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1. Properties of Cosmic Lithium Isotopes Measured by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.201001  

   Aguilar, M; Ambrosi, G; Anderson, H; Arruda, L; Attig, N; Bagwell, C; Barao, F; Barbanera, M; Barrin, L; Bartoloni, A; et al (May 2025, Physical Review Letters)

   We present the first measurement of cosmic-ray fluxes of ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$and ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$isotopes in the rigidity range from 1.9 to 25 GV. The measurements are based on $9.7\times {10}^5$ ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$and $1.04\times {10}^6$ ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$nuclei collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station from May 2011 to October 2023. We observe that over the entire rigidity range the ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$and ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$fluxes exhibit nearly identical time variations and, above $\sim 4\mathrm{GV}$, the time variations of ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$, ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$, He, Be, B, C, N, and O fluxes are identical. Above $\sim 7\mathrm{GV}$, we find an identical rigidity dependence of the ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$and ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$fluxes. This shows that they are both produced by collisions of heavier cosmic-ray nuclei with the interstellar medium and, in particular, excludes the existence of a sizable primary component in the ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$flux. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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2. First Measurement of $A=4$ Hypernuclei and Antihypernuclei at the LHC

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.162301  

   Acharya, S; Agarwal, A; Aglieri_Rinella, G; Aglietta, L; Agnello, M; Agrawal, N; Ahammed, Z; Ahmad, S; Ahn, S U; Ahuja, I; et al (April 2025, Physical Review Letters)

   In this Letter, the first evidence of the ${}_{\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}{}^4\overline{\mathrm{He}}$antihypernucleus is presented, along with the first measurement at the LHC of the production of (anti)hypernuclei with mass number $A=4$, specifically $\left(\mathrm{anti}\right){}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{H}$and $\left(\mathrm{anti}\right){}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{He}$. In addition, the antiparticle-to-particle ratios for both hypernuclei ( ${}_{\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}{}^4\overline{\mathrm{H}}/{}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{H}$and ${}_{\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}{}^4\overline{\mathrm{He}}/{}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{He}$) are shown, which are sensitive to the baryochemical potential of the strongly interacting matter created in heavy-ion collisions. The results are obtained from a data sample of central Pb-Pb collisions, collected during the 2018 LHC data taking at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$. The yields measured for the average of the charge-conjugated states are found to be $[0.78\pm 0.19\left(\mathrm{stat}\right)\pm 0.17\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)]\times {10}^{-6}$for the $\left(\mathrm{anti}\right){}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{H}$and $[1.08\pm 0.34\left(\mathrm{stat}\right)\pm 0.20\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)]\times {10}^{-6}$for the $\left(\mathrm{anti}\right){}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{He}$, and the measured antiparticle-to-particle ratios are in agreement with unity. The presence of $\left(\mathrm{anti}\right){}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{H}$and $\left(\mathrm{anti}\right){}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{He}$excited states is expected to strongly enhance the production yield of these hypernuclei. The yield values exhibit a combined deviation of $3.3\sigma$from the theoretical ground-state-only expectation, while the inclusion of the excited states in the calculations leads to an agreement within $0.6\sigma$with the present measurements. Additionally, the measured $\left(\mathrm{anti}\right){}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{H}$and $\left(\mathrm{anti}\right){}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{}^4\mathrm{He}$masses are compatible with the world-average values within the uncertainties. © 2025 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration2025CERN 

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3. Magneto-optical trap of titanium atoms

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.023025  

   Eustice, Scott; Schrott, Jackson; Stöltzel, Anke; Wolf, Julian; Novoa, Diego; Cassella, Kayleigh; Stamper-Kurn, Dan M (April 2025, Physical Review Research)

   We realize a magneto-optical trap (MOT) of titanium (Ti) atoms, performing laser cooling on the 498 nm transition between the long-lived $3{\mathrm{d}}^3\left({}^4\mathrm{F}\right)4\mathrm{s}{\mathrm{a}}^5{\mathrm{F}}_5$metastable state and the $3{\mathrm{d}}^3\left({}^4\mathrm{F}\right)4\mathrm{p}{\mathrm{y}}^5{\mathrm{G}}_6^{\mathrm{o}}$excited state. Without the addition of any repumping light, we observe MOTs of the three stable, $I=0$bosonic isotopes, ${}^{46}\mathrm{Ti}, {}^{48}\mathrm{Ti}$, and ${}^{50}\mathrm{Ti}$. Up to $8.30\left(26\right)\times {10}^5{}^{48}\mathrm{Ti}$atoms are trapped at a maximum density of $1.3\left(4\right)\times {10}^{11}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$and at a temperature of $90\left(15\right)\mu \mathrm{K}$. By measuring the decay of the MOT, we constrain the leakage branching ratio of the cooling transition ( $\le 2.5\times {10}^{-6}$) and the two-body loss coefficient ( $\le 2\times {10}^{-10}{\mathrm{cm}}^3{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$). Our approach to laser cooling Ti can be applied to other transition metals, enabling a significant expansion of the elements that can be laser cooled. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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4. Chiral Superfluid Helium-3 in the Quasi-Two-Dimensional Limit

