Low-energy Regime Research Articles

The F + HD (v = 0, 1; j = 1) reaction: angular momentum correlations in the low (

A detailed analysis of the low collision energy (0.03-10 meV) integral reaction cross-section has been carried out for the F + HD (v = 0, 1; j = 1)→ HF(DF) + D(H) reaction using accurate, fully converged time-independent hyperspherical quantum dynamics. Particular attention has been paid to the shape (orbiting) resonances and their assignment to the orbital (L) and total (J) angular momenta as well as to the product's state resolved cross-sections at the energies of the resonances. As in previous works, it has been found that the energy position of the resonances depends on the initial state, but is essentially the same for the two exit channels and the product's rovibrational states. The analysis in terms of the orbital and total angular momenta showed that each resonance is characterised by a given value of L but is contributed by several J. The main resonances are due to L = 3 and L = 5 for both F + HD (v = 0, j = 1) and F + HD (v = 1, j = 1) reactions, although they appear at different collision energies. The product's vibrationally resolved excitation functions are found to follow the same pattern as the integral cross-section summed over all final states. A more detailed analysis has been made for the rotationally resolved integral cross-sections associated with L = 3, which gives rise to the main resonance for the two reactions and both product channels, for different final j' states, showing similar behaviour for all j' states except for j' = 0 due to parity conservation. The joint analysis of the final rotational and orbital angular momenta shows that L' and j' tend to have an antiparallel orientation.

Collective description of low energy mesonic states

The phenomenology of hadronic states at high energy is well described in the framework of quantum chromodynamics. By the other hand, that is the description of the low-energy regime, e.g., mesoniclike states, requires the introduction of effective degrees of freedom, a condition resulting from confinement. As an alternative to lattice gauge calculations, and own to the similarities with other quantum many-body systems, we have adopted a nonperturbative scheme where quarks are treated as quasiparticles. These quasiquarks interact between them, allowing mesonlike states to be described as collective superposition of quasiquark pairs. The results of the calculations, performed in the context of the random phase approximation method, show that this scheme is a suitable one to describe meson states up to energies of the order of couple of GeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Cross-Sections for Projectile Ionization, Electron Capture, and System Breakdown of C5+ and Li2+ Ions with Atomic Hydrogen

For many disciplines of science, all conceivable collisional cross-sections and reactions must be precisely known. Although recent decades have seen a trial of large-scale research to obtain such data, many essential atomic and molecular cross-section data are still missing, and the reliability of the existing cross-sections has to be validated. In this paper, we present projectile ionization, electron capture, and system breakdown cross-sections in carbon (C5+) ions and lithium (Li2+) ion collisions with atomic hydrogen based on the Monte Carlo models of classical and quasi-classical trajectories. According to our expectation, the QCTMC results show higher results in comparison to standard CTMC data, emphasizing the role of the Heisenberg correction constraint, especially in the low-energy regime. On the other hand, at high energy, the Heisenberg correction term has less influence as the projectile momentum increases. We present the total cross-sections of projectile ionization, electron capture, and system breakdown in C5+ ions and Li2+ ion collisions with atomic hydrogen in the impact energy range from 10 keV to 160 keV, which is of interest in astrophysical plasmas, atmospheric sciences, plasma laboratories, and fusion research.

Strategic Design of Anion-Responsive Triarylboranes Exhibiting Colorimetric and Fluorometric Red-Shift for Sensing and Optoelectronic Applications.

Triarylboranes (TABs) have been employed as colorimetric and/or fluorometric anion sensors. The majority of TAB-based anion sensors exhibit blue-shift modes of absorption and photoluminescence (PL) or turn off of PL, attributed to the intrinsic electronic polarity of the trivalent boron unit in their molecular designs. In this Concept article, I introduce a novel approach to modulating the photophysical properties of TABs toward a red-shift mode by balancing the dual, opposing roles of the amine-bridged TAB (phenazaborine). This molecular design strategy enables significant changes in color and emission response to anions, shifting to the lower energy regime in solution. Additionally, this approach is applicable to the solid-state modulation of PL in films and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Cosmological Models in Lovelock Gravity: An Overview of Recent Progress

