One of the outstanding challenges in nuclear physics is achieving a comprehensive understanding of the equation of state that governs dense nuclear matter, and, by extension, the internal composition and structure of compact astrophysical objects such as neutron stars and quark stars. The primary ap…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 035804] Published Wed Sep 09, 2026

The astrophysical $S^{*}\left(E\right)$ factor for the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ reaction within the Gamow window ($E_G=1.5\pm 0.3$ MeV) plays a pivotal role in modeling stellar carbon burning and explosive nucleosynthesis scenarios. However, direct measurements—or even simple extrapolations—at these energies are severely hindered by Coul…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 035801] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

We investigate neutron star matter with hyperons within a density-dependent relativistic mean-field framework using Bayesian inference, considering three composition scenarios: purely nucleonic matter, hyperonic matter under SU(6) flavor symmetry, and hyperonic matter under SU(3) symmetry with free …

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 035802] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

Gravitational-wave observations have renewed interest in the black-hole mass gap and in the maximum mass of first-generation black holes below its lower edge. The ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}(\alpha ,\gamma ){}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ reaction plays a central role in this problem because it determines the carbon-to-oxygen ratio after core-helium burning and …

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 035803] Published Tue Sep 08, 2026

A framework for computing $\gamma$-ray feeding probabilities in nuclear decay schemes based on absorbing Markov chains is presented. In this approach, excited nuclear states are treated as transient states and long-lived levels as absorbing states, allowing feeding fractions to be obtained exactly from the…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 025807] Published Tue Aug 25, 2026

Neutrino processes are important in the modeling of supernova explosions, proto-neutron star evolution, and binary neutron star mergers. We study neutrino production and absorption in proto-neutron star and supernova matter and direct Urca neutrino emission of neutron star matter in the framework of…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 025806] Published Mon Aug 24, 2026

In this study, we investigate the impact of the effective nucleon mass and the existence of the dineutron and the tetraneutron on the thermodynamic properties and nuclear composition by constructing new equations of state. Our results indicate that the model with a larger effective nucleon mass slig…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 025805] Published Fri Aug 21, 2026

Many-body perturbation theory provides a powerful framework to study the ground state and thermodynamic properties of nuclear matter as well as associated single-particle potentials and response functions within a systematic order-by-order expansion. However, computational challenges can emerge beyo…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 025804] Published Tue Aug 18, 2026

The nuclear drip line plays a crucial role in determining the composition of matter under extreme astrophysical conditions. In core-collapse supernovae and neutron-star crusts, matter is driven far from saturation density and nuclear stability; nuclei coexist with a sea of free neutrons, an effect t…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 025803] Published Mon Aug 17, 2026

In this work, we use the $\beta$-Oslo method to investigate the nuclear level density and $\gamma$-ray strength function of ${}^{97}\mathrm{Zr}$. The measurement was performed using the Summing NaI detector at Argonne National Laboratory. The nucleus of interest was populated via the $\beta$ decay of ${}^{97}\mathrm{Y}$. The extracted $\gamma$-ray strength…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 025802] Published Mon Aug 10, 2026

Background: Type I x-ray bursts (XRBs) are energetic stellar explosions that occur on the surface of a neutron star in an accreting binary system with a low-mass H/He-rich companion. The rate of the ${}^{34}\mathrm{Ar}(\alpha ,p){}^{37}\mathrm{K}$ reaction may influence features of the light curve that results from the underlying ther…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 025801] Published Fri Aug 07, 2026

A Bayesian analysis of the astrophysical $S$ factor for the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}+{}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ fusion reaction is presented using available low-energy information at carbon-carbon relative energies $E<3.5\mathrm{MeV}$, including direct measurements and recent inverse-kinematics data. The goal of the global Bayesian fit is not to reprod…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015809] Published Tue Jul 28, 2026

In this work, we have extracted the nuclear level density (NLD) and $\gamma$-ray strength function ($\gamma \mathrm{SF}$) using the Oslo method on particle-$\gamma$ coincidence data from the ${}^{90}\mathrm{Zr}(p,p^{\prime }\gamma ){}^{90}\mathrm{Zr}$ reaction. We have applied the shape method to the same data set, providing a model-independent $\gamma \mathrm{SF}$ and a cross-check on the …

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015808] Published Tue Jul 21, 2026

We investigate the forces acting on a proton vortex in superconducting neutron-star matter composed of neutrons, protons, and electrons, accounting for Fermi-liquid interactions in the neutron-proton subsystem. While the force arising from electron scattering by the vortex magnetic field is well kno…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015807] Published Mon Jul 20, 2026

