Description
Plenary Session
The ellipsoidal deformation of nuclear shapes has been one of the central questions of
nuclear structure physics. Fully microscopic approaches with a wide range of possible
relevant correlations have been naturally difficult. Just recently, such approaches became
feasible by using the Monte Carlo Shell Model [1], particularly by its most advanced version
Quasiparticle Vacuua Shell...
The ab initio method in nuclear theory can be interpreted as a systematically improvable approach for quantitatively describing nuclei using the finest resolution scale possible while maximizing its predictive capabilities. In this talk, I will highlight some recent developments in ab initio nuclear structure calculations, focusing on the use of Bayesian methods for uncertainty quantification....
Understanding the internal structure of the nucleon remains a fundamental challenge in nuclear and particle physics. Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD) provides a rigorous, first-principles framework to study key nucleon properties, including parton distributions, form factors, and moments of generalized parton distributions. Recent advancements in computational algorithms, renormalization...
Neutron stars are unique laboratories to probe matter in extreme conditions that cannot be currently reproduced on Earth. The determination of their equation of state (EoS) is a challenge, but it is particularly important since it allows to relate different global neutron-star properties and to link the prediction of astrophysical observables to microphysical properties of dense matter.
In...
Nuclear astrophysics aims to understand the origin of elements and the energy generation within stars by studying nuclear reactions. Direct experiments attempt to replicate these reactions in laboratory settings, measuring cross-sections at stellar energies. However, these energies are often extremely low, leading to significant experimental challenges. Indirect methods, such as transfer...
Heavy ion collisions provide a unique laboratory for exploring the dynamics of the strong nuclear force, governed by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). These collisions probe strongly interacting matter across different regimes, from the partonic structure of nuclei to the quark-gluon plasma (QGP)—a deconfined state of quarks and gluons that existed in the early universe. Experiments spanning a...
Understanding the phase structure of strongly interacting matter is a central goal in high-energy nuclear physics. Electromagnetic probes—such as photons and dileptons—offer a unique window into the space-time evolution of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and hadronic matter created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Unlike hadrons, these probes interact only electromagnetically and thus carry...
Nuclear fission owes its name by the fact that, at the macroscopic level, it resembles the division of a living cell, with the nucleus slowly deforming until it breaks into two pieces. This a priori harmless split hides a complex re-arrangement of a many-body quantum system. The excited fragments emerging at scission quickly return to equilibrium by emitting neutrons and gamma-rays. As such,...
An overview is given of the current nuclear data libraries which are used for nuclear technology, in particular nuclear energy. These nuclear data libraries are filled with fundamental nuclear reaction and nuclear structure data, coming from a mixture of measurements and nuclear model calculations, and are used in Monte Carlo or deterministic application codes for the analysis of nuclear...
Human activities—whether nuclear (civilian and military) or industrial processes involving naturally radioactive materials (oil and gas production, phosphate mining, and rare earth extraction)—have released and redistributed radionuclides across environmental compartments. This contamination could threaten ecosystems and human health, with risks driven by the persistence, concentration, and...
The detailed understanding of how quantum chromodynamics (QCD) gives rise to the spectrum of hadrons is currently one of the biggest open questions in hadron physics. Most of the observed states are classified as quark-antiquark mesons or three-quark baryons. However, QCD allows for a much richer spectrum with more complex configurations. Experimental evidence exists for such non-conventional...
In the last years the correlation measurements at LHC, particularly performed in small colliding systems such as proton-proton collisions, proved to be a powerful experimental tool to access the strong force between hadrons. A large amount of interactions among stable or unstable hadrons have not been measured yet and theoretical calculations based on effective lagrangians and/or starting...
Employing storage rings for precision physics experiments with highly-charged ions (HCI) at the intersection of atomic, nuclear, plasma and astrophysics is a rapidly developing field of research. Storage of freshly produced secondary particles in a storage ring is a straightforward way to achieve the most efficient use of the rare species. It allows for determining the mass of the species...
A rich spectrum of giant resonances of different multipolarities and spin and isospin structure was expected on theoretical grounds. In the nineteen seventies, the isoscalar giant quadrupole resonance (ISGQR) was discovered in electron scattering followed by the isoscalar giant monopole resonance (ISGMR) in inelastic $\alpha$ scattering. In the last five decades, the compression modes the...
Throughout science, researchers advance understanding by exploring the extremes of nature. In nuclear physics, this means investigating nuclei under controlled laboratory conditions, as well as studying those that exist only in vast cosmic environments — from stars to galaxies (~10$^{25}$ m) — and connecting these observations to the microscopic realm (~10$^{-15}$ m). Elucidating the behaviour...
