Ab initio optical potentials and nucleon scattering on medium mass nuclei

We show the first results for the elastic scattering of neutrons off oxygen and calcium isotopes obtained from ab initio optical potentials. The potential is derived using self consistent Green's function theory (SCGF) with the saturating chiral interaction NNLO$_{\textrm{sat}}$. Our calculations are compared to available scattering data and show that it is possible to reproduce low energy scattering observables in medium mass nuclei from first principles.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Zakopane conference on nuclear physic

Chiral three-nucleon forces and the evolution of correlations along the oxygen isotopic chain

The impact of three-nucleon forces (3NFs) along the oxygen chain is investigated for the spectral distribution for attachment and removal of a nucleon, spectroscopic factors and matter radii. We employ self-consistent Green's function (SCGF) theory which allows a comprehensive calculation of the single particle spectral function. For the closed subshell isotopes, $^{14}$O, $^{16}$O, $^{22}$O, $^{24}$O and $^{28}$O, we perform calculations with the Dyson-ADC(3) method. The remaining open shell isotopes are studied using the newly developed Gorkov-SCGF formalism up to second order. We produce plots for the full-fledged spectral distributions. The spectroscopic factors for the dominant quasiparticle peaks are found to depend very little on the leading order (NNLO) chiral 3NFs. The latters have small impact on the calculated matter radii, which, however are consistently obtained smaller than experiment. Similarly, single particle spectra tend to be diluted with respect to experiment. This effect might hinder, to some extent, the onset of correlations and screen the quenching of calculated spectroscopic factors. The most important effects of 3NFs is thus the fine tuning of the energies for the dominant quasiparticle states, which govern the shell evolution and the position of driplines. Although present chiral NNLO 3NFs interactions do reproduce the binding energies correctly in this mass region, the details of the nuclear wave function remain at odd with the experiment showing too small radii and a too dilute single particle spectrum, similar to what already pointed out for larger masses. This suggests a lack of repulsion in the present model of NN+3N interactions which is mildly apparent already for masses in the A=14--28 range.Comment: 13 pages, accepted for publication on Phys. Rev.

Pre-MS depletion, accretion and primordial 7Li

We reconsider the role of pre-main sequence (pre-MS) Li depletion on the basis of new observational and theoretical evidence: i) new observations of Halpha emissions in young clusters show that mass accretion could be continuing till the first stages of the MS, ii) theoretical implications from helioseismology suggest large overshooting values below the bottom of the convective envelopes. We argue here that a significant pre-MS 7Li destruction, caused by efficient overshoot mixing, could be followed by a matter accretion after 7Li depletion has ceased on MS thus restoring Li almost to the pristine value. As a test case we show that a halo dwarf of 0.85 Msun with an extended overshooting envelope starting with an initial abundance of A(Li) = 2.74 would burn Li completely, but an accretion rate of the type 1e-8xe^{-t/3e6} Msun yr$^{-1}$ would restore Li to end with an A(Li) = 2.31. A self-regulating process is required to produce similar final values in a range of different stellar masses to explain the PopII Spite plateau. However, this framework could explain why open cluster stars have lower Li abundances than the pre-solar nebula, the absence of Li in the most metal poor dwarfs and a number of other features which lack of a satisfactory explanation.Comment: To be published in Memorie della Societ\`a Astronomica Italiana Supplementi Vol. 22, Proceedings of Lithium in the cosmos, Iocco F., Bonifacio P., Vangioni E., ed

Rigorous QCD Predictions for Decays of P-Wave Quarkonia

Rigorous QCD predictions for decay rates of the P-wave states of heavy quarkonia are presented. They are based on a new factorization theorem which is valid to leading order in the heavy quark velocity and to all orders in the running coupling constant of QCD. The decay rates for all four P states into light hadronic or electromagnetic final states are expressed in terms of two phenomenological parameters, whose coefficients are perturbatively calculable. Logarithms of the binding energy encountered in previous perturbative calculations of P-wave decays are factored into a phenomenological parameter that is related to the probability for the heavy quark-antiquark pair to be in a color-octet S-wave state. Applying these predictions to charmonium, we use measured decay rates for the \chione and \chitwo to predict the decay rates of the \chizero and $h_c$.Comment: 13 page

Supersymmetry phenomenology beyond the MSSM after 5/fb of LHC data

We briefly review the status of motivated beyond-the-MSSM phenomenology in the light of the LHC searches to date. In particular, we discuss the conceptual consequences of the exclusion bounds, of the hint for a Higgs boson at about 125 GeV, and of interpreting the excess of direct CP violation in the charm sector as a signal of New Physics. We try to go into the various topics in a compact way while providing a relatively rich list of references, with particular attention to the most recent developments.Comment: 20 pages + refs. v2: minor modifications, published versio