Understanding the thermal structure of the outer crust of accreting neutron stars is important for interpreting astronomical x-ray observations. Ground-state to ground-state $\beta$-decay transitions of neutron-rich nuclei comprising the crust enable Urca neutrino cooling processes that affect this therma…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015806] Published Thu Jul 16, 2026

Neutron-skin thicknesses provide a sensitive probe of the isovector sector of the nuclear equation of state and its density dependence, commonly characterized by the symmetry-energy slope parameter $L$. A wide variety of experimental and observational methods have been used to extract neutron skins, r…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015805] Published Fri Jul 10, 2026

Background: A handful of neutron-deficient stable nuclei, known as the “p nuclei,” cannot be produced through astrophysical neutron capture processes. Instead, some of these nuclei are proposed to be produced by $\gamma$-induced reactions on existing r- and s-process seeds. The specific astrophysical site …

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015804] Published Tue Jul 07, 2026

This work addresses the important issue of the determination of the superfluid neutron fraction in the inner crust of neutrons stars. Knowing this fraction is important to understand if the inner crust can provide enough angular momentum to drive observed pulsar glitches. The paper presents, for the first time, fully self-consistent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations of the flow of superfluid neutrons through the periodic lattice of nuclear clusters, which show that the superfluid fraction can reach 90% and support a sufficient superfluid angular momentum reservoir to drive pulsar glitches.

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015802] Published Mon Jul 06, 2026

This study explores the sensitivity of the equation of state (EoS) of dense asymmetric nuclear matter on the nuclear matter incompressibility $K$ and assesses the corresponding effects on the structural properties of neutron stars. To isolate the effect of $K$, we employ six relativistic mean-field para…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015803] Published Mon Jul 06, 2026

In the present work, we focus on reactions around ${}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$, relevant to the astrophysical $\gamma$ process, where reaction flow is defined by the competition between two channels, the $(\gamma ,n)$ and the $(\gamma ,p)$. The $(\gamma ,p)$ channel was constrained in a previous measurement of the ${}^{84}\mathrm{Kr}(p,\gamma ){}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$ reaction at Michigan Stat…

[Phys. Rev. C 114, 015801] Published Wed Jul 01, 2026

The neutron radiative capture reaction ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(n,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{O}$ plays a pivotal role in both nuclear structure studies and astrophysical nucleosynthesis, particularly in the formation of elements during hydrostatic and explosive stellar environments. We calculated the ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(n,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{O}$ cross section within the Skyrme …

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 065807] Published Tue Jun 23, 2026

The ${}^{22}\mathrm{Ne}(\alpha ,n){}^{25}\mathrm{Mg}$ reaction acts as an $s$-process neutron source in both the main and weak $s$ processes. By exciting ${}^{22}\mathrm{Ne}$ to highly energetic resonance states above 9.7 MeV, we measured the properties of these difficult-to-access states, which are relevant to the stellar production of this seed isotope…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 065806] Published Wed Jun 17, 2026

The $\gamma$-ray emitting radioisotopes produced during explosive Si-burning in core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) could serve as a probe to supernovae explosion energetics. Especially important are the three isotopes ${}^{43}\mathrm{K}$, ${}^{47}\mathrm{Sc}$, and ${}^{59}\mathrm{Fe}$ as these are potentially detectable with next generation space-based $\gamma$-…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, L062802] Published Wed Jun 17, 2026

We present a framework for local quantum cooling that can be efficiently applied to large-scale Fermi systems. The method introduces local Hermitian operators as a cooling potential while strictly preserving the unitarity of time evolution. Our formulation scales favorably with system size and can b…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 065805] Published Tue Jun 16, 2026

Nuclear isomers can have significant impacts on astrophysical nucleosynthesis processes, with recent efforts demonstrating that the population of isomeric states with different half-lives may require separate treatment in reaction networks to accurately capture the differences in heating or in ident…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 065803] Published Thu Jun 11, 2026

Sensitivity studies have found that the ${}^{20}\mathrm{Ne}(\alpha ,p){}^{23}\mathrm{Na}$ reaction has a significant influence on supernovae Ia (SNIa) nucleosynthesis, but no previous measurements of the reaction cross section have been reported. Astrophysical reaction rate estimates have been based upon measurements of the inverse re…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 065804] Published Thu Jun 11, 2026

Background: Low-mass neutron-rich isotopes between Fe and Ag are predicted to be synthesized in neutrino-driven winds emitted after the collapse of a massive star. The modeling of this nucleosynthesis scenario, called weak $r$-process or $\alpha$-process, requires large nuclear reaction network calculations.…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, L062801] Published Mon Jun 08, 2026