We describe laser spectroscopy of the 1S-2S transition in trapped [1] and laser cooled [2] antihydrogen to 13 significant figures [3] and a lineshape theory [4] for its analysis. This is an order of magnitude improvement over our last results [5]. We discuss the extension of the methods to allow spectroscopy of hydrogen in the same apparatus as proposed in [6] and with a proof-of-principle...
Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is a key process in understanding the fundamental nature of neutrinos and their role in the evolution of the Universe. Following the discovery of neutrino flavor oscillations, which demonstrated that neutrinos have mass, the search for 0νββ has become one of the most compelling challenges in contemporary particle physics. This talk will begin with an...
The radioisotope thorium-229 features a nuclear isomer with an exceptionally low excitation energy of ≈ 8.4 eV and a favorable coupling to the environment, making it a candidate for a next generation of optical clocks allowing to study fundamental physics such as the variation of the fine structure constant [1,2].
While first indirect experimental evidence for the existence of such a nuclear...
The quest for an optical nuclear frequency standard, the ‘nuclear clock’ based on the elusive and uniquely low-energetic ‘thorium isomer’ $^{229m}$Th, has increasingly triggered experimental and theoretical research activities in numerous groups worldwide in the last decade. Today’s most precise timekeeping is based on optical atomic clocks. However, those could potentially be outperformed by...
The presentation will begin with a concise overview of the key observational evidence constraining the properties of UHECRs, and why the evidence points to binary neutron star (BNS) mergers as their source. The main topic of the talk is predicting the spectrum and composition of UHECRs in the BNS merger scenario. It is possible to do this in unprecedented specificity thanks to the...
CHRISP is the Swiss Research Infrastructure for Particle Physics at PSI. The High Intensity Proton Accelerator complex HIPA provides a beam of 590 MeV protons at 50 MHz from its ring cyclotron to targets. The beam with an average current of up to 2.4 mA, corresponding to 1.4 MW average beam power, simultaneously serves nuclear and particle physics experiments with pions, muons and ultracold...
The gravitational waves from merging binary systems carry unique information about the nature and internal structure of compact objects. This is of key interest for neutron stars, whose material is compressed by strong gravity to supra-nuclear densities, leading to unique states of matter. I will describe examples of resulting gravitational-wave signatures and associated characteristic...
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) reveals its complexity at large distances and low energies. Understanding the internal structure of the nucleons is therefore essential for a complete understanding of QCD in this regime. Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) play a crucial role in this effort, as they provide a means to map both the spatial and the longitudinal momentum distributions of partons...
Though the origin of most of the nuclides lighter than iron is now quite well understood, the synthesis of the heavy elements (i.e. heavier than iron) remains puzzling in many respects. The major mechanisms called for to explain the production of the heavy nuclei are the slow neutron-capture process (or s-process), occurring during the hydrostatic stellar burning phases, the rapid...
Simulations of explosive nucleosynthesis in novae predict the production of the radioisotope 22Na. Its half-life of 2.6 yr makes it a very interesting astronomical observable by allowing space and time correlations with the astrophysical object. Its 𝛾-ray line at 1.275 MeV has not been observed yet by 𝛾-ray space observatories. This radioisotope should bring constraints on nova models and help...
Searches for signatures of new physics involve many probes, in particular at low energies, beyond those accessible at high-energy colliders. Those searches also include charged current processes such as nuclear beta decay and electron capture.
In this presentation, I will review current efforts searching for new physics in nuclear beta decay and I will retrace the progress achieved so far in...
FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) is an international accelerator facility under construction at the site of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt.FAIR will deliver a wide range of intense primary and secondary beams at relativistic energies, including radioactive beams of all elements and, in a later stage, antiprotons.
The existing GSI accelerators...
Infinite nuclear matter lies at the crossroads of nuclear physics investigations, as it connects the microscale of nuclei and the macroscale of compact celestial bodies. On the one hand, nuclear matter properties can be partially constrained by finite nuclei observables and astrophysical observations. On the other hand, nuclear matter can guide the development of both ab initio nuclear...
The nuclear interaction problem can nowadays be addressed within the systematic framework of effective field theories, rooted in the underlying quantum chromodynamics through its approximate and dynamically broken chiral symmetry. Nevertheless, despite tremendous progress, long-standing discrepancies between theory and experiment persist in the A=3 continuum, most notably the so-called Ay...
For many years, nuclear medicine was focus mainly on imaging using Technecium-99m. Some therapy was conducted using Iodine-131 mainly to treat thyroid cancer. In the 2000’s, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging arrived leading to a new wave of applications for nuclear medicine especially in cancer imaging using Flurodesoxyglucose labelled with fluorine-18 (18F-FDG). Several attempt to...