In the current review, we provide a summary of the recent progress made in the cosmological aspect of extra-dimensional Lovelock gravity. Our review covers a wide variety of particular model/matter source combinations: Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet as well as cubic Lovelock gravities with vacuum, cosmological constant, perfect fluid, spatial curvature, and some of their combinations. Our analysis suggests that it is possible to set constraints on the parameters of the above-mentioned models from the simple requirement of the existence of a smooth transition from the initial singularity to a realistic low-energy regime. Initially, anisotropic space naturally evolves into a configuration with two isotropic subspaces, and if one of these subspaces is three-dimensional and is expanding while another is contracting, we call it realistic compactification. Of course, the process is not devoid of obstacles, and in our paper, we review the results of the compactification occurrence investigation for the above-mentioned models. In particular, for vacuum and Λ-term EGB models, compactification is not suppressed (but is not the only possible outcome either) if the number of extra dimensions is D⩾2; for vacuum cubic Lovelock gravities it is always present (however, cubic Lovelock gravity is defined only for D⩾3 number of extra dimensions); for the EGB model with perfect fluid it is present for D=2 (we have not considered this model in higher dimensions yet), and in the presence of spatial curvature, the realistic stabilization of extra dimensions is always present (however, such a model is well-defined only in D⩾4 number of extra dimensions).

The glow of axion quark nugget dark matter

Context. The existence of axion quark nuggets is a potential consequence of the axion field, which provides a possible solution to the charge-conjugation parity violation in quantum chromodynamics. In addition to explaining the cosmological discrepancy of matter-antimatter asymmetry and a visible-to-dark-matter ratio of Ωdark/Ωvisible ≃ 5, these composite compact objects are expected to represent a potentially ubiquitous electromagnetic background radiation by interacting with ordinary baryonic matter. We conducted an in-depth analysis of axion quark nugget-baryonic matter interactions in the environment of the intracluster medium in the constrained cosmological Simulation of the LOcal Web (SLOW). Aims. Here, we aim to provide upper limit predictions on electromagnetic counterparts of axion quark nuggets in the environment of galaxy clusters by inferring their thermal and non-thermal emission spectrum originating from axion quark nugget-cluster gas interactions. Methods. We analyzed the emission of axion quark nuggets in a large sample of 161 simulated galaxy clusters using the SLOW simulation. These clusters are divided into a sub-sample of 150 galaxy clusters, ordered in five mass bins ranging from 0.8 to 31.7 × 1014 M⊙, along with 11 cross-identified galaxy clusters from observations. We investigated dark matter-baryonic matter interactions in galaxy clusters in their present stage at the redshift of z = 0 by assuming all dark matter consists of axion quark nuggets. The resulting electromagnetic signatures were compared to thermal Bremsstrahlung and non-thermal cosmic ray (CR) synchrotron emission in each galaxy cluster. We further investigated individual frequency bands imitating the observable range of the WMAP, Planck, Euclid, and XRISM telescopes for the most promising cross-identified galaxy clusters hosting detectable signatures of axion quark nugget emission. Results. We observed a positive excess in the low- and high-energy frequency windows, where thermal and non-thermal axion quark nugget emission can significantly contribute to (or even outshine) the emission of the intracluster medium (ICM) in frequencies up to νT ≲ 3842.19 GHz and νT ϵ [3.97, 10.99] × 1010GHz, respectively. Emission signatures of axion quark nuggets are found to be observable if CR synchrotron emission of individual clusters is sufficiently low. The degeneracy in the parameters contributing to an emission excess makes it challenging to offer predictions with respect to pinpointing specific regions of a positive axion quark nugget excess; however, a general increase in the total galaxy cluster emission is expected based on this dark matter model. Axion quark nuggets constitute an increment of 4.80% of the total galaxy cluster emission in the low-energy regime of νT ≲ 3842.19 GHz for a selection of cross-identified galaxy clusters. We propose that the Fornax and Virgo clusters represent the most promising candidates in the search for axion quark nugget emission signatures. Conclusions. The results from our simulations point towards the possibility of detecting an axion quark nugget excess in galaxy clusters in observations if their signatures can be sufficiently disentangled from the ICM radiation. While this model proposes a promising explanation for the composition of dark matter, with the potential to have this outcome verified by observations, we propose further changes that are aimed at refining our methods. Our ultimate goal is to identify the extracted electromagnetic counterparts of axion quark nuggets with even greater precision in the near future.

Ortho-Para Conversion for H+ + H2 Collision in Low Temperature: A Fully Close-Coupled Time-Dependent Wave Packet Study.

