Non-Scissors-Mode Behaviour of Isovector Magnetic Dipole Orbital Transitions Involving Isospin Transfer

We study the response of isovector orbital magnetic dipole (IOMD) transitions to the quadrupole-quadrupole ($Q \cdot Q$) interaction, to the isospin-conserving pairing interaction (ICP) and to combinations of both. We find qualitatively different behaviours for transitions in which the final isospin differs from the initial isospin versus cases where the two isospins are the same. For $N=Z$ even-even nuclei with $J^{\pi}=0^+, T=0$ ground states such as $^8Be$ and $^{20}Ne$, the summed $T=0 \to T=1$ IOMD from the ground state to all the $J=1, T=1$ states in the $0 \hbar \omega$ space does not vanish when the $Q \cdot Q$ interaction is turned off. The pairing interaction (ICP) alone leads to a finite transition rate. For nuclei with $J=0^+, T=1$ ground states such as $^{10}Be$ and $^{22}Ne$, the summed $T=1 \to T=1$ IOMD $does$ vanish when the $Q \cdot Q$ interaction is turned off, as is expected in a good scissors-mode behaviour. However this is not the case for the corresponding sum of the $T=1 \to T=2$ IOMD transitions. In $^{22}Ne$ (but not in $^{10}Be$) the sum of the $T=1 \to T=2$ IOMD transitions is remarkably insensitive to the strengths of both the $Q \cdot Q$ and the ICP interactions. In $^{22}Ne$ an energy weighted-sum is similarly insensitive. All our calculations were carried out in the $0 \hbar \omega$ space.Comment: 19 pages (including 5 figures). submitted to Nucl. Phys.

Effects of the Spin-Orbit and Tensor Interactions on the M1M1 and E2E2 Excitations in Light Nuclei

The effects of varying the spin-orbit and tensor components of a realistic interaction on $M1$ excitation rates and $B(E2)'s$ are studied on nuclei in the $0p$ and $1s-0d$ shells. Not only the total $M1$ but also the spin and orbital parts separately are studied. The single-particle energies are first calculated with the same interaction that is used between the valence nucleons. Later this stringent condition is relaxed somewhat and the $1s$ level is raised relative to $0d$. For nuclei up to $^{28}Si$, much better results i.e stronger $B(M1)$ rates are obtained by increasing the strength of the spin-orbit interaction relative to the free value. This is probably also true for $^{32}S$, but $^{36}Ar$ presents some difficulties. The effects of weakening the tensor interaction are also studied. On a more subtle level, the optimum spin-orbit interaction in the lower half of the $s-d$ shell, as far as $M1$ excitations are concerned, is substantially larger than the difference $E(J=3/2^+)_1-E(J=5/2^+)_1=5.2~MeV$ in $^{17}O$. A larger spin-orbit splitting is also needed to destroy the triaxiality in $^{22}Ne$. Also studied are how much $M1$ orbital and spin strength lies in an observable region and how much is buried in the grass at higher energies. It is noted that for many nuclei the sum $B(M1)_{orbital}+B(M1)_{spin}$ is very close to $B(M1)_{total}$, indicating that the summed cross terms are very small.Comment: 39 pages, revtex 3.

Comparative antioxidant activity of cultivated and wild Vaccinium species investigated by EPR, human neutrophil burst and COMET assay

objectives: The Vaccinium (V.) spp. berries are considered a source of antioxidants, mainly belonging to polyphenols, specifically flavonoids and anthocyanins. Wild genotypes generally contain more antioxidants than cultivated counterparts. So, seven different antioxidants assays on extracts from cultivated and wild Vaccinium berries were performed, to evaluate their difference in terms of bioactivity on oxidative protection and minimum dosage to have a significant action. Materials and Methods: Four cell-free antioxidant assays (ABTS radical scavenging and electronic paramagnetic resonance using Fremy's salt, superoxide anion and hydroxyl radical), and three assays on human cells (two luminol amplified chemiluminescence, LACL, one on DNA damage, COMET) were used to measure the effects of cultivated blueberry (V. corymbosum) and wild bilberry (V. myrtillus) on the differently induced oxidative stress. Concentrations vs activity patterns were obtained by successive dilutions of extracts in order to identify both EC50 and minimum significant activity (MSA). Results: All the assays (except for the hydroxyl radical scavenging) showed a good relationship mainly with anthocyanin and polyphenol content and the significant greater activity of wild Vaccinium extracts. In fact, LACL data gave an EC50 of 11.8 and an MSA of 5.2 g were calculated as fresh weight dosage in cultivated berries, compared with lower doses in wild berries, EC50 of 5.7 g and MSA of 3.4 g. Conclusions: Wild Vaccinium extracts averaged 3.04 and 2.40 fold more activity than cultivated extracts by EC50 and MSA, respectively. COMET assay confirmed the stronger action on DNA protection in wild samples

