More Like this

1. Measurement of multijet azimuthal correlations and determination of the strong coupling in proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V} $$

   https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13116-7  

   Hayrapetyan, A; Tumasyan, A; Adam, W; Andrejkovic, J W; Bergauer, T; Chatterjee, S; Damanakis, K; Dragicevic, M; Hussain, P S; Jeitler, M; et al (August 2024, The European Physical Journal C)

   Abstract A measurement is presented of a ratio observable that provides a measure of the azimuthal correlations among jets with large transverse momentum$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$. This observable is measured in multijet events over the range of$$p_{\textrm{T}} = 360$$ $p_{\text{T}}=360$–$$3170\,\text {Ge}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V} $$ $3170\text{Ge}\text{V}$based on data collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13$$\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$$ $\text{Te}\text{V}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 134$$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ ${\text{fb}}^{-1}$. The results are compared with predictions from Monte Carlo parton-shower event generator simulations, as well as with fixed-order perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) predictions at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy obtained with different parton distribution functions (PDFs) and corrected for nonperturbative and electroweak effects. Data and theory agree within uncertainties. From the comparison of the measured observable with the pQCD prediction obtained with the NNPDF3.1 NLO PDFs, the strong coupling at the Z boson mass scale is$$\alpha _\textrm{S} (m_{{\textrm{Z}}}) =0.1177 \pm 0.0013\, \text {(exp)} _{-0.0073}^{+0.0116} \,\text {(theo)} = 0.1177_{-0.0074}^{+0.0117}$$ ${\alpha }_{\text{S}}\left(m_{\text{Z}}\right)=0.1177\pm 0.0013{\text{(exp)}}_{-0.0073}^{+0.0116}\text{(theo)}=0.{1177}_{-0.0074}^{+0.0117}$, where the total uncertainty is dominated by the scale dependence of the fixed-order predictions. A test of the running of$$\alpha _\textrm{S}$$ ${\alpha }_{\text{S}}$in the$$\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$$ $\text{Te}\text{V}$region shows no deviation from the expected NLO pQCD behaviour. 

   more » « less
2. Neutron Star Radii, Deformabilities, and Moments of Inertia from Experimental and Ab Initio Theory Constraints of the 208Pb Neutron Skin Thickness

   https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies10050099  

   Lim, Yeunhwan; Holt, Jeremy W. (October 2022, Galaxies)

   Recent experimental and ab initio theory investigations of the 208Pb neutron skin thickness have the potential to inform the neutron star equation of state. In particular, the strong correlation between the 208Pb neutron skin thickness and the pressure of neutron matter at normal nuclear densities leads to modified predictions for the radii, tidal deformabilities, and moments of inertia of typical 1.4M⊙ neutron stars. In the present work, we study the relative impact of these recent analyses of the 208Pb neutron skin thickness on bulk properties of neutron stars within a Bayesian statistical analysis. Two models for the equation of state prior are employed in order to highlight the role of the highly uncertain high-density equation of state. From our combined Bayesian analysis of nuclear theory, nuclear experiment, and observational constraints on the dense matter equation of state, we find at the 90% credibility level R1.4=12.36−0.73+0.38 km for the radius of a 1.4M⊙ neutron star, R2.0=11.96−0.71+0.94 km for the radius of a 2.0M⊙ neutron star, Λ1.4=440−144+103 for the tidal deformability of a 1.4M⊙ neutron star, and I1.338=1.425−0.146+0.074×1045gcm2 for the moment of inertia of PSR J0737-3039A whose mass is 1.338M⊙. 

   more » « less
3. Investigating the weak charge of 48Ca using a dispersive optical model

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2025.139371  

   Calleya, NL; Atkinson, MC; Dickhoff, WH (April 2025, Physics Letters B)

   Balantekin, B (Ed.)

   A new nonlocal dispersive-optical-model analysis has been carried out for neutrons and protons in 48Ca that reproduces the weak-form-factor measurement of CREX. In addition to elastic-scattering angular distributions, total and reaction cross sections, single-particle energies, the neutron and proton numbers, and the charge distribution, the CREX-measured weak form factor has been fit to extract the neutron and proton self-energies both above and below the Fermi energy. The resulting single-particle propagators yield a weak form factor of 𝐹𝑊 =0.125±0.05 and a neutron skin of 𝑅skin =0.152±0.05 fm, in good agreement with CREX. The rearrangement of the neutron distribution to accommodate such a thin neutron skin results in the high-momentum content of the neutrons exceeding that of the protons, in contrast to what is expected from high-energy two-nucleon knockout measurements by the CLAS collaboration and ab initio asymmetric matter calculations. The present analysis also emphasizes the importance of neutron experimental data in constraining weak charge observables necessary for a precise description of neutron densities. Notably, the neutron reaction cross section and further parity-violating experiments weak form factor measurements are essential to generate a unique way to determine the 48Ca neutron distribution in this framework. 

   more » « less
4. Linking Nuclear Reactions and Nuclear Structure to Study Exotic Nuclei Using the Dispersive Optical Model

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58082-7_10  

   Dickhoff, W H (January 2021, Springer proceedings in physics)

   Escher, Jutta et (Ed.)

   The dispersive optical model (DOM) is employed to simultaneously describe elastic nucleon scattering data for 40Ca, 48Ca, and 208Pb as well as observables related to the ground state of these nuclei, with emphasis on the charge density. Such an analysis requires a fully non-local implementation of the DOM including its imaginary component. Illustrations are provided on how ingredients thus generated provide critical components for the description of the (d, p) and (e, e′p) reaction. For the nuclei with N > Z the neutron distribution is constrained by available elastic scattering and ground-state data thereby generating a prediction for the neutron skin. We identify ongoing developments including a non-local DOM analysis for 208Pb and point out possible extensions of the method to secure a successful extension of the DOM to rare isotopes. 

   more » « less
5. Investigating the crust of neutron stars with neural-network quantum states

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-025-02015-2  

   Fore, Bryce; Kim, Jane; Hjorth-Jensen, Morten; Lovato, Alessandro (March 2025, Communications Physics)

   Abstract An accurate description of low-density nuclear matter is crucial for explaining the physics of neutron star crusts. In the density range between approximately 0.01 fm⁻³and 0.1 fm⁻³, matter transitions from neutron-rich nuclei to various higher-density pasta shapes, before ultimately reaching a uniform liquid. In this work, we introduce a variational Monte Carlo method based on a neural Pfaffian-Jastrow quantum state, which allows us to model the transition from the liquid phase to neutron-rich nuclei microscopically. At low densities, nuclear clusters dynamically emerge from the microscopic interactions among protons and neutrons, which we model based on pionless effective field theory. Our variational Monte Carlo approach represents a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art auxiliary-field diffusion Monte Carlo method, which is severely hindered by the fermion-sign problem in this low-density regime and cannot capture the onset of clusters. In addition to computing the energy per particle of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter, we analyze an intermediate isospin-asymmetry configuration to elucidate the formation of nuclear clusters. We also provide evidence that the presence of such nuclear clusters influences the amount of protons in the crust compared to protons in beta-equilibrated, neutrino-transparent matter. 

   more » « less