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Creators/Authors contains: "Zhang, Wanying"

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  1. Context.An accurate28P(p,γ)29S reaction rate is crucial to defining the nucleosynthesis products of explosive hydrogen burning in ONe novae. Using the recently released nuclear mass of29S, together with a shell model and a direct capture calculation, we reanalyzed the28P(p,γ)29S thermonuclear reaction rate and its astrophysical implication. Aims.We focus on improving the astrophysical rate for28P(p,γ)29S based on the newest nuclear mass data. Our goal is to explore the impact of the new rate and associated uncertainties on the nova nucleosynthesis. Methods.We evaluated this reaction rate via the sum of the isolated resonance contribution instead of the previously used Hauser-Feshbach statistical model. The corresponding rate uncertainty at different energies was derived using a Monte Carlo method. Nova nucleosynthesis is computed with the 1D hydrodynamic code SHIVA. Results.The contribution from the capture on the first excited state at 105.64 keV in28P is taken into account for the first time. We find that the capture rate on the first excited state in28P is up to more than 12 times larger than the ground-state capture rate in the temperature region of 2.5 × 107K to 4 × 108K, resulting in the total28P(p,γ)29S reaction rate being enhanced by a factor of up to 1.4 at ~1 × 109K. In addition, the rate uncertainty has been quantified for the first time. It is found that the new rate is smaller than the previous statistical model rates, but it still agrees with them within uncertainties for nova temperatures. The statistical model appears to be roughly valid for the rate estimation of this reaction in the nova nucleosynthesis scenario. Using the 1D hydrodynamic code SHIVA, we performed the nucleosynthesis calculations in a nova explosion to investigate the impact of the new rates of28P(p,γ)29S. Our calculations show that the nova abundance pattern is only marginally affected if we use our new rates with respect to the same simulations but statistical model rates. Finally, the isotopes whose abundance is most influenced by the present28P(p,γ)29S uncertainty are28Si,33,34S,35,37Cl, and36Ar, with relative abundance changes at the level of only 3% to 4%. 
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  2. Context.Accurate42Ti(p,γ)43V reaction rates are crucial for understanding the nucleosynthesis path of the rapid capture process (rpprocess) that occurs in X-ray bursts. Aims.We aim to improve the thermonuclear rates of42Ti(p,γ)43V based on more complete resonance information and a more accurate direct component, together with the recently released nuclear masses data. We also explore the impact of the newly obtained rates on therpprocess. Methods.We reevaluated the reaction rate of42Ti(p,γ)43V by the sum of the isolated resonance contribution instead of the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model. We used a Monte Carlo method to derive the associated uncertainties of new rates. The nucleosynthesis simulations were performed via the NuGrid post-processing code ppn. Results.The new rates differ from previous estimations due to the use of a series of updated resonance parameters and a direct S factor. Compared with the previous results from the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model, which assumes compound nucleus43V with a sufficiently high-level density in the energy region of astrophysical interest, large differences exist over the entire temperature region ofrp-process interest, up to two orders of magnitude. We consistently calculated the photodisintegration rate using our new nuclear masses via the detailed balance principle, and found the discrepancies among the different reverse rates are much larger than those for the forward rate, up to ten orders of magnitude at the temperature of 108K. Using a trajectory with a peak temperature of 1.95×109K, we performed therp-process nucleosynthesis simulations to investigate the impact of the new rates. Our calculations show that the adoption of the new forward and reverse rates result in abundance variations for Sc and Ca of 128% and 49%, respectively, compared to the variations for the statistical model rates. On the other hand, the overall abundance pattern is not significantly affected. The results of using new rates also confirm that therp-process path does not bypass the isotope43V. Conclusions.Our study found that the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model is inappropriate to the reaction rate evaluation for42Ti(p,γ)43V. The adoption of the new rates confirms that the reaction path of42Ti(p,γ)43V(p,γ)44Cr(β+)44V is a key branch of therpprocess in X-ray bursts. 