The collision-induced rate coefficients of ortho-para conversion for the H+ + H2 reaction provide accurate information to probe the lifetime of cold environments in interstellar media. Rotationally resolved reaction probabilities are calculated at the low collision energy regime (0 < Ecol ≤ 0.3 eV) by employing the coupled three-dimensional (3D) time-dependent wave packet (TDWP) formalism in hyperspherical coordinates on a recently constructed ab initio ground adiabatic potential energy surface of H3+ [J. Chem. Phys. 2014, 141, 204306] for the process H+ + H2 (v = 0, j = 0-5) → H+ + H2 (v' = 0, j'). Cross-sections are then computed from the converged reaction probabilities as a function of total angular momentum (J) over the same energy regime and subsequently employed to obtain the rate constants for the ortho-to-para (O-P) and para-to-ortho (P-O) conversions and their ratio. The ratio of ortho-para conversion shows (a) appropriate convergence with the inclusion of a higher number of initial rotational states as well as a reasonable agreement with the results from a quantum statistical method and (b) a peak at lower temperature that could be due to the available collision energy for transitions involving lower rotational states (j = 0 → j' = 1).

Exploring the pre-inflationary dynamics in loop quantum cosmology with a DBI scalar field

Loop quantum cosmology is a symmetry-reduced application of loop quantum gravity. The theory predicts a bounce for the universe at the Planck scale and resolves the singularity of standard cosmology. The dynamics is also governed by an effective Hamiltonian, which predicts a modified Friedmann equation containing the quadratic terms of the energy density. The term plays an essential role in the high energy regime, but the equations return to the standard form in the low energy regime. The evolution of the universe in the pre-inflationary period is studied in the framework of loop quantum cosmology, where the DBI scalar field is assumed to be the dominant component of the universe. Using the numerical method, we provide the evolution of the DBI field. The background evolution shows that there are three phases as: bouncing phase, transition phase and slow-roll inflationary phase. There is also a short period of super-inflation just at the beginning of the bounce phase. The field first climbs the potential and then reaches the turning point where ϕ̇ disappears and the potential energy becomes the dominant part of the energy density. This is the time when the slow roll inflation begins and the field slowly rolls down the potential. The results indicate that there are a few e-fold expansions in the bounce phase, about N = 3.5–4, and the universe experiences about N = 59 e-fold expansions in the slow-roll inflation phase.

Effect of Chlorination on the Shape Resonance Spectrum of CH2Br2 and CCl2Br2 Molecules in Collisions with Electrons.

In this work, we present a theoretical study of elastic electron scattering by the CH2Br2 and CCl2Br2 molecules using the Schwinger multichannel method. Through the scattering amplitudes computed at the static-exchange and static-exchange plus polarization levels of approximation, we have obtained integral, momentum transfer, and differential cross sections for energies ranging from 0 to 20 eV. For both systems, the resonance spectrum was identified in the cross sections and characterized with basis on the analysis of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors obtained by diagonalization of the scattering Hamiltonian. Despite some discrepancies, our cross sections and resonance assignments are in overall good agreement with the experimental and theoretical data available in the literature. Present results also indicate that the effect of chlorination (i.e., the substitution of the hydrogen atoms by chlorine atoms in going from CH2Br2 to CCl2Br2) on the scattering process causes the following outcomes: the change in the position of the resonances in the low-energy regime and the increase in the magnitude of the cross sections for higher energies.

Nanoscale Optical Conductivity Imaging of Double-Moiré Twisted Bilayer Graphene.

A central paradigm of moiré materials relies on the formation of superlattices that yield enlarged effective crystal unit cells. While a critical consequence of this phenomenon is the celebrated flat electronic bands that foster strong interaction effects, the presence of superlattices has further implications. Here we explore the advantages of moiré superlattices in twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) aligned with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) for passively enhancing optical conductivity in the low-energy regime. To probe the local optical response of TBG/hBN double-moiré lattices, we use infrared (IR) nano-imaging in conjunction with nanocurrent imaging to examine local optical conductivity over a wide range of TBG twist angles. We show that interband transitions associated with the multiple moiré flat and dispersive bands produce tunable transparent IR responses even at finite carrier densities, which is in stark contrast to the previously limited metallic near transparency observed only in undoped pristine graphene.