Transformation of β-Ni(OH)2to NiO nano-sheets via surface nanocrystalline zirconia coating: Shape and size retention

Shape and size of the synthesized NiO nano-sheets were retained during transformation of sheet-like β-Ni(OH)2to NiO at elevated temperatures via nano-sized zirconia coating on the surface of β-Ni(OH)2. The average grain size was 6.42 nm after 600 °C treatment and slightly increased to 10 nm after 1000 °C treatment, showing effective sintering retardation between NiO nano-sheets. The excellent thermal stability revealed potential application at elevated temperatures, especially for high temperature catalysts and solid-state electrochemical devices

Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of Y(1S) and Y(2S) mesons in PbPb collisions at √S^{S}NN = 5.02 TeV

The second-order Fourier coefficients (υ$_{2}$) characterizing the azimuthal distributions of Υ(1S) and Υ(2S) mesons produced in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV are studied. The Υmesons are reconstructed in their dimuon decay channel, as measured by the CMS detector. The collected data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb$^{-1}$. The scalar product method is used to extract the υ$_{2}$ coefficients of the azimuthal distributions. Results are reported for the rapidity range |y| < 2.4, in the transverse momentum interval 0 < p$_{T}$ < 50 GeV/c, and in three centrality ranges of 10–30%, 30–50% and 50–90%. In contrast to the J/ψ mesons, the measured υ$_{2}$ values for the Υ mesons are found to be consistent with zero

Measurement of prompt D0^{0} and D‾\overline{D}0^{0} meson azimuthal anisotropy and search for strong electric fields in PbPb collisions at root SNN\sqrt{S_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV

The strong Coulomb field created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is expected to produce a rapiditydependent difference (Av2) in the second Fourier coefficient of the azimuthal distribution (elliptic flow, v2) between D0 (uc) and D0 (uc) mesons. Motivated by the search for evidence of this field, the CMS detector at the LHC is used to perform the first measurement of Av2. The rapidity-averaged value is found to be (Av2) = 0.001 ? 0.001 (stat)? 0.003 (syst) in PbPb collisions at ?sNN = 5.02 TeV. In addition, the influence of the collision geometry is explored by measuring the D0 and D0mesons v2 and triangular flow coefficient (v3) as functions of rapidity, transverse momentum (pT), and event centrality (a measure of the overlap of the two Pb nuclei). A clear centrality dependence of prompt D0 meson v2 values is observed, while the v3 is largely independent of centrality. These trends are consistent with expectations of flow driven by the initial-state geometry. ? 2021 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY licens

Performance of the CMS Level-1 trigger in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

At the start of Run 2 in 2015, the LHC delivered proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13\TeV. During Run 2 (years 2015–2018) the LHC eventually reached a luminosity of 2.1× 10$^{34}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$, almost three times that reached during Run 1 (2009–2013) and a factor of two larger than the LHC design value, leading to events with up to a mean of about 50 simultaneous inelastic proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing (pileup). The CMS Level-1 trigger was upgraded prior to 2016 to improve the selection of physics events in the challenging conditions posed by the second run of the LHC. This paper describes the performance of the CMS Level-1 trigger upgrade during the data taking period of 2016–2018. The upgraded trigger implements pattern recognition and boosted decision tree regression techniques for muon reconstruction, includes pileup subtraction for jets and energy sums, and incorporates pileup-dependent isolation requirements for electrons and tau leptons. In addition, the new trigger calculates high-level quantities such as the invariant mass of pairs of reconstructed particles. The upgrade reduces the trigger rate from background processes and improves the trigger efficiency for a wide variety of physics signals

Measurement of the Y(1S) pair production cross section and search for resonances decaying to Y(1S)μ⁺μ⁻ in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

The fiducial cross section for Y(1S)pair production in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13TeVin the region where both Y(1S)mesons have an absolute rapidity below 2.0 is measured to be 79 ± 11 (stat) ±6 (syst) ±3 (B)pbassuming the mesons are produced unpolarized. The last uncertainty corresponds to the uncertainty in the Y(1S)meson dimuon branching fraction. The measurement is performed in the final state with four muons using proton-proton collision data collected in 2016 by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9fb$^{-1}$. This process serves as a standard model reference in a search for narrow resonances decaying to Y(1S)μ$^{+}$μ$^{-}$ in the same final state. Such a resonance could indicate the existence of a tetraquark that is a bound state of two bquarks and two b̅ antiquarks. The tetraquark search is performed for masses in the vicinity of four times the bottom quark mass, between 17.5 and 19.5GeV, while a generic search for other resonances is performed for masses between 16.5 and 27GeV. No significant excess of events compatible with a narrow resonance is observed in the data. Limits on the production cross section times branching fraction to four muons via an intermediate Y(1S)resonance are set as a function of the resonance mass