{"title":"Fine-tunings in nucleosynthesis and the emergence of life: status and perspectives","authors":"Ulf-G. Meißner, Bernard Ch. Metsch, Helen Meyer","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01587-5","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01587-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We discuss the fine-tunings of nuclear reactions in the Big Bang and in stars and draw some conclusions on the emergence of the light elements and the life-relevant elements carbon and oxygen. We also stress how to improve these calculations in the future. This requires a concerted effort of different communities, especially in nuclear reaction theory, lattice QCD for few-nucleon systems, stellar evolution calculations, particle physics and philosophy.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01587-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144140223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Philip J. Davis, Hoa Dinh Thi, Anthea F. Fantina, Francesca Gulminelli, Micaela Oertel, Lami Suleiman
{"title":"Crust (unified) tool for equation-of-state reconstruction (CUTER) v2","authors":"Philip J. Davis, Hoa Dinh Thi, Anthea F. Fantina, Francesca Gulminelli, Micaela Oertel, Lami Suleiman","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01562-0","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01562-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The equation of state (EoS) is a needed input to determine the neutron-star global properties and to relate them. It is thus important to provide thermodynamically consistent and unified EoSs to avoid possible biases in the analyses coming from the use of inconsistent EoSs. We propose a numerical tool, <span>CUTER</span>, allowing the user to consistently match a nuclear-physics informed crust to an arbitrary higher density EoS. We present here the second version of this tool, <span>CUTER v2</span>. Two functionalities are available with the <span>CUTER v2</span> tool, allowing the user to reconstruct either the whole (outer and inner) crust, or the outer crust only. We show that the code, that has been tested and validated for use by the astrophysical community, is able to efficiently perform both tasks, allowing the computation of neutron-star global properties in a consistent way.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144135391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transfer matrix method as an unified method for determination of bound, antibound, resonance, decay half-life, fusion and elastic scattering cross sections","authors":"V. Dehghani, S. A. Alavi, A. Soylu, F. Koyuncu","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01573-x","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01573-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Transfer matrix method as a simple but strong unified method for determination of bound, antibound, resonance states, decay half-life, fusion and elastic scattering cross sections was investigated. This method gives the coefficients of linear combinations of ingoing and outgoing waves at each point. In any case by imposing the unique boundary conditions the physical quantities were obtained based on the behavior of the coefficient at the end point for eigenvalue problems or precise value of these coefficients for tunneling and scattering. In any case the results of the transfer matrix method were compared with the corresponding prevalent method and a nice coincidence but with very simple formalism were observed.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144135392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rajesh K. Sahoo, Dharmendra Singh, Amritraj Mahato, Pankaj K. Giri, Nitin Sharma, Lupteindu Chhura, Rahul Mahato, Sneha B. Linda, Harish Kumar, Suhail A. Tali, Rahbar Ali, M. Afzal Ansari, R. Kumar, S. Muralithar, R. P. Singh
{"title":"A study on the effect of neutron excess on compound and non-compound nuclear reaction cross sections at above barrier energies","authors":"Rajesh K. Sahoo, Dharmendra Singh, Amritraj Mahato, Pankaj K. Giri, Nitin Sharma, Lupteindu Chhura, Rahul Mahato, Sneha B. Linda, Harish Kumar, Suhail A. Tali, Rahbar Ali, M. Afzal Ansari, R. Kumar, S. Muralithar, R. P. Singh","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01584-8","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01584-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The excitation functions for the evaporation residues populated in the <span>(^{18})</span>O + <span>(^{154})</span>Sm system has been measured at above-barrier energies (<span>(approx )</span> 3–6 MeV/nucleon) using offline <span>(gamma )</span>-ray spectrometry. A comparison of these measured excitation functions with the statistical model code PACE-4 reveals the involvement of non-compound nuclear reactions in the population of some residues, particularly for those populated via <span>(alpha )</span> emission channels. To further explore fusion dynamics, a systematic analysis was carried out using the Universal Fusion Function framework. This analysis included compound nuclear fusion cross sections for 25 different systems induced by <span>(^{12,13})</span>C and <span>(^{16,18})</span>O projectiles. The experimental observations reveal a more substantial suppression of CNF cross sections in <span>(^{18})</span>O induced reactions as compared to those involving <span>(^{16})</span>O. Conversely, a lesser degree of fusion suppression was observed for <span>(^{13})</span>C projectile induced reactions, relative to those with <span>(^{12})</span>C. Furthermore, significant variations in the <span>(alpha )</span>-separation energy (<span>(textrm{Q}_{alpha })</span>) were found to correlate with changes in the projectile’s neutron-to-proton (N/Z) ratio. These observations suggest that the presence of additional neutrons not only modifies the interaction potential but also affects the internal nuclear structure of the projectile. Such structural modifications appear to enhance the probability of non-compound nuclear reactions in <span>(^{18})</span>O induced reactions as compare to <span>(^{13})</span>C.