Vortex states of photons, electrons, and other particles are non–plane-wave solutions of the corresponding wave equation with helicoidal wave fronts. These states possess an intrinsic orbital angular momentum with respect to the average propagation direction, which represents a new degree of freedom, previously unexplored in particle or nuclear collisions. Vortex states of photons, electrons, neutrons

We summarize the ongoing scientific program of the 12 GeV Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) and give an outlook into future opportunities. The program addresses important topics in nuclear, hadronic, and electroweak physics, including nuclear femtography, meson and baryon spectroscopy, quarks and gluons in nuclei, precision tests of the standard model and dark sector searches. Potential

We have presented a review of the properties of neutrinos and their interactions with matter. The different (anti)neutrino processes like the quasielastic scattering, inelastic production of mesons and hyperons, and the deep inelastic scattering from the free nucleons are discussed and the results for the scattering cross sections are presented. The polarization observables for the leptons and hadrons

The origins of the elements and isotopes of cosmic material is a critical aspect of understanding the evolution of the universe. Nucleosynthesis typically requires physical conditions of high temperatures and densities. These are found in the Big Bang, in the interiors of stars, and in explosions with their compressional shocks and high neutrino and neutron fluxes. Many different tools are available

The last two decades have witnessed the discovery of a myriad of new and unexpected hadrons. The future holds more surprises for us, thanks to new-generation experiments. Understanding the signals and determining the properties of the states requires a parallel theoretical effort. To make full use of available and forthcoming data, a careful amplitude modeling is required, together with a sound treatment

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In this review article, we describe the role of holography in deciphering the physics of dense QCD matter, relevant for the description of compact stars and their binary mergers. We review the strengths and limitations of the holographic duality in describing strongly interacting matter at large baryon density, walk the reader through the most important results derived using the holographic approach

Nuclear weak rates in stellar environments are obtained by taking into account recent advances in shell-model studies of spin-dependent excitation modes in nuclei including Gamow–Teller (GT) and spin-dipole transitions. They are applied to nuclear weak processes in stars such as cooling and heating of the cores of stars and nucleosynthesis in supernovae. The important roles of accurate weak rates for

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Nuclear weak decays provide important probes to fundamental symmetries in nature. A precise description of these processes in atomic nuclei requires comprehensive knowledge on both the strong and weak interactions in the nuclear medium and on the dynamics of quantum many-body systems. In particular, an observation of the hypothetical double beta decay without emission of neutrinos (0νββ) would unambiguously

Atomic nuclei are quantum many-body systems of protons and neutrons held together by strong nuclear forces. Under the proper conditions, nuclei can break into two (sometimes three) fragments which will subsequently decay by emitting particles. This phenomenon is called nuclear fission. Since different fission events may produce different fragmentations, the end-products of all fissions that occurred

A wide range of exotic bound systems incorporating antiprotons (atoms, atomic ions, molecules or molecular ions) can be formed, in many cases simply by replacing at least one electron of a matter system by an antiproton. A number of these systems have been studied over decades, while others (in particular antihydrogen) have only recently been the object of precision measurements, and a much larger

Transport models are the main method to obtain physics information on the nuclear equation of state and in-medium properties of particles from low to relativistic-energy heavy-ion collisions. The Transport Model Evaluation Project (TMEP) has been pursued to test the robustness of transport model predictions in reaching consistent conclusions from the same type of physical model. To this end, calculations

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QCD critical point is a landmark region in the QCD phase diagram outlined by temperature as a function of baryon chemical potential. To the right of this second-order phase transition point, one expects first order quark–hadron phase transition boundary, towards the left a crossover region, top of it lies the quark–gluon plasma phase and below it the hadronic phase. Hence locating the QCD critical

Atomic nuclei are composite systems, and they may be dynamically excited during nuclear reactions. Such excitations are not only relevant to inelastic scattering but they also affect other reaction processes such as elastic scattering and fusion. The coupled-channels approach is a framework which can describe these reaction processes in a unified manner. It expands the total wave function of the system

This review treats the advances in Light Baryon Spectroscopy of the last two decades, which were mainly obtained by measuring meson-production reactions at photon facilities all over the world. We provide a consistent compendium of experimental results, as well as a review of the theoretical methods of amplitude analysis used to analyze the data. The most significant datasets are presented in detail

