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1. Strength measurements of the $E_{\mathrm{R}}^{\mathrm{lab}}=647$ and 1842 keV resonances in the ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}(p,\gamma ){}^{41}\mathrm{Sc}$ reaction and their relevance in novae nucleosynthesis

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.111.025804  

   Sidhu, R S; deBoer, R J; Görres, J; Wiescher, M; Koros, J; Manukyan, K; Matney, M; McDonaugh, J; Picciotto, V; Sanchez, A T; et al (February 2025, Physical Review C)

   Here we report on the direct measurement of the resonance strengths of the $E_{\mathrm{R}}^{\mathrm{lab}}=647\mathrm{keV}$ and 1842 keV resonances in the ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}(p,\gamma ){}^{41}\mathrm{Sc}$ reaction. At novae temperatures, $0.2<T_9<0.7$ , the ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}(p,\gamma ){}^{41}\mathrm{Sc}$ reaction is governed by the low energy resonance at $E_{\mathrm{R}}^{\mathrm{lab}}=647\mathrm{keV}$ , whereas the $E_{\mathrm{R}}^{\mathrm{lab}}=1842\mathrm{keV}$ resonance serves as a normalization standard for nuclear reaction experiments within the astrophysically relevant energy range. For the $E_{\mathrm{R}}^{\mathrm{lab}}=647\mathrm{keV}$ resonance, we obtain a resonance strength $\omega \gamma =(2.51\pm 0.{09}_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 0.{22}_{\mathrm{syst}})\mathrm{meV}$ , with an uncertainty a factor of 2.5 smaller than the previous direct measurement value. For the $E_{\mathrm{R}}^{\mathrm{lab}}=1842\mathrm{keV}$ resonance, we obtain a resonance strength $\omega \gamma =(0.148\pm 0.{006}_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 0.{013}_{\mathrm{syst}})\mathrm{eV}$ , which is consistent with previous studies but deviates by $2\sigma$ from the most recent measurement. Our results suggest ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$ to be a strong waiting point in the nucleosynthesis path of oxygen-neon (ONe) novae. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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2. Asymptotic normalization coefficients for $\alpha +{}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ synthesis and the $S$ factor for ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}(\alpha ,\gamma ){}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ radiative capture

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.110.055803  

   Mukhamedzhanov, A M; deBoer, R J; Irgaziev, B F; Blokhintsev, L D; Kadyrov, A S; Savin, D A (November 2024, Physical Review C)

   : The ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}(\alpha ,\gamma ){}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ reaction, determining the survival of carbon in red giants, is of interest for nuclear reaction theory and nuclear astrophysics. A specific feature of the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ nuclear structure is the presence of two subthreshold bound states, (6.92 MeV, $2^{+}$ ) and (7.12 MeV, $1^{-}$ ), that dominate the behavior of the low-energy $S$ factor. The strength of these subthreshold states is determined by their asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs), which need to be known with high accuracy. : The objective of this research is to examine how the subthreshold and ground-state ANCs impact the low-energy $S$ factor, especially at the key astrophysical energy of $300\mathrm{keV}$ . The $S$ factors are calculated within the framework of the $R$ -matrix method using the code. Our total $S$ factor takes into account the $E1$ and $E2$ transitions to the ground state of ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ including the interference of the subthreshold and higher resonances, which also interfere with the corresponding direct captures, and cascade radiative captures to the ground state of ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ through four subthreshold states: $0_2^{+},3^{-},2^{+}$ , and $1^{-}$ . To evaluate the impact of subthreshold ANCs on the low-energy $S$ factor, we employ two sets of the ANCs. The first selection, which offers higher ANC values, is attained through the extrapolation process [Blokhintsev , ]. The set with low ANC values was employed by deBoer []. A detailed comparison of the $S$ factors at the most effective astrophysical energy of 300 keV is provided, along with an investigation into how the ground-state ANC affects this $S$ factor. : The contribution to the total $E1$ and $E2S$ factors from the corresponding subthreshold resonances at $300\mathrm{keV}$ are $(71–74)\%$ and $(102–103)\%$ , respectively. The correlation of the uncertainties of the subthreshold ANCs with the $E1$ and $E2S\left(300\mathrm{keV}\right)$ factors is found. The $E1$ transition of the subthreshold resonance $1^{-}$ does not depend on the ground-state ANC but interferes constructively with a broad $(9.585\mathrm{MeV};1^{-})$ resonance giving (for the present subthreshold ANC) an additional $26\%$ contribution to the total $E1S\left(300\mathrm{keV}\right)$ factor. Interference of the $E2$ transition through the subthreshold resonance $2^{+}$ with direct capture is almost negligible for small ground-state ANC of $58{\mathrm{fm}}^{-1/2}$ . However, its interference with direct capture for higher ground-state ANC of $337{\mathrm{fm}}^{-1/2}$ is significant and destructive, contributing $-27\%$ . The low-energy $S_{E2}\left(300\mathrm{keV}\right)$ factor experiences a smaller increase when both subthfreshold and the ground-state ANCs rise together due to their anticorrelation, compared to when only the subthreshold ANCs increase. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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3. Fine structure of the doublet $P$ levels of boron

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.043225  

   Nasiri, Saeed; Tumakov, Dmitry; Stanke, Monika; Kędziorski, Andrzej; Adamowicz, Ludwik; Bubin, Sergiy (December 2024, Physical Review Research)