A key goal in nuclear astrophysics is explaining the abundance patterns of the elements in combination with observational astrophysical data and nuclear reaction networks. Although two nuclear reaction pathways—the slow ($s$ process) and rapid ($r$ process) neutron capture processes—are known to produce many heavy elements beyond iron, a process at intermediate neutron densities (the $i$ process) has been proposed. This process is an additional pathway that occurs in some stellar environments to explain observed elemental abundances. In this work, the authors utilized a ${}^{88}$Br beam that was implanted within a $\gamma$-ray total absorption spectrometer to produce the compound nucleus ${}^{88}$Kr through $\beta$ decay. The authors measured the constrained neutron radiative capture on ${}^{87}$Kr, showing that it plays an important role in the production of Rb in the conditions of the $i$ process. In addition, the results significantly reduce the uncertainty in the rate of this reaction by determining the $\gamma$-ray strength function in the compound nucleus ${}^{88}$Kr. This work demonstrates that reducing experimental uncertainties in a single neutron-capture reaction can significantly affect comparisons with theoretical predictions of element abundance patterns.

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 065801] Published Mon Jun 01, 2026

We obtain an empirical relation for the neutron star maximum mass arising from a particular combination of the saturation density ($n_0$), the effective mass ($m^{*}$), and (when present) the vector meson self-coupling constant ($\zeta$) within the relativistic mean-field model framework. Observations of massive …

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 065802] Published Mon Jun 01, 2026

The nuclear equation of state, which determines the structure and properties of neutron stars, remains subject to substantial theoretical uncertainties, leading to model dependence in predicted observables. Universal relations have emerged as a powerful tool to mitigate this dependence by linking ne…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055809] Published Tue May 26, 2026

Astrophysical scenarios such as binary neutron star mergers, protoneutron stars, and core-collapse supernovae involve finite temperatures and strong magnetic fields. Previous studies on the effect of magnetic fields on flavor-equilibration processes relied on the Fermi surface approximation, which i…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055808] Published Tue May 19, 2026

The most accurate approach to determine the compressibility of nuclear matter remains the one based on microscopic energy density functionals (EDFs). Recent analyses yield a value for nuclear incompressibility modulus $K_{\mathrm{sat}}=240\pm 20\mathrm{MeV}$, defined in nuclear matter as the second derivative of the energy p…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055806] Published Mon May 18, 2026

We conduct a systematic investigation of the influence of the nuclear symmetry energy on the proposed neutron decay into dark matter particles within the cores of neutron stars. Compared to the majority of previous studies that considered only pure neutron matter, the present analysis is extended to…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055807] Published Mon May 18, 2026

Covariant density functionals have been successfully applied to the description of finite nuclei and dense nuclear matter. These functionals are often constructed by introducing density dependence into the nucleon–meson couplings, typically through functions that depend only on the vector, i.e., pro…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055805] Published Tue May 12, 2026

Background: Constraining the nuclear matter equation of state (EoS) from neutron star observations is one of the main subjects in nuclear physics today. Most studies are based on the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation, which describes a star in spherical hydrostatic equilibrium in general relativit…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055803] Published Mon May 11, 2026

We study the order-by-order expansion of the energy per particle of asymmetric nuclear matter up to twice saturation density in chiral effective field theory (EFT) within a Bayesian framework. For this, we develop a two-dimensional Gaussian process (2D GP) that is trained using many-body perturbatio…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055804] Published Mon May 11, 2026

The possible existence of inhomogeneous chiral condensates, such as chiral density waves (CDWs), in the cores of neutron stars has garnered considerable theoretical interest. However, recent studies using nucleon-meson models incorporating electric charge neutrality, β equilibrium, and fermionic vac…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055801] Published Mon May 04, 2026

Isomers have long been known to be important for astrophysical nucleosynthesis processes, yet they are often neglected in network calculations due to computational limitations or lack of data. "Astromers" are astrophysically metastable nuclear states that can greatly impact nucleosynthesis pathways.…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 055802] Published Mon May 04, 2026

Background: The rapid cooling observed in the Cassiopeia A neutron star (Cas A NS) provides one of the most stringent tests for neutron star cooling theory. While the Cooper-pair breaking and formation (PBF) neutrino emission process is a leading candidate, significant theoretical uncertainties rema…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 045807] Published Wed Apr 29, 2026