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144140090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Estimating theoretical uncertainties of the two-nucleon observables by using backpropagation","authors":"K. Topolnicki, R. Skibiński, J. Golak","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01581-x","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01581-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We present a novel approach to calculating theoretical uncertainties in few-nucleon calculations, making use of automatic differentiation via backpropagation, which is particularly efficient when there are many input variables but only a few outputs. The methods described in this paper constitute tools that can be used to investigate the properties of scalar functions used to define nuclear potentials and quantify their contribution to the uncertainty of few nucleon calculations. We demonstrate these methods in deuteron bound state and nucleon–nucleon scattering calculations. Backpropagation, implemented in the <b>Python pytorch</b> library, is used to calculate the gradients with respect to model parameters and propagate errors from these parameters to the deuteron binding energy and selected phase-shift parameters. The uncertainty values obtained using this approach are validated by directly sampling from the potential parameters. We find very good agreement between two ways of estimating that uncertainty.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01581-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144125700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E. Pilotto, F. J. Ferrer, S. Akhmadaliev, A. Fernández, A. Gadea, J. Gómez Camacho, D. Hufschmidt, M. C. Jiménez de Haro, E. Masha, F. Munnik, M. Osswald, D. Piatti, J. Skowronski, S. Turkat, J. J. Valiente-Dobón
{"title":"Comparing (^{3})He content in magnetron sputtered and implanted targets for nuclear studies","authors":"E. Pilotto, F. J. Ferrer, S. Akhmadaliev, A. Fernández, A. Gadea, J. Gómez Camacho, D. Hufschmidt, M. C. Jiménez de Haro, E. Masha, F. Munnik, M. Osswald, D. Piatti, J. Skowronski, S. Turkat, J. J. Valiente-Dobón","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01590-w","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01590-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>(^{3})</span>He targets are a valuable tool in nuclear physics, particularly for studying nuclear structure and dynamics via direct reactions in inverse kinematics. However, they are often prone to degradation under intense beam irradiation and have insufficient <span>(^{3})</span>He content for use with low-intensity exotic beams. In a recent AGATA experiment at LNL, designed to study the astrophysically relevant lifetime of a <span>(^{15})</span>O excited state, two types of <span>(^{3})</span>He targets were tested. One was produced using ion implantation and the other with a novel magnetron sputtering technique, in both cases on Au substrates. Following irradiation with a stable <span>(^{16})</span>O beam, they were characterized using Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) and Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis (ERDA). Results demonstrated that, under the here used fabrication conditions, sputtered targets present a higher <span>(^{3})</span>He content, while implanted ones exhibit thinner profiles. This highlights the possibilities and complementarity of these targets, suggesting their tailored use for future experimental campaigns.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01590-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144125701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fully heavy asymmetric scalar tetraquarks","authors":"S. S. Agaev, K. Azizi, H. Sundu","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01599-1","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01599-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The scalar tetraquarks <span>(T_{b})</span> and <span>(T_{c})</span> with asymmetric contents <span>(bb overline{b}overline{c})</span> and <span>(cc overline{c}overline{b})</span> are explored using the QCD sum rule method. These states are modeled as the diquark–antidiquarks composed of the axial-vector components. The masses and current couplings of <span>(T_{b})</span> and <span>(T_{c})</span> are calculated using the two-point sum rule approach. The predictions obtained for the masses of these four-quark mesons prove that they are unstable against the strong two-meson fall-apart decays to conventional mesons. In the case of the tetraquark <span>( T_{b})</span> this is the decay <span>(T_{textrm{b}}rightarrow eta _{b}B_{c}^{-})</span>. The processes <span>(T_{textrm{c}}rightarrow eta _{c}B_{c}^{+})</span> and <span>(J/psi B_{c}^{*+})</span> are kinematically allowed decay modes of the tetraquark <span>( T_{c})</span>. The widths of corresponding processes are evaluated by employing the QCD three-point sum rule approach which are necessary to estimate strong couplings at the tetraquark-meson-meson vertices of interest. The mass <span>( m=(15698 pm 95)~textrm{MeV})</span> and width <span>(Gamma [T_b]=(36.0 pm 10.4)~ textrm{MeV})</span> of the tetraquark <span>(T_{b})</span> as well as the parameters <span>( widetilde{m}=(9680 pm 102)~textrm{MeV})</span> and <span>(Gamma [T_c]=(54.7 pm 12.6)~ textrm{MeV})</span> in the case of <span>(T_{c})</span> provide useful information to search for and interpret new exotic states.