   We report high-accuracy calculations of the ground and the lowest eight excited ${}^{2}P^o$ states of the two stable isotopes of the boron atom, ${}^{10}\mathrm{B}$ and ${}^{11}\mathrm{B}$ , as well as of the boron atom with an infinite nuclear mass ${}^{\infty }\mathrm{B}$ . The nonrelativistic wave function of each of the states is generated in an independent variational calculation by expanding it in terms of a large number, $12000–17000$ , of all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussian (ECG) functions whose nonlinear parameters are extensively optimized with a procedure that employs analytic energy gradient determined with respect to these parameters. These highly accurate wave functions are used to compute the fine-structure splittings using the first order of the perturbation theory $(\sim {\alpha }^2)$ , where $\alpha$ is the fine-structure constant, which are then corrected for the electron magnetic moment anomaly $(\sim {\alpha }^3)$ . As the nonrelativistic Hamiltonian explicitly depends on the mass of the nucleus, the recoil corrections up to the order of ${\alpha }^2$ are automatically accounted for in the fine-structure calculations. Furthermore, the off-diagonal corrections to the fine structure $(\sim {\alpha }^4)$ are estimated using the multireference methods based on one-electron Gaussian orbitals. The results obtained in this paper are considerably more accurate than those available in the literature. Moreover, we report accurate splittings for a number of excited ${}^{2}P^o$ states, for which there have been no reliable experimental or theoretical data at all. The calculated values presented in this paper may serve as a valuable guide for future experimental measurements of the fine structure of the boron atom. As the fine structure of an atom provides a spectral signature that can facilitate atom's detection, our data can also aid the search for trace amounts of boron in the interstellar medium. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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4. Precision measurement of lifetime and branching ratios of the $4f^{13}5d6s^1{[5/2]}_{5/2}$ state in ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}$ ions

   https://doi.org/10.1103/mwwc-kng1  

   Duraisamy_Suganthi, Midhuna; So, Visal; Menon, Abhishek; Tomaras, George; Zhuravel, Roman; Pagano, Guido (December 2025, Physical Review Research)

   We report spectroscopic and time-resolved experimental observations to characterize the $\left[\mathrm{Xe}\right]4f^{13}\left({}^{2}F_{5/2}^o\right)5d6s\left({}^{1}D\right){}^1{[5/2]}_{5/2}^o$ state in ${}^{172}\mathrm{Yb}^{+}$  ions. We access this state from the metastable $4f^{14}5d\left({}^{2}D_{3/2,5/2}\right)$ manifold and observe an unexpectedly long lifetime of $\tau =37.9\left(9\right)\mu \mathrm{s}$  that allows visible Rabi oscillations and resolved-sideband spectroscopy. Using a combination of coherent population dynamics, high-fidelity detection and heralded state preparation, and optical pumping methods, we measure the branching ratios to the ${}^{2}D_{3/2}, {}^{2}D_{5/2}$ , and ${}^{2}S_{1/2}$ states to be $0.359\left(2\right)$ , 0.639(2), and $0.0023\left(16\right)$ , respectively. The branching ratio to the $4f^{13}6s^2\left({{}^{2}F}_{7/2}\right)$ is compatible with zero within our experimental resolution. We also report measurements of Landé $g$ -factor of the ${}^1{[5/2]}_{5/2}^o$ state. Further, the branching ratio of the ${}^{2}D_{5/2}$ to ${}^{2}S_{1/2}$ decay in ${}^{172}\mathrm{Yb}^{+}$  was measured to be 0.188(3), improving its relative uncertainty by an order of magnitude. Our measurements provide experimental benchmarks for better understanding the atomic structure of ${\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}$  ions, which still lacks accurate numerical descriptions, and the use of high-lying excited states for partial detection and qubit manipulation in the architecture. 

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5. Reduction of spectroscopic overlap across the $Z=8$ shell in neutron-rich nuclei

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.109.054325  

   Redpath, T; Guèye, P; Baumann, T; Brown, B A; Cunningham, A; DeYoung, P A; Frank, N; Hoffman, C R; Kuchera, A N; Godoy, B Monteagudo; et al (May 2024, Physical Review C)

   Zhang, Lin (Ed.)

   The recent discovery and spectroscopic measurements of ${}^{27}\mathrm{O}$ and ${}^{28}\mathrm{O}$ suggests the disappearance of the $N=20$ shell structure in these neutron-rich oxygen isotopes. We measured one- and two-proton removal cross sections from ${}^{27}\mathrm{F}$ and ${}^{29}\mathrm{Ne}$ , respectively, extracting spectroscopic factors and comparing them to shell model overlap functions coupled with eikonal reaction model calculations. The invariant mass technique was used to reconstruct the two-body ( ${}^{24}\mathrm{O}+n$ ) and three-body ( ${}^{24}\mathrm{O}+2n$ ) decay energies from knockout reactions of ${}^{27}\mathrm{F}$ (106.2 MeV/u) and ${}^{29}\mathrm{Ne}$ (112.8 MeV/u) beams impinging on a ${}^9\mathrm{Be}$ target. The one-proton removal from ${}^{27}\mathrm{F}$ strongly populated the ground state of ${}^{26}\mathrm{O}$ and the extracted cross section of $3.4_{-1.5}^{+0.3}$ mb agrees with eikonal model calculations that are normalized by the shell model spectroscopic factors and account for the systematic reduction factor observed for single nucleon removal reactions within the models used. For the two-proton removal reaction from ${}^{29}\mathrm{Ne}$ an upper limit of 0.08 mb was extracted for populating states in ${}^{27}\mathrm{O}$ decaying though the ground state of ${}^{26}\mathrm{O}$ . The measured upper limit for the population of the ground state of ${}^{26}\mathrm{O}$ in the two-proton removal reaction from ${}^{29}\mathrm{Ne}$ indicates a significant difference in the underlying nuclear structure of ${}^{27}\mathrm{F}$ and ${}^{29}\mathrm{Ne}$ . Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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