2021, Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry an international journal dealing with all aspects and applications of nuclear chemistry)

   null (Ed.)

   The ground state half-lives of 69Ge, 73Se, 83Sr, 63Zn, and the half-life of the 1/2− isomer in 85Sr have been measured with high precision using the photoactivation technique at an unconventional bremsstrahlung facility that features a repurposed medical electron linear accelerator. The γ-ray activity was counted over about 6 half-lives with a high-purity germanium detector, enclosed into an ultra low-background lead shield. The measured half-lives are: T1/2(69Ge) = 38.82 ± 0.07 (stat) ± 0.06 (sys) h; T1/2(73Se) = 7.18 ± 0.02 (stat) ± 0.004 (sys) h; T1/2(83Sr) = 31.87 ± 1.16 (stat) ± 0.42 (sys) h; T1/2(85mSr) = 68.24 ± 0.84 (stat) ± 0.11 (sys) min; T1/2(63Zn) = 38.71 ± 0.25 (stat) ± 0.10 (sys) min. These high-precision half-life measurements will contribute to a more accurate determination of corresponding ground-state photoneutron reaction rates, which are part of a broader effort of constraining statistical nuclear models needed to calculate stellar nuclear reaction rates relevant for the astrophysical p-process nucleosynthesis. 

   more » « less
2. Cross-conjugation controls the stabilities and photophysical properties of heteroazoarene photoswitches

   https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ob02026a  

   Adrion, Daniel M.; Lopez, Steven A. (January 2022, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry)

   Azoarene photoswitches are versatile molecules that interconvert from their E-isomer to their Z-isomer with light. Azobenzene is a prototypical photoswitch but its derivatives can be poorly suited for in vivo applications such as photopharmacology due to undesired photochemical reactions promoted by ultraviolet light and the relatively short half-life (t1/2) of the Z-isomer (2 days). Experimental and computational studies suggest that these properties (λmax of the E isomer and t1/2 of the Z-isomer) are inversely related. We identified isomeric azobisthiophenes and azobisfurans from a high-throughput screening study of 1540 azoarenes as photoswitch candidates with improved λmax and t1/2 values relative to azobenzene. We used density functional theory to predict the activation free energies and vertical excitation energies of the E- and Z-isomers of 2,2- and 3,3-substituted azobisthiophenes and azobisfurans. The half-lives depend on whether the heterocycles are π-conjugated or cross-conjugated with the diazo π-bond. The 2,2-substituted azoarenes both have t1/2 values on the scale of 1 hour, while the 3,3-analogues have computed half-lives of 40 and 230 years (thiophene and furan, respectively). The 2,2-substituted heteroazoarenes have significantly higher λmax absorptions than their 3,3-substituted analogues: 76 nm for azofuran and 77 nm for azothiophene. 

   more » « less
3. Measuring the β-decay Properties of Neutron-rich Exotic Pm, Sm, Eu, and Gd Isotopes to Constrain the Nucleosynthesis Yields in the Rare-earth Region

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac80fc  

   Kiss, G. G.; Vitéz-Sveiczer, A.; Saito, Y.; Tarifeño-Saldivia, A.; Pallas, M.; Tain, J. L.; Dillmann, I.; Agramunt, J.; Algora, A.; Domingo-Pardo, C.; et al (September 2022, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract Theβ-delayed neutron-emission probabilities of 28 exotic neutron-rich isotopes of Pm, Sm, Eu, and Gd were measured for the first time at RIKEN Nishina Center using the Advanced Implantation Detector Array (AIDA) and the BRIKEN neutron detector array. The existingβ-decay half-life (T_1/2) database was significantly increased toward more neutron-rich isotopes, and uncertainties for previously measured values were decreased. The new data not only constrain the theoretical predictions of half-lives andβ-delayed neutron-emission probabilities, but also allow for probing the mechanisms of formation of the high-mass wing of the rare-earth peak located atA≈ 160 in ther-process abundance distribution through astrophysical reaction network calculations. An uncertainty quantification of the calculated abundance patterns with the new data shows a reduction of the uncertainty in the rare-earth peak region. The newly introduced variance-based sensitivity analysis method offers valuable insight into the influence of important nuclear physics inputs on the calculated abundance patterns. The analysis has identified the half-lives of¹⁶⁸Sm and of several gadolinium isotopes as some of the key variables among the current experimental data to understand the remaining abundance uncertainty atA= 167–172. 

