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Abstract We use the stellar intensity interferometry system implemented with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System at Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory as a light collector to obtain measurements of the rapid rotator starγCassiopeiae, at a wavelength of 416 nm. Using data from baselines sampling different position angles, we extract the size, oblateness, and projected orientation of the photosphere. Fitting the data with a uniform ellipse model yields a minor-axis angular diameter of 0.43 ± 0.02 mas, a major-to-minor-radius ratio of 1.28 ± 0.04, and a position angle of 116° ± 5° for the axis of rotation. A rapidly rotating stellar atmosphere model that includes limb and gravity darkening describes the data well with a fitted angular diameter of $0.604_{-0.034}^{+0.041}$mas corresponding to an equatorial radius of ${10.9}_{-0.6}^{+0.8}{R}_{\odot }$, a rotational velocity with a 1σlower limit at 97.7% of breakup velocity, and a position angle of $114\stackrel{\mathrm{°}}{.}{7}_{-5.7}^{+6.4}$. These parameters are consistent with Hαline spectroscopy and infrared-wavelength Michelson interferometric measurements of the star’s decretion disk. This is the first measurement of an oblate photosphere using intensity interferometry. 

Abstract We use the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging telescope Array System (VERITAS) imaging air Cherenkov telescope array to obtain the first measured angular diameter ofβUMa at visual wavelengths using stellar intensity interferometry (SII) and independently constrain the limb-darkened angular diameter. The age of the Ursa Major moving group has been assessed from the ages of its members, including nuclear member Merak (βUMa), an A1-type subgiant, by comparing effective temperature and luminosity constraints to model stellar evolution tracks. Previous interferometric limb-darkened angular-diameter measurements ofβUMa in the near-infrared (Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array, 1.149 ± 0.014 mas) and mid-infrared (Keck Nuller, 1.08 ± 0.07 mas), together with the measured parallax and bolometric flux, have constrained the effective temperature. This paper presents current VERITAS-SII observation and analysis procedures to derive squared visibilities from correlation functions. We fit the resulting squared visibilities to find a limb-darkened angular diameter of 1.07 ± 0.04 (stat) ± 0.05 (sys) mas, using synthetic visibilities from a stellar atmosphere model that provides a good match to the spectrum ofβUMa in the optical wave band. The VERITAS-SII limb-darkened angular diameter yields an effective temperature of 9700 ± 200 ± 200 K, consistent with ultraviolet spectrophotometry, and an age of 390 ± 29 ± 32 Myr, using MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks. This age is consistent with 408 ± 6 Myr from the CHARA Array angular diameter. 

Abstract In a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), the fundamental building blocks of matter, quarks and gluons, are under extreme conditions of temperature and density. A QGP could exist in the early stages of the Universe, and in various objects and events in the cosmos. The thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties of the QGP are described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and can be studied in heavy-ion collisions. Despite being a key thermodynamic parameter, the QGP temperature is still poorly known. Thermal lepton pairs (e⁺e⁻andμ⁺μ⁻) are ideal penetrating probes of the true temperature of the emitting source, since their invariant-mass spectra suffer neither from strong final-state interactions nor from blue-shift effects due to rapid expansion. Here we measure the QGP temperature using thermale⁺e⁻production at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The average temperature from the low-mass region (in-mediumρ⁰vector-meson dominant) is (2.01 ± 0.23) × 10¹²K, consistent with the chemical freeze-out temperature from statistical models and the phase transition temperature from Lattice QCD. The average temperature from the intermediate mass region (above theρ⁰mass, QGP dominant) is significantly higher at (3.25 ± 0.60) × 10¹²K. This work provides essential experimental thermodynamic measurements to map out the QCD phase diagram and understand the properties of matter under extreme conditions. 

The STAR experiment reports new, high-precision measurements of the transverse single-spin asymmetries for ${\pi }^{\pm }$within jets, namely the Collins asymmetries, from transversely polarized $p^{\uparrow }p$collisions at $\sqrt{s}=510\mathrm{GeV}$. The energy-scaled distribution of jet transverse momentum, $x_{\mathrm{T}}=2p_{\mathrm{T},\text{jet}}/\sqrt{s}$, shows a remarkable consistency for Collins asymmetries of ${\pi }^{\pm }$in jets between $\sqrt{s}=200\mathrm{GeV}$and 510 GeV. This indicates that the Collins asymmetries are nearly energy independent, with, at most, a very weak scale dependence in $p^{\uparrow }p$collisions. These results extend to high-momentum scales ( $Q^2\le 3400{\mathrm{GeV}}^2$) and enable unique tests of evolution and universality in the transverse-momentum-dependent formalism, thus providing important constraints for the Collins fragmentation functions.