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144131469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pseudospin symmetry and quasidouble magic nuclei","authors":"R. V. Jolos, E. A. Kolganova","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01595-5","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01595-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The similarities in the properties of the nuclei with neutron closed shell and with protons filling valence shell are considered. It is shown that the available experimental data or calculations demonstrate the existence of two regions of nuclei, namely, with Z <span>(=30{-}38)</span>, N = 50 and Z <span>(=84{ -} 100)</span>, N = 126, whose properties indicate on similarity with nuclei in the environment of the quasidouble magic <span>(^{146})</span>Gd. The reason for this is that the proton single-particle levels filling the regions under consideration form a pseudospin doublets.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144125792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
D. Mazzucconi, E. S. Bellotti, D. Vavassori, D. Dellasega, S. Agosteo, M. Passoni, A. Pola, D. Bortot
{"title":"Evaluation of the p-11B reaction cross section through a silicon telescope in the 0.3–4.7 MeV range","authors":"D. Mazzucconi, E. S. Bellotti, D. Vavassori, D. Dellasega, S. Agosteo, M. Passoni, A. Pola, D. Bortot","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01589-3","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01589-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The proton-boron fusion reaction <span>(^{11})</span>B(p,<span>(alpha )</span>)<span>(alpha )</span> <span>(alpha )</span> is of significant interest in nuclear physics, with implications in nuclear engineering, medicine, astrophysics, and fusion energy. Despite extensive research, understanding the reaction mechanism and kinematics remains elusive, underscoring the need for more experimental data. This study aims to quantify the p-11B reaction cross section across a proton energy range from 0.34 to 4.73 MeV. A novel experimental setup integrates custom-produced boron-coated targets with a two-stage monolithic silicon telescope for particle detection. The boron targets were fabricated using Pulsed Laser Deposition technique, allowing precise control over the target’s properties. By utilizing a double-stage silicon device, accurate measurements of particle energy spectra were obtained, discriminating <span>(alpha )</span> particles from scattered protons. The experimental campaign used a Van de Graff accelerator as a proton source. Monte Carlo simulations based on the FLUKA code assessed the actual reaction energy of primary protons. This study presents a novel proton energy-dependent cross-section behavior in the energy range from 0.34 to 4.73 MeV, including uncertainties on proton energy and cross-section values, along with detailed <span>(alpha )</span> particle spectra at these energies. Comparison with literature data shows strong agreement for proton energies above the 0.675 MeV resonance peak, up to 3.5 MeV. A significant increase in the cross section close to 4.5 MeV indicates a potential unexplored resonance in this energy range. These findings suggest the need for expanding the energy range of cross-section evaluation and exploring possible resonances, particularly around 5 MeV.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01589-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144117704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Giulia Gosta, Rosanna Depalo for the LUNA collaboration
{"title":"The SOCIAL project: measurement of the (^{14})N(p,(gamma )^{15})O cross section","authors":"Giulia Gosta, Rosanna Depalo for the LUNA collaboration","doi":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01561-1","DOIUrl":"10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01561-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Solar neutrinos play a significant role in constraining the physical conditions in the interior of the Sun and are a unique tool to investigate its core composition. The <span>(^{14})</span>N(p,<span>(gamma )</span>)<span>(^{15})</span>O cross section is the dominant nuclear uncertainty on CNO neutrino flux predictions. At Solar energies (15–50 keV) such a cross-section is too low to be measured directly, therefore current estimates are based on extrapolations of higher energy data. The SOCIAL (SOlar Composition Investigated At LUNA) project aims at determining the <span>(^{14})</span>N(p,<span>(gamma )</span>)<span>(^{15})</span>O reaction rate at astrophysical energies with 5% precision, as requested by Solar models. We take advantage of the much suppressed <span>(gamma )</span>-ray background achievable in the underground Gran Sasso laboratory to measure <span>(^{14})</span>N(p,<span>(gamma )</span>)<span>(^{15})</span>O partial cross-section in the 100–370 keV energy range. We deliver an intense proton beam from the LUNA accelerator to a solid nitrogen target. <span>(gamma )</span>-rays are detected with a high-efficiency 4<span>(pi )</span>-BGO detector composed of 6 independent segments. The data analysis technique will lead to determine the total and the partial cross-sections for individual gamma transitions. An overview of the experimental setup and the analysis technique are presented.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":786,"journal":{"name":"The European Physical Journal A","volume":"61 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epja/s10050-025-01561-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144108470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}