   more » « less
4. Resonant X-ray excitation of the nuclear clock isomer 45Sc

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06491-w  

   Shvyd’ko, Yuri; Röhlsberger, Ralf; Kocharovskaya, Olga; Evers, Jörg; Geloni, Gianluca Aldo; Liu, Peifan; Shu, Deming; Miceli, Antonino; Stone, Brandon; Hippler, Willi; et al (October 2023, Nature)

   Abstract Resonant oscillators with stable frequencies and large quality factors help us to keep track of time with high precision. Examples range from quartz crystal oscillators in wristwatches to atomic oscillators in atomic clocks, which are, at present, our most precise time measurement devices¹. The search for more stable and convenient reference oscillators is continuing^2–6. Nuclear oscillators are better than atomic oscillators because of their naturally higher quality factors and higher resilience against external perturbations^7–9. One of the most promising cases is an ultra-narrow nuclear resonance transition in⁴⁵Sc between the ground state and the 12.4-keV isomeric state with a long lifetime of 0.47 s (ref. ¹⁰). The scientific potential of⁴⁵Sc was realized long ago, but applications require⁴⁵Sc resonant excitation, which in turn requires accelerator-driven, high-brightness X-ray sources¹¹that have become available only recently. Here we report on resonant X-ray excitation of the⁴⁵Sc isomeric state by irradiation of Sc-metal foil with 12.4-keV photon pulses from a state-of-the-art X-ray free-electron laser and subsequent detection of nuclear decay products. Simultaneously, the transition energy was determined as$${\mathrm{12,389.59}}_{+0.12\left({\rm{syst}}\right)}^{\pm 0.15\left({\rm{stat}}\right)}\,{\rm{eV}}$$ ${\mathrm{12,389.59}}_{+0.12\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)}^{\pm 0.15\left(\mathrm{stat}\right)}\mathrm{eV}$with an uncertainty that is two orders of magnitude smaller than the previously known values. These advancements enable the application of this isomer in extreme metrology, nuclear clock technology, ultra-high-precision spectroscopy and similar applications. 

   more » « less
5. H  i constraints from the cross-correlation of eBOSS galaxies and Green Bank Telescope intensity maps

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab3621  

   Wolz, Laura; Pourtsidou, Alkistis; Masui, Kiyoshi W; Chang, Tzu-Ching; Bautista, Julian E; Müller, Eva-Maria; Avila, Santiago; Bacon, David; Percival, Will J; Cunnington, Steven; et al (January 2022, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   ABSTRACT We present the joint analysis of Neutral Hydrogen (H i) Intensity Mapping observations with three galaxy samples: the Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) and Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) samples from the eBOSS survey, and the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey sample. The H i intensity maps are Green Bank Telescope observations of the redshifted $$21\rm cm$$ emission on $$100 \, {\rm deg}^2$$ covering the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1.0. We process the data by separating and removing the foregrounds present in the radio frequencies with FastI ICA. We verify the quality of the foreground separation with mock realizations, and construct a transfer function to correct for the effects of foreground removal on the H i signal. We cross-correlate the cleaned H i data with the galaxy samples and study the overall amplitude as well as the scale dependence of the power spectrum. We also qualitatively compare our findings with the predictions by a semianalytical galaxy evolution simulation. The cross-correlations constrain the quantity $$\Omega _{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} b_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm opt}}$$ at an effective scale keff, where $$\Omega _\rm {H\,\small {I}}$$ is the H  i density fraction, $$b_\rm {H\,\small {I}}$$ is the H i bias, and $$r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm opt}}$$ the galaxy–hydrogen correlation coefficient, which is dependent on the H  i content of the optical galaxy sample. At $$k_{\rm eff}=0.31 \, h\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}$$ we find $$\Omega _{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} b_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm Wig}} = [0.58 \pm 0.09 \, {\rm (stat) \pm 0.05 \, {\rm (sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$$ for GBT-WiggleZ, $$\Omega _{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} b_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm ELG}} = [0.40 \pm 0.09 \, {\rm (stat) \pm 0.04 \, {\rm (sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$$ for GBT-ELG, and $$\Omega _{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} b_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}} r_{\rm {H\,\small {I}},{\rm LRG}} = [0.35 \pm 0.08 \, {\rm (stat) \pm 0.03 \, {\rm (sys)}}] \times 10^{-3}$$ for GBT-LRG, at z ≃ 0.8. We also report results at $$k_{\rm eff}=0.24$$ and $$k_{\rm eff}=0.48 \, h\,{\rm Mpc^{-1}}$$. With little information on H i parameters beyond our local Universe, these are amongst the most precise constraints on neutral hydrogen density fluctuations in an underexplored redshift range. 

   more » « less