I derive bounds on the equation of state of cold, dense matter by extending the causal, model-agnostic interpolation between chiral effective field theory and perturbative calculations with a microscopic constraint from relativistic kinetic theory. The additional condition restricts the stiffest adm…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 045808] Published Wed Apr 29, 2026

We investigate the impact of the model estimating the masses of exotic nuclei on $r$-process nucleosynthesis, assessing the dependence of the abundance distribution on the specific properties of nuclear masses. By decomposing theoretical nuclear mass predictions into a liquid-drop parametrization and …

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 045806] Published Mon Apr 27, 2026

A direct measurement of the ${}^7\mathrm{Li}(p,\alpha ){}^4\mathrm{He}$ reaction at astrophysical energies was performed at the Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH) using a scaled-down version of the ELISSA detector array and the 3 MV Tandem accelerator. This reaction plays a crucia…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 045804] Published Thu Apr 09, 2026

The quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram at large densities and low temperatures can be probed using both neutron stars and low-energy heavy-ion collisions. Heavy-ion collisions are nearly isospin-symmetric systems, whereas neutron stars are highly isospin asymmetric since they are neutron ric…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 045805] Published Thu Apr 09, 2026

The density functional renormalization group is proposed to investigate the density fluctuations within the functional renormalization group approach, which allows us to quantify the medium effect and study physics of high densities. This method is applied to the nucleon-meson effective field theory…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 045801] Published Fri Apr 03, 2026

The neutron-proton-electron matter under a strong magnetic field is studied in the context of the covariant Vlasov approach. A covariant relativistic approach based on the Vlasov equation is applied to the study of infinite asymmetric magnetized nuclear matter. We use several relativistic mean-field…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 045803] Published Fri Apr 03, 2026

Nuclear $\beta$ decay is a key element of the astrophysical rapid neutron capture process ($r$ process). In this work, we present state-of-the-art global $\beta$-decay calculations based on the quantified relativistic nuclear energy density functional theory and the deformed proton-neutron quasiparticle random-ph…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 045802] Published Thu Apr 02, 2026

In stellar hydrogen burning, the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) cycle dominates, with the ${}^{14}\mathrm{N}(p,\gamma ){}^{15}\mathrm{O}$ reaction being the slowest process. Consequently, this reaction critically influences the solar composition, CNO neutrino fluxes, and the evolution of star clusters and galaxies. Recent direct measure…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, L032801] Published Wed Mar 25, 2026

During core helium and carbon burning in massive stars, neutrons are produced mainly by the ${}^{22}\mathrm{Ne}(\alpha ,n){}^{25}\mathrm{Mg}$ reaction. Some of these released neutrons are captured by heavy seed nuclei from previous nucleosynthesis events, resulting in the slow production of many of the elements between masses 60 $\le A\le$ 9…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 035802] Published Thu Mar 19, 2026

Based on an extended nuclear statistical equilibrium model, we investigate the properties of nonaccreted crusts of young and warm neo-neutron stars, i.e., of finite-temperature inhomogeneous dense matter in beta equilibrium. An interesting feature is the appearance, in the deep inner crust, of an ex…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 035801] Published Fri Mar 13, 2026

Nuclear masses of neutron-deficient nuclei play an important role in our understanding of the astrophysical rapid proton $\left(rp\right)$ capture process. With the help of advanced mass spectrometers, nuclear masses of ${}^{61}\mathrm{Ga}$ and ${}^{62}\mathrm{Ge}$ were directly measured with a high precision, yielding a precise proton separat…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025809] Published Fri Feb 27, 2026

We perform a Bayesian analysis of the neutron star (NS) equation of state (EoS) based on a wide set of Skyrme functionals, derived from previous nuclear physics inferences. The novelty of this approach lies in starting from the full multidimensional posterior distribution of nuclear matter parameter…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025808] Published Mon Feb 23, 2026

The ${}^{92}\mathrm{Mo}(p,\gamma ){}^{93}\mathrm{Tc}$ cross section was measured at the University of Notre Dame Nuclear Science Laboratory in the energy range $E_{\mathrm{eff}}=1.45–4.29$ MeV. Data were collected using the High EffiCiency TOtal absorption spectrometeR (HECTOR) and analyzed using the $\gamma$-summing technique. Partial cross sections to t…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025807] Published Fri Feb 20, 2026

Background: Abundance calculations of $p$ nuclei require knowledge of cross sections for numerous nuclear reactions. Since measuring all relevant cross sections is unfeasible, these calculations typically rely on predictions from Hauser-Feshbach theory. The accuracy of these predictions depends on the…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025805] Published Tue Feb 17, 2026

