EPJ A Highlight - Nuclear physics with a medium-energy Electron-Ion Collider
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- Published on 21 October 2012
Quarks and gluons are the fundamental constituents of most of the matter in the visible Universe; Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), a relativistic quantum field theory based on color gauge symmetry, describes their strong interactions. The understanding of the static and dynamical properties of the visible strongly interacting particles - hadrons - in terms of quarks and gluons is one of the most fascinating issues in hadron physics and QCD. In particular the exploration of the internal structure of protons and neutrons is one of the outstanding questions in experimental and theoretical nuclear and hadron physics. Impressive progress has been achieved recently.
EPJ A - Existence of neutron-rich superheavy element 116 confirmed
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- Published on 10 August 2012
The synthesis of a superheavy element with the proton number Z=116 has been studied at the velocity filter SHIP of GSI in Darmstadt using a 48Ca beam on radioactive 248Cm targets. At excitation energies of the compound nuclei of 40.9 MeV, four decay chains were measured, which were assigned to the isotope 292116 produced in 4n channel, and one chain, which was assigned to 293116 produced in 3n channel. All chains are terminated by spontaneous fission decays of either 277Hs or 284Cn isotopes on the shoreline of the neutron-rich superheavy island.
EPJ A - A new technique for simultaneous measurement of neutron-induced capture and fission reactions
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- Published on 10 August 2012
The accurate knowledge of (n,gamma) neutron-capture cross-sections for fissile isotopes is highly relevant for next-generation applications of nuclear technology. However, accurate measurements are difficult due to the gamma-ray background generated in competing (n,f) fission reactions. Scientists at the n_TOF facility at CERN have developed a new experimental setup that is capable of simultaneously measuring and identifying the capture and fission reactions.
EPJ A - Vector Correlators in Lattice QCD: Methods and Applications
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- Published on 10 August 2012
Vacuum polarisation, the modification of the photon propagator due to virtual electron-positron pairs, is one of the first quantum loop corrections encountered in field theory. In both QED and QCD it causes the running of the appropriate fine structure constant as the physical scale is varied, and also corrects the magnetic moments of electrons and muons from the value 2 predicted by the Dirac equation.
EPJ A - The Similarity Renormalization Group for Three-Body Interactions in One Dimension
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- Published on 10 August 2012
One important message that has emerged from developments of effective field theories and effective Hamiltonians for nuclear physics is that many-body forces are inevitable whenever degrees of freedom are eliminated. At the same time, first-principles calculations have shown that two-body forces alone are not able to give an accurate account of the energies of light nuclei and the saturation of nuclear matter. Three- (and possibly more-) body forces are thus essential in low-energy nuclear physics.
EPJ A – Validating Aspects of the Strong-Coupling Regime of QCD
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- Published on 02 February 2011
A key to our understanding of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in the strong regime is our ability to reproduce the hadronic excitation spectrum. Up to now, and due to their limited predictive power, quark models forecast of this spectrum at high excitation energies is unsatisfactory and is dubbed ``the missing resonances problem”. To explore the high excitation energies in the hadron spectrum production or scattering of heavier mesons from a nucleon target is essential.
EPJ A broadens its scope in heavy ion physics
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- Published on 07 August 2006
EPJ A broadens its scope in heavy ion physics by merging with the Acta Physica Hungarica A - Heavy Ion Physics (APH A) as of January 1st, 2007. APH A, a well respected journal in the field has emerged from the Acta Physics Hungarica, initially covering all areas of physics, in the 1990s.
See also the Letter of the Editor of APH.