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The exploration of the universe has recently entered a new era thanks to the multi-messenger paradigm, characterized by a continuous increase in the quantity and quality of experimental data that is obtained by the detection of the various cosmic messengers (photons, neutrinos, cosmic rays and gravitational waves) from numerous origins. They give us information about their sources in the universe and

This review demonstrates the unique role of the neutrino by discussing in detail the physics of and with neutrinos. We deal with neutrino sources, neutrino oscillations, absolute masses, interactions, the possible existence of sterile neutrinos, and theoretical implications. In addition, synergies of neutrino physics with other research fields are found, and requirements to continue successful neutrino

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector in a laboratory at 700-m underground. An excellent energy resolution and a large fiducial volume offer exciting opportunities for addressing many important topics in neutrino and astro-particle physics. With six years of data, the neutrino mass ordering can be determined at a 3–4σ significance and the neutrino

Electric monopole, E0 transitions in nuclei are reviewed. Values for ρ2(E0)×103, X(E0/E2) and qK2(E0/E2) are tabulated. Particular attention is paid to a complete re-evaluation of all reported values starting from raw input data, i.e. none of the adopted values are taken from the literature without evaluation. Values for J→J transitions for J=0, J=2, and some selected J=4 transitions are given. The

Dissociation of quarkonium in quark–gluon plasma (QGP) is a long standing topic in relativistic heavy-ion collisions because it has been believed to signal one of the fundamental natures of the QGP — Debye screening due to the liberation of color degrees of freedom. Among recent new theoretical developments is the application of open quantum system framework to quarkonium in the QGP. Open system approach

We review the current status of jet measurements in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We discuss how the current measurements provide information about the quark-gluon plasma and discuss near future opportunities at both RHIC and the LHC.

Nuclear shape coexistence is the phenomenon in which distinct shapes occur within the same nucleus and at a similar energy. In this work, we provide an overview of the experimental investigations of shape coexistence, focusing on those regions of the nuclear chart that have been the most actively investigated within the past decade. In particular, we focus on coexistence phenomena at low angular momentum

We discuss the basic ideas of relativistic transport models used for the interpretation and description of experimental data from heavy-ion collisions at high collision energies. We highlight selected results from microscopic simulations of these reactions with a main focus on the UrQMD and PHSD approaches. We also address the results of macroscopic approaches like hydrodynamics or coarse-grained dynamics

The growing trove of precision astrometric observations from the Gaia space telescope and other surveys is revealing the structure and dynamics of the Milky Way in ever more exquisite detail. We summarize the current status of our understanding of the structure and the characteristics of the Milky Way, and we review the emerging picture: the Milky Way is evolving through interactions with the massive

The strong force which binds hadrons is described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Determining the character and manifestations of QCD is one of the most important and challenging outstanding issues necessary for a comprehensive understanding of the structure of hadrons. Within the context of the QCD parton picture, the parton distribution functions (PDFs) have been remarkably successful

We review determinations of the electric proton charge radius from a diverse set of low-energy observables. We explore under which conditions it can be related to Wilson coefficients of appropriate effective field theories. This discussion is generalized to other low-energy constants. This provides us with a unified framework to deal with a set of low-energy constants of the proton associated with

Theoretical prediction shows that about 9000 nuclei could be bounded, of which the properties will be hot topics in the new nuclear physics era opened by the new third generation of radioactive nuclear beam (RNB) facilities. Projectile fragmentation reactions are important to produce rare nuclei with extreme large N/Z asymmetry even to the drip lines. Variety of key questions in nuclear physics, for

We correct two typos in Eqs. 10 and 14 of our review.