Refined determination of the weak mixing angle at low energy

The weak mixing angle is a fundamental parameter of the electroweak theory of the standard model whose measurement in the low-energy regime is still not precisely determined. Different probes are sensitive to its value, including atomic parity violation, coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, and parity-violating electron scattering on different nuclei. In this work, we attempt for the first time to combine all these various determinations by performing a global fit that also takes into account the unavoidable dependence on the experimentally poorly known neutron distribution radius of the nuclei employed, for which a new measurement using proton-cesium elastic scattering became available. By using all present direct determinations of the neutron distribution radius of cesium, we find sin2ϑW=0.2396−0.0019+0.0020, which should supersede the previous value determined from atomic parity violation on cesium. When including electroweak only, but also indirect, determinations of the neutron distribution radius of cesium, the uncertainty reduces to 0.0017, maintaining the same central value and showing excellent agreement independently of the method used. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Assessment of few-hits machine learning classification algorithms for low-energy physics in liquid argon detectors

The physics potential of massive liquid argon TPCs in the low-energy regime is still to be fully reaped because few-hits events encode information that can hardly be exploited by conventional classification algorithms. Machine learning (ML) techniques give their best in these types of classification problems. In this paper, we evaluate their performance against conventional (deterministic) algorithms. We demonstrate that both Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Transformer-Encoder methods outperform deterministic algorithms in one of the most challenging classification problems of low-energy physics (single- versus double-beta events). We discuss the advantages and pitfalls of Transformer-Encoder methods versus CNN and employ these methods to optimize the detector parameters, with an emphasis on the DUNE Phase II detectors (“Module of Opportunity”).

Cosmic inflation from fluctuating baby-Skyrme brane

In this work, we explore the inflationary dynamics induced by small fluctuations on the Skyrme brane, characterized by a time-dependent perturbative function ϕ̃. In the low-energy regime, the model successfully reproduces standard inflation, with a potential term dictated by the Skyrmion at the brane. Gravity localization is achieved at the brane, and the lowest energy scale is established at the asymptotic boundary. The model demonstrates the capability to emulate standard inflation dynamics, resembling ϕ̃4 potential characteristics under certain conditions. At higher energy regions, the behaviour of ϕ̃ is contingent upon the Skyrme term coupling constant λ, influencing reheating phases. The wave-like nature of fluctuations allows for energy transfer, resulting in a possibly lower reheating temperature. We also discuss the prospect of λ changing sign during inflation, presenting a non-standard coupling dependent on the matter field.

Higher-group global symmetry and the bosonic M5 brane

Higher-group symmetries are combinations of higher-form symmetries which appear in various field theories. In this paper, we explain how higher-group symmetries arise in 10d and 11d supergravities when the latter are coupled to brane sources. Motivated by this observation, we study field theories at zero and finite temperature invariant under a class of continuous Abelian higher-group symmetries. We restrict the analysis to the low-energy regime where the dynamical field content exclusively consists of Goldstone fields arising from the spontaneous breaking of higher-group and spacetime symmetries. Invariant quantities are constructed and the phases of matter are classified according to the pattern of spontaneous symmetry breaking. With respect to supergravity, we highlight how such Goldstone effective theories provide a symmetry-based interpretation for the theories living on D/M-branes. As an explicit example we construct a 6-group invariant action for the bosonic M5 brane, consistent with the self-duality of the 3-form field strength on the brane. While the self-duality condition in the bosonic case needs to be imposed externally as a constraint at zero temperature, we find an equilibrium effective action for the bosonic M5 brane at finite temperature that inherently implements self-duality.

Measurement of the Isolated Nuclear Two-Photon Decay in ^{72}Ge.

The nuclear two-photon or double-gamma (2γ) decay is a second-order electromagnetic process whereby a nucleus in an excited state emits two gamma rays simultaneously. To be able to directly measure the 2γ decay rate in the low-energy regime below the electron-positron pair-creation threshold, we combined the isochronous mode of a storage ring with Schottky resonant cavities. The newly developed technique can be applied to isomers with excitation energies down to ∼100 keV and half-lives as short as ∼10 ms. The half-life for the 2γ decay of the first-excited 0^{+} state in bare ^{72}Ge ions was determined to be 23.9(6)ms, which strongly deviates from expectations.