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.136001  

   Heikkinen, Petri J; Levitin, Lev V; Rojas, Xavier; Singh, Angadjit; Eng, Nathan; Casey, Andrew; Saunders, John; Vorontsov, Anton; Zhelev, Nikolay; Sebastian, Abhilash Thanniyil; et al (March 2025, Physical Review Letters)

   Anisotropic pair breaking close to surfaces favors the chiral $A$phase of the superfluid ${}^3\mathrm{He}$over the time-reversal invariant $B$phase. Confining the superfluid ${}^3\mathrm{He}$into a cavity of height $D$of the order of the Cooper pair size characterized by the coherence length ${\xi }_0$—ranging between 16 nm (34 bar) and 77 nm (0 bar)—extends the surface effects over the whole sample volume, thus allowing stabilization of the $A$phase at pressures $P$and temperatures $T$where otherwise the $B$phase would be stable. In this Letter, the surfaces of such a confined sample are covered with a superfluid ${}^4\mathrm{He}$film to create specular quasiparticle scattering boundary conditions, preventing the suppression of the superfluid order parameter. We show that the chiral $A$phase is the stable superfluid phase under strong confinement over the full $P\text{−}T$phase diagram down to a quasi-two-dimensional limit $D/{\xi }_0=1$, where $D=80\mathrm{nm}$. The planar phase, which is degenerate with the chiral $A$phase in the weak-coupling limit, is not observed. The gap inferred from measurements over the wide pressure range from 0.2 to 21.0 bar leads to an empirical ansatz for temperature-dependent strong-coupling effects. We discuss how these results pave the way for the realization of the fully gapped two-dimensional $p_x+i{p}_y$superfluid under more extreme confinement. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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5. Shedding Light on the Origin of ${}^{204}\mathrm{Pb}$ , the Heaviest $s$ -Process–Only Isotope in the Solar System

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.052702  

   Casanovas-Hoste, A; Domingo-Pardo, C; Lerendegui-Marco, J; Guerrero, C; Tarifeño-Saldivia, A; Krtička, M; Pignatari, M; Calviño, F; Schumann, D; Heinitz, S; et al (July 2024, Physical Review Letters)

   Asymptotic giant branch stars are responsible for the production of most of the heavy isotopes beyond Sr observed in the solar system. Among them, isotopes shielded from the $r$-process contribution by their stable isobars are defined as $s$-only nuclei. For a long time the abundance of ${}^{204}\mathrm{Pb}$, the heaviest $s$-only isotope, has been a topic of debate because state-of-the-art stellar models appeared to systematically underestimate its solar abundance. Besides the impact of uncertainties from stellar models and galactic chemical evolution simulations, this discrepancy was further obscured by rather divergent theoretical estimates for the neutron capture cross section of its radioactive precursor in the neutron-capture flow, ${}^{204}\mathrm{Tl}$( $t_{1/2}=3.78\mathrm{yr}$), and by the lack of experimental data on this reaction. We present the first ever neutron capture measurement on ${}^{204}\mathrm{Tl}$, conducted at the CERN neutron time-of-flight facility n_TOF, employing a sample of only 9 mg of ${}^{204}\mathrm{Tl}$produced at the Institute Laue Langevin high flux reactor. By complementing our new results with semiempirical calculations we obtained, at the $s$-process temperatures of $kT\approx 8\mathrm{keV}$and $kT\approx 30\mathrm{keV}$, Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACS) of 580(168) mb and 260(90) mb, respectively. These figures are about 3% lower and 20% higher than the corresponding values widely used in astrophysical calculations, which were based only on theoretical calculations. By using the new ${}^{204}\mathrm{Tl}$MACS, the uncertainty arising from the ${}^{204}\mathrm{Tl}(\mathrm{n},\gamma )$cross section on the $s$-process abundance of ${}^{204}\mathrm{Pb}$has been reduced from $\sim 30\%$down to $+8\%/-6\%$, and the $s$-process calculations are in agreement with the latest solar system abundance of ${}^{204}\mathrm{Pb}$reported by K. Lodders in 2021. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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