Nuclear reactions induced by photons play a vital role for very different aspects of basic research and applications in physics. They are a key ingredient for the synthesis of nuclei in the Universe and provide, due to the selectivity and the model-independence of the reaction mechanism, an extremely valuable probe for researchers. The penetrability of photons in the MeV energy range makes them, in

The understanding of the physical processes that lead to the origin of matter in the early Universe, creating both an excess of matter over anti-matter and a dark matter abundance that survived until the present, is one of the most fascinating challenges in modern science. The problem cannot be addressed within our current description of fundamental physics and, therefore, it currently provides a very

Prospects for quarkonium-production studies accessible during the upcoming high-luminosity phases of the CERN Large Hadron Collider operation after 2021 are reviewed. Current experimental and theoretical open issues in the field are assessed together with the potential for future studies in quarkonium-related physics. This will be possible through the exploitation of the huge data samples to be collected

The past few decades have seen major developments in the design and operation of cryogenic particle detectors. This technology offers an extremely good energy resolution – comparable to semiconductor detectors – and a wide choice of target materials, making low temperature calorimetric detectors ideal for a variety of particle physics applications. Rare event searches have continued to require ever

This review presents the current status of experimental searches and theoretical studies of antikaonic four-body K̄NNN and K̄K̄NN clusters. Theoretical approaches within the framework of non-relativistic potential models used for the investigation of four-body K̄NNN and K̄K̄NN clusters, such as the variational, Faddeev equations, and hyperspherical harmonics are considered. The results of calculations

The strange quark plays a unique role in QCD, reflecting its intermediate mass between the light and heavy quarks. In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in the spectroscopy of baryons with strangeness. Many new features of the strange baryon spectrum have been revealed by accurate experimental data with novel techniques, as well as systematic developments of theoretical framework to describe

The discovery of the Higgs boson has opened a new avenue for exploring physics beyond the Standard Model. In this review, we discuss cosmological aspects of the simplest Higgs couplings to the hidden sector, known as the Higgs portal. We focus on implications of such couplings for inflation, vacuum stability and dark matter, with the latter including both the traditional weakly interacting massive

We make an updated review and a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the decays of Higgs bosons in the Standard Model (SM) and its three well-defined prototype extensions such as the complex singlet extension of the SM (cxSM), the four types of two Higgs-doublet models (2HDMs) without tree-level Higgs-mediated flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) and the minimal supersymmetric extension of the

Under certain running conditions, the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can be considered as a photon–photon collider. Indeed, in proton–proton, proton–ion, ion–ion collisions, when incoming particles pass very close to each other in very peripheral collisions, the incoming protons or ions remain almost intact and continue their path along the beam axis. Then, only the electromagnetic (EM) fields of

Recent measurements of b-hadron decays show a pattern of consistent tensions with the respective Standard Model (SM) predictions. These tensions appear both in the sector of rare flavour-changing neutral currents and in tree-level semileptonic b-hadron decays. Flavour-changing neutral-current decays are loop-suppressed in the SM and are thus very susceptible to contributions from new heavy particles

Recent developments in precision mass spectrometry of radioactive isotopes (RI) and some selected related physics subjects are reviewed. In the last decades, besides conventional technologies in RI beam experiments, mass spectrometry of short-lived nuclei has significantly boosted its performance in terms of sensitivity and precision. Whereas single-path measurements are still employed for studies

There are two mass generating mechanisms in the standard model of particle physics (SM). One is related to the Higgs boson and fairly well understood. The other is embedded in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the SM’s strong interaction piece; and although responsible for emergence of the roughly 1 GeV mass scale that characterises the proton and hence all observable matter, the source and impacts of

We review the current status and recent progress of microscopic many-body approaches and phenomenological models, which are employed to construct the equation of state of neutron stars. The equation of state is relevant for the description of their structure and dynamical properties, and it rules also the dynamics of core-collapse supernovae and binary neutron star mergers. We describe neutron star

We review the current understanding of time-like virtual photon emission from QCD matter. The phenomenology of dilepton emission is discussed and basic theoretical concepts are introduced. The experimental findings are presented, grouped into production of lepton pairs in elementary processes, production off cold nuclear matter and emission from heavy-ion collisions. The review emphasizes the role

This review focuses on the calculation of infinite nuclear matter response functions using phenomenological finite-range interactions, equipped or not with tensor terms. These include Gogny and Nakada families, which are commonly used in the literature. Because of the finite-range, the main technical difficulty stems from the exchange terms of the particle–hole interaction. We first present results

Precision studies at electron–positron colliders with centre-of-mass energies in the charm–tau region and below have strongly contributed to our understanding of light-meson interactions at low energies. We focus on the processes involving two or three light mesons with invariant masses below nucleon–antinucleon threshold. A prominent role is given to the interactions of the nine lightest pseudoscalar