We study the impact of crust-core connection procedures on various neutron-star properties, especially on the tidal deformability. We consider three types of connection procedures to treat the discontinuity in a nonunified equation of state around the crust-core transition: (1) the direct connection…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025806] Published Tue Feb 17, 2026

Data tables on the equation of state (EOS) and microscopic structures for cold dense stellar matter with proton fractions $Y_p=0.01$–0.65 and baryon number densities $n_{\text{b}}={10}^{-8}–2{\mathrm{fm}}^{-3}$ are obtained adopting 13 different relativistic density functionals, i.e., NL3, PK1, PK1r, GM1, MTVTC, DD-LZ1, PKDD, DD-ME2…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025804] Published Wed Feb 11, 2026

The ${}^{12}$C($\alpha$,$\gamma$)${}^{16}$O reaction sets the carbon-to-oxygen ratio after core helium burning and strongly influences late stellar evolution. Because direct measurements near $E\approx 300$ keV are not available, this work combines existing experimental constraints in a Bayesian analysis to determine a well-defined range for the astrophysical factors $S_{E1}$(300 keV) and $S_{E2}$(300 keV). The resulting $S$(300 keV) range has important implications for the final outcomes of massive stars, including the formation of heavy black-hole remnants relevant to gravitational-wave observations.

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025803] Published Mon Feb 09, 2026

We report the first measurement of ${}^{115}\mathrm{Sn}(p,\gamma ){}^{116}\mathrm{Sb}$ cross sections using the activation technique in the beam energy range of 2.5–6.0 MeV, covering nearly the entire Gamow window relevant to the $p$-process nucleosynthesis of ${}^{115}\mathrm{Sn}$. Cross sections for both the ground and metastable states of ${}^{116}\mathrm{Sb}$ were…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025802] Published Wed Feb 04, 2026

We constrain the nuclear matter equation of state (EOS) within the relativistic mean field model by including the isoscalar-vector and isovector-vector coupling term at a fundamental level using Bayesian analysis. We utilized the nuclear saturation properties and recent astrophysical observations to…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 025801] Published Mon Feb 02, 2026

The equation of state for dense nuclear matter in $\beta$ equilibrium is explored including the possibility of a doubly strange H particle. Consistent with experimental constraints, the mass of the H in free space is taken to be near the $\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda }$ threshold. Within the quark-meson coupling model, which we use, n…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015809] Published Wed Jan 28, 2026

Bayesian model mixing (BMM) is a statistical technique that can combine constraints from different regions of an input space in a principled way. Here we extend our BMM framework for the equation of state (EOS) of strongly interacting matter from symmetric nuclear matter to asymmetric matter, specif…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015808] Published Mon Jan 26, 2026

The ${}^{15}\mathrm{N}(n,\gamma ){}^{16}\mathrm{N}$ reaction plays a vital role in affecting the fluorine abundance produced in asymptotic giant branch stars and Wolf-Rayet stars by competing with the production reaction ${}^{15}\mathrm{N}(\alpha ,\gamma ){}^{19}\mathrm{F}$. However, the current understanding of this reaction is hampered by substantial discrepancies in both t…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015806] Published Tue Jan 20, 2026

We investigate the influence of the nuclear symmetry energy and its density slope parameter on the neutron dripline and neutron star properties using a semiclassical liquid drop model (LDM) and energy density functionals constrained by chiral effective field theory. To analyze finite nuclei and mass…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015807] Published Tue Jan 20, 2026

The relative distribution of isotopes produced during the big bang is a sensitive probe of cosmology. Uncertainties remain in the nuclear reactions between deuterium and ${}^7\mathrm{Be}$, which lead to a reduction in the ${}^7\mathrm{Li}$ yield. In two experiments using the ${}^{10}\mathrm{B}({}^3\mathrm{He},\alpha ){}^9\mathrm{B}$ reaction, the spectrum of ${}^9\mathrm{B}$ states abo…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015805] Published Fri Jan 16, 2026

Sapphire has mechanical and electrical properties that are advantageous for the construction of internal components of radiation detectors such as time projection chambers and bolometers. However, it has proved difficult to assess its ${}^{232}\mathrm{Th}$ and ${}^{238}\mathrm{U}$ content down to the picogram per gram level. This …

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015803] Published Fri Jan 09, 2026

In this work we provide a new, well-controlled expansion of the equation of state of dense matter from zero to finite temperatures $\left(T\right)$ while covering a wide range of charge fractions $\left(Y_Q\right)$, from pure neutron to isospin symmetric nuclear matter. Our expansion can be used to describe neutron star merge…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015804] Published Fri Jan 09, 2026