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  3. Abstract Accurate nuclear reaction rates for26P(p,γ)27S are pivotal for a comprehensive understanding of therp-process nucleosynthesis path in the region of proton-rich sulfur and phosphorus isotopes. However, large uncertainties still exist in the current rate of26P(p,γ)27S because of the lack of nuclear mass and energy level structure information for27S. We reevaluate this reaction rate using the experimentally constrained27S mass, together with the shell model predicted level structure. It is found that the26P(p,γ)27S reaction rate is dominated by a direct capture reaction mechanism despite the presence of three resonances atE= 1.104, 1.597, and 1.777 MeV above the proton threshold in27S. The new rate is overall smaller than the other previous rates from the Hauser–Feshbach statistical model by at least 1 order of magnitude in the temperature range of X-ray burst interest. In addition, we consistently update the photodisintegration rate using the new27S mass. The influence of new rates of forward and reverse reaction in the abundances of isotopes produced in therp-process is explored by postprocessing nucleosynthesis calculations. The final abundance ratio of27S/26P obtained using the new rates is only 10% of that from the old rate. The abundance flow calculations show that the reaction path26P(p,γ)27S(β+,ν)27P is not as important as previously thought for producing27P. The adoption of the new reaction rates for26P(p,γ)27S only reduces the final production of aluminum by 7.1% and has no discernible impact on the yield of other elements. 
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  4. Abstract X-ray bursts are among the brightest stellar objects frequently observed in the sky by space-based telescopes. A type-I X-ray burst is understood as a violent thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a neutron star, accreting matter from a companion star in a binary system. The bursts are powered by a nuclear reaction sequence known as the rapid proton capture process (rp process), which involves hundreds of exotic neutron-deficient nuclides. At so-called waiting-point nuclides, the process stalls until a slower β + decay enables a bypass. One of the handful of rp process waiting-point nuclides is 64 Ge, which plays a decisive role in matter flow and therefore the produced X-ray flux. Here we report precision measurements of the masses of 63 Ge, 64,65 As and 66,67 Se—the relevant nuclear masses around the waiting-point 64 Ge—and use them as inputs for X-ray burst model calculations. We obtain the X-ray burst light curve to constrain the neutron-star compactness, and suggest that the distance to the X-ray burster GS 1826–24 needs to be increased by about 6.5% to match astronomical observations. The nucleosynthesis results affect the thermal structure of accreting neutron stars, which will subsequently modify the calculations of associated observables. 
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  5. Free, publicly-accessible full text available September 1, 2026
  6. This paper presents a search for massive, charged, long-lived particles with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider using an integrated luminosity of $$140~fb^{−1}$$ of proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$~TeV. These particles are expected to move significantly slower than the speed of light. In this paper, two signal regions provide complementary sensitivity. In one region, events are selected with at least one charged-particle track with high transverse momentum, large specific ionisation measured in the pixel detector, and time of flight to the hadronic calorimeter inconsistent with the speed of light. In the other region, events are selected with at least two tracks of opposite charge which both have a high transverse momentum and an anomalously large specific ionisation. The search is sensitive to particles with lifetimes greater than about 3 ns with masses ranging from 200 GeV to 3 TeV. The results are interpreted to set constraints on the supersymmetric pair production of long-lived R-hadrons, charginos and staus, with mass limits extending beyond those from previous searches in broad ranges of lifetime 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available July 1, 2026
  7. This report presents a comprehensive collection of searches for new physics performed by the ATLAS Collaboration during the Run~2 period of data taking at the Large Hadron Collider, from 2015 to 2018, corresponding to about 140~$$^{-1}$$ of $$\sqrt{s}=13$$~TeV proton--proton collision data. These searches cover a variety of beyond-the-standard model topics such as dark matter candidates, new vector bosons, hidden-sector particles, leptoquarks, or vector-like quarks, among others. Searches for supersymmetric particles or extended Higgs sectors are explicitly excluded as these are the subject of separate reports by the Collaboration. For each topic, the most relevant searches are described, focusing on their importance and sensitivity and, when appropriate, highlighting the experimental techniques employed. In addition to the description of each analysis, complementary searches are compared, and the overall sensitivity of the ATLAS experiment to each type of new physics is discussed. Summary plots and statistical combinations of multiple searches are included whenever possible. 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available April 22, 2026
  8. Top-quark pair production is observed in lead–lead ( Pb + Pb ) collisions at s NN = 5.02 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector. The data sample was recorded in 2015 and 2018, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 nb 1 . Events with exactly one electron and one muon and at least two jets are selected. Top-quark pair production is measured with an observed (expected) significance of 5.0 (4.1) standard deviations. The measured top-quark pair production cross section is σ t t ¯ = 3.6 0.9 + 1.0 ( stat ) 0.5 + 0.8 ( syst ) μ b , with a total relative uncertainty of 31%, and is consistent with theoretical predictions using a range of different nuclear parton distribution functions. The observation of this process consolidates the evidence of the existence of all quark flavors in the preequilibrium stage of the quark-gluon plasma at very high energy densities, similar to the conditions present in the early Universe. © 2025 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration2025CERN 
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available April 1, 2026