The generalization of the color gauge group SU(3) to SU(Nc), with Nc taking arbitrarily large values, as had been proposed and developed by ’t Hooft, has allowed for a decisive progress in the understanding of many qualitative, as well as quantitative, aspects of QCD in its nonperturbative regime. In particular, the notion of valence quarks receives there a precise meaning. The present work reviews

Fifty years ago the standard model offered an elegant new step towards understanding elementary fermion and boson fields, making several assumptions, suggested by experiments. The assumptions are still waiting for an explanation. There are many proposals in the literature for the next step. The spin-charge-family theory of one of us (N.S.M.B.) is offering the explanation for not only all by the standard

Quantum Phase Transitions arising in algebraic and collective models of nuclear structure are reviewed. The concept of quantum phases and phase transitions is described as well as those of critical point symmetries and quasi-dynamical symmetries. Algebraic and collective models are compared and the connections between them are explored. Differences between even–even and odd–even systems are discussed

Exascale computing could soon enable a predictive theory of nuclear structure and reactions rooted in the Standard Model, with quantifiable and systematically improvable uncertainties. Such a predictive theory will help exploit experiments that use nucleons and nuclei as laboratories for testing the Standard Model and its limitations. Examples include direct dark matter detection, neutrinoless double

This review focuses on the calculation of infinite nuclear matter response functions using phenomenological finite-range interactions, equipped or not with tensor terms. These include Gogny and Nakada families, which are commonly used in the litterature. Because of the finite-range, the main technical difficulty stems from the exchange terms of the particle-hole interaction. We first present results

The Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA), the new generation high-resolution γ-ray spectrometer, has seen the realization of the first phases of its construction and exploitation. A number of nuclear structure studies based on experiments utilizing the principle of γ-ray tracking were carried out in this decade. The combination of highest detection efficiency and position sensitivity allowed very

Dark matter represents currently an outstanding problem in both cosmology and particle physics. In this review we discuss the possible explanations for dark matter and the experimental observables which can eventually lead to the discovery of dark matter and its nature, and demonstrate the close interplay between the cosmological properties of the early Universe and the observables used to constrain

In this review, we describe the experimental facilities and methods which make it possible to produce and measure the properties of the extreme neutron-rich nuclei. We then develop the theoretical framework that predicts and explains these properties; the shell-model approach with large-scale configuration interaction (mixing) SM-CI, with special emphasis in the competition between the spherical mean

Quasifission competes with fusion, and can suppress the cross sections for formation of heavy elements by orders of magnitude. Its understanding is important both to map out opportunities to synthesise superheavy elements and isotopes, and to understand the non-equilibrium dynamics that controls heavy ion reactions. A review of experimental studies of quasifission is presented, summarising significant

Nuclear processes not only generate the energy and drive the evolution of stars, but also are responsible for the synthesis of the elements in the Universe. Helium (4He, or α) is the second most abundant element after hydrogen, thus α-particle induced reactions such as (α,γ), (α,n) and (α,p) play a crucial role in nuclear astrophysics, especially for understanding stellar helium burning. Direct measurement

The Spin Physics Detector (SPD) is a future multipurpose experiment foreseen to run at the NICA collider, which is currently under construction at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Dubna, Russia). The physics program of the experiment is based on collisions of longitudinally and transversely polarized protons and deuterons at s up to 27 GeV and luminosity up to 1032 cm−2 s−1. SPD will

The inclusive production of hadrons through electroweak currents can be rigorously analysed with short-distance theoretical tools. The associated observables are insensitive to the involved infrared behaviour of the strong interaction, allowing for very precise tests of Quantum Chromodynamics. The theoretical predictions for $\sigma(e^+e^-\to\mathrm{hadrons})$ and the hadronic decay widths of the $\tau$

The importance of $S$-matrix unitarity in realistic meson spectroscopy is reviewed, both its historical development and more recent applications. First the effects of imposing $S$-matrix unitarity on meson resonances is demonstrated in both the elastic and the inelastic case. Then, the static quark model is revisited and its theoretical as well as phenomenological shortcomings are highlighted. A detailed