Elucidating the role of strange baryons (hyperons) in neutron stars requires detailed knowledge of hyperon–nucleon interactions in the light (u,d,s) quark sector. The structure of the hyperons and ...their excitation spectra also directly impact, and are an input to, models of big-bang nucleosynthesis. The upcoming K-long Facility will provide a much-needed intense and clean neutral strange meson beam, from which hyperons can be produced at rates where hyperon structure, hyperon–nucleon interactions and higher-order interactions can be studied with a new level of accuracy and for hitherto unreachable measurements. The new facility has the potential to address long-standing questions surrounding the strange sector of the strong force and its relevance to the structure of atomic nuclei, neutron stars and the cosmos at large. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The liminal position of Nuclear Physics: from hadrons to neutron stars’.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a widely-used imaging modality for medical research and clinical diagnosis. Imaging of the radiotracer is obtained from the detected hit positions of the two ...positron annihilation photons in a detector array. The image is degraded by backgrounds from random coincidences and in-patient scatter events which require correction. In addition to the geometric information, the two annihilation photons are predicted to be produced in a quantum-entangled state, resulting in enhanced correlations between their subsequent interaction processes. To explore this, the predicted entanglement in linear polarisation for the two photons was incorporated into a simulation and tested by comparison with experimental data from a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) PET demonstrator apparatus. Adapted apparati also enabled correlation measurements where one of the photons had undergone a prior scatter process. We show that the entangled simulation describes the measured correlations and, through simulation of a larger preclinical PET scanner, illustrate a simple method to quantify and remove the unwanted backgrounds in PET using the quantum entanglement information alone.
We study the directed Abelian sandpile model on a square lattice, with K downward neighbors per site, K>2. The K=3 case is solved exactly, which extends the earlier known solution for the K=2 case. ...For K>2, the avalanche clusters can have holes and side branches and are thus qualitatively different from the K=2 case where avalanche clusters are compact. However, we find that the critical exponents for K>2 are identical with those for the K=2 case, and the large-scale structure of the avalanches for K>2 tends to the K=2 case.
The study of the excited-nucleon (\N^*\) spectrum is fundamental for the quest to understand non-perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Measured kinematical evolutions of experimental observables, such ...as polarizations and unpolarized cross sections, for exclusive meson photoproduction off proton and neutron, are the foundation of theoretical and phenomenological analyses that identify the \N^*\ states excited in these reactions and determine their parameters. While free proton targets are readily available, experiments typically use bound neutrons, such as in the deuteron, to estimate observables for photoproduction off the free neutron. Even though exclusivity allows to select event samples dominated by quasi-free scattering (QF), it is not clear if the obtained observables are unbiased estimates of the observables for photoproduction off the free neutron. Studies assessing the possible sources of bias, such as the neutron binding and final-state interactions (FSI), are sparse and primarily focused on the unpolarized cross sections. The comparison between observables for production off the free and off the bound proton in high-statistics reactions, seems to be the natural way to study and to quantify these effects experimentally. Alternatively, one can map the evolution of the QF observables with target-neutron momentum and potentially extrapolate it to the “free”-neutron point of zero momentum. In this work, we determine the recoil polarization \P_y\ of the \\varLambda \ hyperon and the polarization transfers \C_x\ and \C_z\ from circularly-polarized photons to the \\varLambda \ for the quasi-free mechanism of the reaction \\overrightarrow{\gamma }d\rightarrow K^+\overrightarrow{\varLambda } n\, i.e., for photoproduction off the bound proton. The data were taken with the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National accelerator facility (JLab) during the E06-103 (g13a) experiment and cover \E_{\gamma }\ between 0.9 and 2.6 GeV and \\cos \theta _{KCM}\ between \-\,0.3\ and 0.8. For several kinematic bins, the dependence of the polarizations on the target-proton momentum is studied. Our work can be used as a benchmark to develop analysis strategies to reduce potential bias due to FSI and the binding of the neutron in the deuteron in reported polarization observables for quasi-free meson photoproduction off the bound neutron.
The study of the excited-nucleon (
N
∗
) spectrum is fundamental for the quest to understand non-perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Measured kinematical evolutions of experimental observables, such ...as polarizations and unpolarized cross sections, for exclusive meson photoproduction off proton and neutron, are the foundation of theoretical and phenomenological analyses that identify the
N
∗
states excited in these reactions and determine their parameters. While free proton targets are readily available, experiments typically use bound neutrons, such as in the deuteron, to estimate observables for photoproduction off the free neutron. Even though exclusivity allows to select event samples dominated by quasi-free scattering (QF), it is not clear if the obtained observables are unbiased estimates of the observables for photoproduction off the free neutron. Studies assessing the possible sources of bias, such as the neutron binding and final-state interactions (FSI), are sparse and primarily focused on the unpolarized cross sections. The comparison between observables for production off the free and off the bound proton in high-statistics reactions, seems to be the natural way to study and to quantify these effects experimentally. Alternatively, one can map the evolution of the QF observables with target-neutron momentum and potentially extrapolate it to the “free”-neutron point of zero momentum. In this work, we determine the recoil polarization
P
y
of the
Λ
hyperon and the polarization transfers
C
x
and
C
z
from circularly-polarized photons to the
Λ
for the quasi-free mechanism of the reaction
γ
→
d
→
K
+
Λ
→
n
, i.e., for photoproduction off the bound proton. The data were taken with the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National accelerator facility (JLab) during the E06-103 (g13a) experiment and cover
E
γ
between 0.9 and 2.6 GeV and
cos
θ
KCM
between
-
0.3
and 0.8. For several kinematic bins, the dependence of the polarizations on the target-proton momentum is studied. Our work can be used as a benchmark to develop analysis strategies to reduce potential bias due to FSI and the binding of the neutron in the deuteron in reported polarization observables for quasi-free meson photoproduction off the bound neutron.
The γ n → π 0 n differential cross section evaluated for 27 energy bins span the photon-energy range 290– 813 MeV (W = 1.195–1.553 GeV) and the pion c.m. polar production angles, ranging from 18° to ...162°, making use of model-dependent nuclear corrections to extract π0 production data on the neutron from measurements on the deuteron target. Additionally, the total photoabsorption cross section was measured. The tagged photon beam produced by the 883 MeV electron beam of the Mainz Microtron MAMI was used for the π0-meson production. Our accumulation of 3.6 × 106 γ n → π 0 n events allowed a detailed study of the reaction dynamics. Our data are in reasonable agreement with previous A2 measurements and extend them to lower energies. The data are compared with predictions of previous SAID, MAID, and BnGa partial-wave analyses and to the latest SAID fit MA19 that included our data. Selected photon-decay amplitudes N * → γ n at the resonance poles are determined for the first time.
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