We study the thermodynamic properties of a noninteracting, relativistic gas of charged scalar bosons in a uniform magnetic field, including both statistical and vacuum contributions at arbitrary field strengths. Focusing on the low-temperature regime and separating the lowest Landau level (LLL) from…

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015802] Published Wed Jan 07, 2026

The ${}^{93}\mathrm{Nb}$($t,{}^3\mathrm{He}$) reaction at 115 MeV/nucleon was studied to demonstrate that nuclear level densities and $\gamma$-ray strength functions can be extracted from charge-exchange reactions at intermediate energies using the Oslo technique. The matrix of excitation energy in ${}^{93}\mathrm{Zr}$, reconstructed from the ($t,{}^3\mathrm{He}$) …

[Phys. Rev. C 113, 015801] Published Tue Jan 06, 2026

The recent mass measurement of ${}^{70}\mathrm{Kr}$ using the $B\rho$-defined isochronous mass spectrometry yields a mass excess of $-41320\left(140\right)$ keV, indicating a 220-keV increase in binding energy compared to the AME2020 prediction. We utilize this experimental mass—the last piece of information needed—to model the pote…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 065808] Published Wed Dec 24, 2025

We present the first direct determination of asymptotic normalization coefficients (ANCs) for the ground and first excited states of ${}^7\mathrm{Be}$ from ${}^3\mathrm{He}+{}^4\mathrm{He}$ elastic scattering phase shifts. The analysis draws upon the classic datasets of two older low-energy measurements, long considered difficult due to i…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 065807] Published Mon Dec 22, 2025

We calculate the equation of state (EOS) of spin-polarized nuclear matter in the relativistic Hartree-Fock method. To this end, we employ the relativistic point-coupling model, with which the Fock terms are considerably simplified, reducing them to the same form as the Hartree terms. In analogy to t…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 065806] Published Wed Dec 17, 2025

The cross section of the ${}^{23}\mathrm{Na}(p,\gamma ){}^{24}\mathrm{Mg}$ reaction is dominated by direct capture at low energies relevant for stellar burning. Such cross sections can be constrained using spectroscopic factors ($C^{2}S$) or asymptotic normalization coefficients from transfer reactions. In this work, the ${}^{23}\mathrm{Na}({}^3\mathrm{He},d){}^{24}\mathrm{Mg}$ re…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 065805] Published Thu Dec 11, 2025

Background: Phase transitions of matter under changes of external environment such as temperature and magnetic field have attracted great interests to various quantum many-body systems. Several phase transitions must have occurred in neutron stars as well such as transitions from normal to superflui…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 065804] Published Wed Dec 10, 2025

The intermediate neutron-capture process ($i$ process) has gained notable traction within the past decade as a way to describe stellar abundance observations which cannot be explained by the slow and rapid neutron-capture processes. Despite the general success of $i$-process models, many open questions …

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 065803] Published Tue Dec 09, 2025

We investigate how higher-order symmetry-energy coefficients of the equation of state (EOS) describing $npe\mu$ core matter impact key neutron star (NS) properties at its crust inner edge, its moment of inertia and corresponding crustal fraction, threshold conditions for direct Urca process, adiabatic i…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 065802] Published Wed Dec 03, 2025

We explore the effect of the $\sigma$-cut potential on the properties of neutron stars with and without a hyperon core. The analysis involves two sets of nuclear interactions, QMC-RMF3 and QMC-RMF4, which are constructed from a relativistic mean-field model based on chiral effective field theory. The $\sigma$-cut…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 065801] Published Tue Dec 02, 2025

We construct an equation of state describing cold and dense matter in the core of neutron stars which includes an admixture of fermionic dark matter and incorporates nucleon effective masses derived from the relativistic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) many-body approach within a relativistic mean-fiel…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 055803] Published Thu Nov 20, 2025

We present results for the equation of state of symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter obtained in many-body-perturbation theory (MBPT) up to third order, based on various chiral two- and three-nucleon interactions used in ab initio calculations of nuclei. We extract equation of state prop…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 055802] Published Wed Nov 19, 2025

In the coming age of precision neutrino physics, neutrinos from the Sun become robust probes of the conditions of the solar core. Here, we focus on ${}^8\mathrm{B}$ neutrinos, for which there are already high-precision measurements by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory and Super-Kamiokande. Using only basic physica…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 055801] Published Wed Nov 05, 2025