Toward the Ab-initio Description of Medium Mass Nuclei

As ab-initio calculations of atomic nuclei enter the A=40-100 mass range, a great challenge is how to approach the vast majority of open-shell (degenerate) isotopes. We add realistic three-nucleon interactions to the state of the art many-body Green's function theory of closed-shells, and find that physics of neutron driplines is reproduced with very good quality. Further, we introduce the Gorkov formalism to extend ab-initio theory to semi-magic, fully open-shell, isotopes. Proof-of-principle calculations for Ca-44 and Ni-74 confirm that this approach is indeed feasible. Combining these two advances (open-shells and three-nucleon interactions) requires longer, technical, work but it is otherwise within reach.Comment: Contribution to Summary Report of EURISOL Topical and Town Meetings, 15-19 October 2012; missing affiliations added and corrected errors in Tab

Optical phase coherent timing of the Crab nebula pulsar with Iqueye at the ESO New Technology Telescope

The Crab nebula pulsar was observed in 2009 January and December with a novel very fast optical photon counter, Iqueye, mounted at the ESO 3.5 m New Technology Telescope. Thanks to the exquisite quality of the Iqueye data, we computed accurate phase coherent timing solutions for the two observing runs and over the entire year 2009. Our statistical uncertainty on the determination of the phase of the main pulse and the rotational period of the pulsar for short (a few days) time intervals are $\approx 1 \, \mu$s and ~0.5 ps, respectively. Comparison with the Jodrell Bank radio ephemerides shows that the optical pulse leads the radio one by ~240 $\mu$s in January and ~160 $\mu$s in December, in agreement with a number of other measurements performed after 1996. A third-order polynomial fit adequately describes the spin-down for the 2009 January plus December optical observations. The phase noise is consistent with being Gaussian distributed with a dispersion $\sigma$ of $\approx 15 \, \mu$s in most observations, in agreement with theoretical expectations for photon noise-induced phase variability.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

The exact eigenstates of the neutrino mass matrix without CP-phase violation

In this paper we obtain the exact mass-eigenstates of the Majorana physical neutrinos. We start by taking into account a general $3\times3$ mass matrix without any CP-phase violation. It is then diagonalized by exactly solving an appropriate set of equations. The solution supplies straightforwardly the mass eigenvalues depending on the diagonal entries and mixing angles. Finally, the consequences of these analytical expressions are discussed assuming various phenomenological restrictions such as conserving the global lepton number $L=L_{e}-L_{\mu}-L_{\tau}$ and the $\mu-\tau$ interchange symmetry. The minimal absolute mass in the neutrino sector is also obtained since the two plausible scenarios invoked above are employed.Comment: 9 pages, no figure

Aqueye+: a new ultrafast single photon counter for optical high time resolution astrophysics

Aqueye+ is a new ultrafast optical single photon counter, based on single photon avalanche photodiodes (SPAD) and a 4-fold split-pupil concept. It is a completely revisited version of its predecessor, Aqueye, successfully mounted at the 182 cm Copernicus telescope in Asiago. Here we will present the new technological features implemented on Aqueye+, namely a state of the art timing system, a dedicated and optimized optical train, a high sensitivity and high frame rate field camera and remote control, which will give Aqueye plus much superior performances with respect to its predecessor, unparalleled by any other existing fast photometer. The instrument will host also an optical vorticity module to achieve high performance astronomical coronography and a real time acquisition of atmospheric seeing unit. The present paper describes the instrument and its first performances.Comment: Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 9504, id. 95040C 14 pp. (2015

Experimental quantum computing without entanglement

Entanglement is widely believed to lie at the heart of the advantages offered by a quantum computer. This belief is supported by the discovery that a noiseless (pure) state quantum computer must generate a large amount of entanglement in order to offer any speed up over a classical computer. However, deterministic quantum computation with one pure qubit (DQC1), which employs noisy (mixed) states, is an efficient model that generates at most a marginal amount of entanglement. Although this model cannot implement any arbitrary algorithm it can efficiently solve a range of problems of significant importance to the scientific community. Here we experimentally implement a first-order case of a key DQC1 algorithm and explicitly characterise the non-classical correlations generated. Our results show that while there is no entanglement the algorithm does give rise to other non-classical correlations, which we quantify using the quantum discord - a stronger measure of non-classical correlations that includes entanglement as a subset. Our results suggest that discord could replace entanglement as a necessary resource for a quantum computational speed-up. Furthermore, DQC1 is far less resource intensive than universal quantum computing and our implementation in a scalable architecture highlights the model as a practical short-term goal.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure