ANNOUNCEMENT

    APS and Astrobites Announce Partnership

    October 25, 2023

    The American Physical Society (APS) is pleased to announce that it will begin sponsoring Astrobites, a daily astrophysical literature journal written by graduate students in astronomy. This mutually beneficial collaboration aims to enhance the dissemination of research, educational resources, and career insights in the field of astronomy and astrophysics.


    Key image
    ANNOUNCEMENT

    50 Years of QCD

    October 11, 2023

    A new Collection by the Physical Review journals celebrates the 50th anniversary of the discovery of asymptotic freedom in quantum chromodynamics (QCD)—the theoretical basis for the strong force of nature that binds quarks and gluons into hadrons.


    Aaas243 image lg
    COLLECTION

    Subject Focus: Astrophysics

    To mark the 243rd American Astronomical Society meeting, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review C, and Physical Review D highlighted several significant papers in astrophysics to illustrate the type of research these journals seek to publish.


    Key image
    EDITORS' SUGGESTION

    Mass measurements of neutron-rich nuclei near N=70

    The astrophysical origin for the chemical elements between the first and second r-process peaks is a matter of intense debate, with a number of nucleosynthesis processes at explosive stellar environments possibly contributing to their production. Modeling neutron-capture processes that would produce these elements requires reliable data on the trends of neutron separation energies of neutron-rich isotopes which are highly unstable and not readily accessible by experiment. This work describes the first application of an experimental technique, time-of-flight-magnetic-rigidity (ToF-Bρ), that is well-suited to measure masses of nuclei with very short half-lives in beams with relatively low intensities. The two-neutron separation energy deduced from the measured masses exhibits a smooth trend consistent with theoretical predictions within the range of experimental uncertainty, indicating that there is no sudden shape transition in these isotopes as hinted at by previous data. The successful application of the ToF-Bρ technique to isotopes with Z>28 at the NSCL S800 spectrograph gives hope for a comprehensive program of mass measurements for isotopes relevant to r-process models with the same device at FRIB.

    K.-L. Wang et al.
    Phys. Rev. C 109, 035806 (2024)


    Key image
    EDITORS' SUGGESTION

    Cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy of electrons from tritium β decay and Kr83m internal conversion

    Neutrino mass is a key parameter in nuclear and particle physics and in cosmology. The Project 8 Collaboration developed an innovative method with potential to improve the current mass limits by more than an order of magnitude. Announced in a paper published last September (PRL 131, 102502; see also the Synopsis at https://physics.aps.org/articles/v16/s121), the method measures the frequency of radiation from tritium β-decay electrons spiraling in a magnetic field. In the current paper the authors provide the details of this unique measurement technique including the hardware and the role of simulations and precision spectroscopy that enabled their new direct mass measurement. This first, small-volume demonstration, along with the precision reached, shows a clear path to improve in future experiments on the conservative upper limit for the neutrino mass obtained here.

    A. Ashtari Esfahani et al. (Project 8 Collaboration)
    Phys. Rev. C 109, 035503 (2024)


    Key image
    EDITORS' SUGGESTION

    Microscopic optical potentials for medium-mass isotopes derived at the first order of Watson multiple-scattering theory

    Optical potentials, either phenomenological or microscopic, are used in nuclear reactions to reduce the complexity of the quantum many-body scattering to a tractable one-body problem. In this work the authors extend to heavier nuclei a highly predictive microscopic approach based on ab-initio self-consistent Green’s function (SCGF) calculations that use NN and 3N chiral interactions as the only input. The computed elastic proton scattering off Ca and Ni isotope chains demonstrate the stability of the SCGF input, a method that requires only polynomial scaling of computational resources and reaches masses up to 140 nucleons or more. The predictive power of their optical potential promises interesting implications for studying nuclei away from stability, a frontier in nuclear science including nuclear astrophysics in the coming years.

    M. Vorabbi et al.
    Phys. Rev. C 109, 034613 (2024)


    Outstandingrefs2024

    APS Announces Outstanding Referees for 2024

    APS has selected 156 Outstanding Referees for 2024 who have demonstrated exceptional work in the assessment of manuscripts published in the Physical Review journals. A full list of the Outstanding Referees is available online.


    Local
    NEWS AND COMMENTARY

    How Lasers Could Build Heavy Elements

    February 14, 2024

    Laser-generated nucleosynthesis remains out of reach of present-day technology—but more powerful lasers could eventually make it possible.

    Synopsis on:
    Vojtěch Horný et al.
    Phys. Rev. C 109, 025802 (2024)


    Key image
    EDITORS' SUGGESTION

    Ternary quasifission in collisions of actinide nuclei

    Far away from the heaviest known nuclei, an island of relatively stable nuclei should exist in the nuclear chart. Reaching that island of stability requires a nuclear reaction that will transfer a large number of nucleons from one nucleus to another, such as in the collision of two actinide nuclei, which are heavy and already neutron-rich. In one particular collision scenario, ternary quasifission, the composite system formed by the two colliding nuclei is not in equilibrium, splitting into three fragments, instead of the more commonly observed binary fission process. The authors report a systematic study of ternary quasifission in 238U + 238U collisions in a microscopic framework that has been successfully applied to various nuclear phenomena. They find that including octupole deformation has a pronounced effect on the formation of the middle fragment. For tail-to-tail and tail-to-side collisions, the model calculations predict the formation of very heavy neutron-rich systems in certain energy intervals, a result that is potentially interesting for the synthesis of superheavy elements.

    D. D. Zhang et al.
    Phys. Rev. C 109, 024316 (2024)


    Key image
    EDITORS' SUGGESTION

    Radiative decay branching ratio of the Hoyle state

    In 1954 Fred Hoyle postulated that a 7.65 MeV excited state in 12C had to exist for carbon-based life to develop on Earth. During stellar helium burning, such a state allows a short-lived 8Be, formed from two α particles, to resonantly react with a third α particle to form this state which can decay to the 12C ground state via γ or electron-positron pair emission. The branching fraction for this radiative decay determines the amount of 12C produced in stars. A recent experiment suggested that the decay was significantly different from previous results from the 1960’s and 1970’s, adding considerable uncertainty to this important reaction. This paper uses modern detection technology to remeasure the branching ratio with reduced uncertainties compared with the new result and confirms that the earlier results were correct, thus significantly reducing the uncertainty in stellar 12C production.

    Zifeng Luo (罗梓锋) et al.
    Phys. Rev. C 109, 025801 (2024)


    Key image
    EDITORS' SUGGESTION

    Eigenvector continuation for the pairing Hamiltonian

    This work reports on an emulator for the evaluation of many-body observables based on an eigenvector continuation (EC) framework as an example of a reduced-basis method for a detailed study of the exactly solvable pairing Hamiltonian that serves as a model for nuclear superfluidity. EC is established as a robust resummation tool for many-body perturbation theory even though the bare perturbative expansion breaks down. The authors obtain a reliable, computation-saving, description of the exact solution with a small number of training points, provided these are taken from both sides of the pairing phase transition.

    M. Companys Franzke, A. Tichai, K. Hebeler, and A. Schwenk
    Phys. Rev. C 109, 024311 (2024)


    ANNOUNCEMENT

    Physical Review C Appoints Joseph Kapusta as Lead Editor

    January 19, 2022

    APS has appointed Professor Joseph Kapusta, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota as the Lead Editor of Physical Review C. Professor Kapusta takes the helm following the journal’s previous Lead Editor Benjamin F. Gibson.


    EDITORIAL

    PRC’s 50th Anniversary 1970–2020

    June 9, 2021

    A look back at Physical Review C’s first half century, and a salute to the talented authors and diligent referees who have made the journal a success.


    Prcanniv bookthumb3
    FEATURED IN PHYSICS

    50 Years of Physical Review C: Probing the Secrets of Nuclei

    Researchers look back at key contributions to the field of nuclear physics.

    Special Feature in Physics

    Current Issue

    Vol. 109, Iss. 3 — March 2024

    View Current Issue
    SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE
    BECOME A REFEREE
    Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

    Announcements

    APS Announces Outstanding Referees for 2024
    March 1, 2024

    APS has selected 156 Outstanding Referees for 2024 who have demonstrated exceptional work in the assessment of manuscripts published in the Physical Review journals. A full list of the Outstanding Referees is available online.

    APS Partners with Research4Life
    December 15, 2023

    Offer includes Journal Access and waived article publication charges to Scientists in 100+ Lower and Middle Income Countries

    Physical Review C invites milestone research on nuclear instrumentation
    July 21, 2021

    Physical Review C is expanding its scope to include papers that report significant advances in instrumentation for nuclear science.

    More Announcements

    Job Openings

    Recruiting Candidates for the Chief Editor at PRE
    January 19, 2024

    APS is now accepting applications of qualified candidates for the role of Chief Editor for Physical Review E.

    Read more - American Physical Society - Job Openings

    Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review C

    Log In

    Cancel
    ×

    Search


    Article Lookup

    Paste a citation or DOI

    Enter a citation
    ×