In the nova temperature range, 0.1 GK $<T<$ 0.4 GK, several low-energy resonances dominate the ${}^{21}\mathrm{Ne}(p,\gamma ){}^{22}\mathrm{Na}$ reaction rate, which is currently affected by large uncertainties. We present a high-precision study of the resonances at $E_{\mathrm{r}}^{\mathrm{lab}}=127.3$, 271.4, 272.3, 291.5, and 352.6 keV, measured directl…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, L052801] Published Mon Nov 03, 2025

Many common Skyrme functionals present ferromagnetic instabilities or unrealistic density dependence of the spin-dependent Landau parameters. To solve these problems, we consider the Skyrme interaction as a density-functional rather than a density-dependent two-body force. This allows us to adjust t…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 045808] Published Fri Oct 24, 2025

This study investigates the effects of strong magnetic fields on antikaon condensation in neutron-star matter using the extended FSUGold model. It is found that the presence of strong magnetic fields alters the threshold density of antikaon condensation significantly, which means the threshold densi…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 045807] Published Wed Oct 15, 2025

A regression analysis of a neutron-star radius was performed. The optimal sets of variables that can be used to predict the neutron-star radius were determined by applying various regression model selection criteria. Uncertainty bounds on the neutron-star radius were derived based on the obtained re…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 045806] Published Tue Oct 14, 2025

We study the nuclear compositions in the central region of a core-collapse supernova, assuming the existence of dineutrons (${}^{2}n$) and tetraneutrons (${}^{4}n$). At 100 ms after core bounce, ${}^{2}n$ and ${}^{4}n$ are more abundant than deuterons within radii of approximately 100  and 50 km, respectively. Compared to the …

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 045805] Published Fri Oct 10, 2025

We present a new method for extracting a mass parameter using time-dependent density functional theory for an arbitrary physical system, provided the adiabatic limit is achievable. This approach works for collective variables also in the presence of a medium, in particular for the nuclei interacting…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 045804] Published Thu Oct 09, 2025

${}^{15}\mathrm{N}(p,\gamma ){}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ is one of the key reactions in the CNO cycle, which provides a link between the CN cycle and the CNO bi-cycle and determines the production of isotopes of elements such as oxygen and fluorine. Its cross sections at stellar energies are dominated by two broad $J^{\pi }=1^{-}$ resonances and the inte…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 045802] Published Mon Oct 06, 2025

The alpha optical model potential ($\alpha$-OMP ) is a phenomenological approach used to describe elastic scattering where multiple reaction channels are open. It is one of the most critical inputs for the calculation of thermonuclear reaction rates in explosive stellar environments, but uncertainties with…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 045801] Published Wed Oct 01, 2025

The symmetry energy expansion is a useful way to parametrize the properties of dense matter near nuclear saturation density, and much work has been done to connect physical quantities like the neutron star radius and the core-crust transition density to the symmetry energy parameters. In this work, …

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 035806] Published Mon Sep 29, 2025

The abundance of elements heavier than iron produced via the astrophysical rapid-neutron-capture process depends sensitively on the atomic mass of the involved nuclei as well as the behavior of a few special types of nuclear isomers called “astromers.” High-precision mass measurements of ${}^{119}\mathrm{Cd}$ and $\mathrm{A\dots }$

[Phys. Rev. C 112, L032802] Published Mon Sep 22, 2025

Relativistic mean-field models (RMF) based on the exchange of $\sigma ,\omega$, and $\rho$ mesons including nonlinear nucleon-$\sigma$ couplings and density-dependent $\rho$ coupling, are considered. A large set of models is generated using the Markov chain Monte Carlo approach and Bayesian statistics to reproduce nuclear physic…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 035805] Published Fri Sep 19, 2025

To understand X-ray burst light curves, it is important to understand the trigger reactions that transition the hot-CNO (HCNO) cycles to full explosive burning via the $\alpha p$ and $rp$ processes in these extreme astrophysical environments. One hypothesized breakout path is initiated through the ${}^{14}\mathrm{O}(\alpha ,p){}^{17}\mathrm{F}$…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 035804] Published Thu Sep 18, 2025

The interaction potentials, cross sections, and $S$-factors for fusion reactions involving stable and neutron-rich isotopes of C, O, Ne, Mg, and Si, for the neutron star crust, are calculated at subbarrier energies, using a microscopic relativistic energy density functional based on the Dirac-Brueckne…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 035803] Published Thu Sep 11, 2025

Accurate modeling of the neutron star crust is essential for interpreting multimessenger observations and constraining the nuclear equation of state (EOS). However, standard phenomenological EOS models often rely on heuristic extrapolations in the low-density regime, which are inconsistent with micr…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 035802] Published Fri Sep 05, 2025

Calculations for electron capture rates on nuclei with atomic numbers between $Z=20$ and $Z=52$ are performed in a self-consistent finite-temperature covariant energy density functional theory within the relativistic quasiparticle random-phase approximation. Electron captures on these nuclei contribute …

[Phys. Rev. C 112, L032801] Published Fri Sep 05, 2025

The ${}^7\mathrm{Li}({}^3\mathrm{He},d){}^8\mathrm{Be}^{*}\left(p\right){}^7\mathrm{Li}$ reaction was measured at $E_{\mathrm{lab}}\left({}^3\mathrm{He}\right)=28$ MeV for studying the ${}^7\mathrm{Be}(n,p_1){}^7\mathrm{Li}^{*}$ reaction, which is a ${}^7\mathrm{Be}$ destruction reaction in the big bang nucleosynthesis. Resonant states at 18.9–20.1 MeV in ${}^8\mathrm{Be}$ were populated by the ${}^7\mathrm{Li}({}^3\mathrm{He},d){}^8\mathrm{Be}^{*}$ reaction and decay protons to the ground ($p_0$) …

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 035801] Published Tue Sep 02, 2025

We analyze the impact of the $\sigma$-cut potential on the properties of pure nucleonic neutron star matter containing an antikaon condensate within the relativistic mean field model. The UCIb and UCIc RMF models, which have been recently proposed and well-constrained, are utilized to explore the compositi…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 025806] Published Fri Aug 22, 2025

The ${}^{14}$N$+n$ reaction plays a significant role in various nuclear science scenarios: it is thought to be one of the main neutron poisons during $s$-process nucleosynthesis; it provides insight for nuclear security for atmospheric nuclear weapons testing; and it is needed for simulating neutron transport through a variety of materials. Yet, for ${}^{14}$N$+n$, only one high-sensitivity measurement has been available, but its experimental details were incomplete. To cross-check existing nuclear evaluations, the authors carried out comprehensive neutron transmission measurements from 0.1 to 12 MeV neutron energy at the nELBE facility in Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany, and combined them with detailed $R$-matrix studies. The cross sections are in good agreement with previous data over much of the energy range with the key exception of the lowest-energy resonance at a neutron energy of 433 keV. In addition to providing strong confirmation of the role of ${}^{14}$N in influencing the $s$ process, this work improves confidence in the present ENDF/B nuclear evaluation and promises improvements for future evaluations of related ${}^{14}$N$+n$ cross sections.

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 025805] Published Wed Aug 20, 2025

Recent observations of red giant stars in a globular cluster in the outer halo of the Milky Way revealed a puzzling anomaly in the abundance of chemical elements that cannot be explained by common cluster evolution models. The authors use nuclear resonance fluorescence, a powerful method for determining the spins and parities of astrophysically relevant nuclear resonances, to selectively photoexcite several low-lying levels in ${}^{31}$P that would be challenging to access with traditional reaction techniques. Using the TUNL High-Intensity Gammaray Source, the authors unambiguously determined the orbital angular momentum transfers of two previously unobserved resonances at $E_r^{\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{m}.}=18.7$ keV and 50.5 keV. The measured thermonuclear reaction rate differs by about an order of magnitude from earlier estimates at temperatures of $T\le 200$ MK relevant for globular cluster nucleosynthesis. The new results put crucial constraints on the reaction mechanism correcting assumptions from previous work and could have broader implications for nucleosynthesis in certain stellar populations.

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 025804] Published Fri Aug 15, 2025

Background: In recent years there has been significant experimental effort aimed at studying the impact of ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ neutron poisoning on the weak $s$ process in rotating massive stars. Improving the understanding of energy levels in ${}^{21}\mathrm{Ne}$ is crucial to reducing uncertainties in the rates of the $\alpha$-induced re…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 025803] Published Fri Aug 08, 2025

We investigate the impact of slope of the symmetry energy ($L$) on asymmetric nuclear dense matter (neutron star) characteristics, specifically focusing on the maximum mass, radius, and dimensionless tidal deformability of a canonical mass star. To this aim, we consider a set of relativistic mean fiel…

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 025802] Published Thu Aug 07, 2025

It was shown that light nuclei such as ${}^4\mathrm{He}, {}^8\mathrm{Be}$, and ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ can be well described by RMF models, which enables a unified description for nuclei with baryon numbers $A\gtrsim 4$. In this work, I propose a hybrid treatment for investigating the clustering phenomenon in nuclear medium, where clusters ranging from …

[Phys. Rev. C 112, 025801] Published Fri Aug 01, 2025