Quantum gravity modifications to the accretion onto a Kerr black hole

In the framework of the Asymptotic Safety scenario for quantum gravity, we analyze quantum gravity modifications to the thermal characteristics of a thin accretion disk spiraling around a renormalization group improved (RGI-) Kerr black hole in the low energy regime. We focused on the quantum effects on the location of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO), the energy flux from the disk, the disk temperature, the observed redshifted luminosity, and the accretion efficiency. The deviations from the classical general relativity due to quantum effects are described for a free parameter that arises in the improved Kerr metric as a consequence of the fact that the Newton constant turns into a running coupling G(r) depending on the energy scale. We find that, both for rapid and slow rotating black holes with accretion disks in prograde and retrograde circulation, increases in the value of this parameter are accompanied by a decreasing of the ISCO, by a lifting of the peaks of the radiation properties of the disk and by an increase of the accretion mass efficiency, as compared with the predictions of general relativity. Our results confirm previously established findings in Zuluaga and Sánchez (Eur Phys J C 81:840, 2021) where we showed that these quantum gravity effects also occur for an accretion disk around a RGI-Schwarzschild black hole.

X-Ray Emission from Atomic Systems Can Distinguish between Prevailing Dynamical Wave-Function Collapse Models.

In this work the spontaneous electromagnetic radiation from atomic systems, induced by dynamical wave-function collapse, is investigated in the x-ray domain. Strong departures are evidenced with respect to the simple cases considered until now in the literature, in which the emission is either perfectly coherent (protons in the same nuclei) or incoherent (electrons). In this low-energy regime the spontaneous radiation rate strongly depends on the atomic species under investigation and, for the first time, is found to depend on the specific collapse model.

Flat-band engineering of quasi-one-dimensional systems via supersymmetric transformations

We introduce a systematic method to spectrally design quasi-one-dimensional crystal models described by the Dirac equation in the low-energy regime. The method is based on the supersymmetric transformation applied to an initially known pseudo-spin-1/2 model. This allows one to extend the corresponding supersymmetric partner so that the new model describes a pseudo-spin-1 system. The spectral design allows the introduction of a flat band and discrete energies at will into the new model. The results are illustrated in three examples where the Su-Schriefer-Heeger chain is locally converted into a stub lattice. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Iterative solution methods for high-order/hp–DGFEM approximation of the linear Boltzmann transport equation

In this article we consider the iterative solution of the linear system of equations arising from the discretisation of the poly-energetic linear Boltzmann transport equation using a high-order/hp–version discontinuous Galerkin finite element approximation in space, angle, and energy. In particular, we develop preconditioned Richardson iterations which may be understood as generalisations of source iteration in the mono-energetic setting, and derive computable a posteriori bounds for the solver error incurred due to inexact linear algebra, measured in a relevant problem-specific norm. We prove that the convergence of the resulting schemes and a posteriori solver error estimates are independent of the mesh size h and polynomial degree p. We also discuss how the poly-energetic Richardson iteration may be employed as a preconditioner for the generalised minimal residual (GMRES) method. Furthermore, we show that standard implementations of GMRES based on minimising the Euclidean norm of the residual vector can be utilized to yield computable a posteriori solver error estimates at each iteration, through judicious selections of left- and right-preconditioners for the original linear system. The effectiveness of poly-energetic source iteration and preconditioned GMRES, as well as their respective a posteriori solver error estimates, is demonstrated through numerical examples arising in the modelling of photon transport. While the convergence of poly-energetic source iteration is independent of h and p, we observe that the number of iterations required to attain convergence when employing GMRES only depends mildly on h and p. Moreover, this latter approach is highly effective in the low energy regime.

Energy Resolved Mass Spectrometry for Interoperable Non-resonant Collisional Spectra in Metabolomics.

In untargeted metabolomics, the unambiguous identification of metabolites remains a major challenge. This requires high-quality spectral libraries for reliable metabolite identification, which is essential for translating metabolomics data into meaningful biological information. Several attempts have been made to generate reproducible product ion spectra (PIS) under a low collision energy (ELab) regime and nonresonant collisional conditions but have not fully succeeded. We examined the ERMS (energy-resolved mass spectrometry) breakdown curves of two lipo-amino acids and showed the possibility to highlight "singular points", called descriptors hereafter (linked to respective ELab depending on the instrument), for each of the monomodal product ion profiles. Using several instruments based on different technologies, the PIS recorded at these specific ELab sites shows remarkable similarities. The descriptors appeared as being independent of the fragmentation mechanisms and can be used to overcome the main instrumental effects that limit the interoperability of spectral libraries. This proof-of-concept study, performed on two particular lipo-amino acids, demonstrates the high potential of ERMS-derived information to determine the instrument-specific ELab at which PIS recorded in nonresonant conditions become highly similar and instrument-independent, thus comparable across platforms. This innovative but straightforward approach could help remove some of the obstacles to metabolite identification in nontargeted metabolomics, putting an end to a challenging chimera.