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The ability to generate artificial human movement patterns while meeting location and time constraints is an important problem in the security community, particularly as it enables the study of the analog problem of detecting such patterns while maintaining privacy. We frame this problem as an instance of abduction guided by a novel parsimony function represented as an aggregate truth value over an annotated logic program. This approach has the added benefit of affording explainability to an analyst user. By showing that any subset of such a program can provide a lower bound on this parsimony requirement, we are able to abduce movement trajectories efficiently through an informed (i.e., A*) search. We describe how our implementation was enhanced with the application of multiple techniques in order to be scaled and integrated with a cloud-based software stack that included bottom-up rule learning, geolocated knowledge graph retrieval/management, and interfaces with government systems for independently conducted government-run tests for which we provide results. We also report on our own experiments showing that we not only provide exact results but also scale to very large scenarios and provide realistic agent trajectories that can go undetected by machine learning anomaly detectors., Comment: Accepted at ICLP 2024

Local interactions drive emergent collective behavior, which pervades biological and social complex systems. But uncovering the interactions that produce a desired behavior remains a core challenge. In this paper, we present EvoSOPS, an evolutionary framework that searches landscapes of stochastic distributed algorithms for those that achieve a mathematically specified target behavior. These algorithms govern self-organizing particle systems (SOPS) comprising individuals with no persistent memory and strictly local sensing and movement. For aggregation, phototaxing, and separation behaviors, EvoSOPS discovers algorithms that achieve 4.2-15.3% higher fitness than those from the existing "stochastic approach to SOPS" based on mathematical theory from statistical physics. EvoSOPS is also flexibly applied to new behaviors such as object coating where the stochastic approach would require bespoke, extensive analysis. Finally, we distill insights from the diverse, best-fitness genomes produced for aggregation across repeated EvoSOPS runs to demonstrate how EvoSOPS can bootstrap future theoretical investigations into SOPS algorithms for new behaviors., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication at ALIFE 2024

In order to investigate the contribution of $\alpha$ production in the reaction cross sections, measurements of elastic scattering and inclusive $\alpha$ particle angular distributions have been carried out with the $^9$Be projectile on $^{89}$Y, $^{124}$Sn, $^{159}$Tb, $^{198}$Pt, and $^{209}$Bi targets over a wide angular range at energies near the Coulomb barrier. The measured elastic scattering angular distributions were fitted with optical model calculations, and reaction cross sections were extracted. The same data were also analysed using both global optical model potentials (Global OMP) and microscopic S$\tilde{a}$o Paulo potentials (SPP), to obtain the reaction cross sections. The data available in the literature for $^9$Be projectile includes the elastic scattering angular distributions, $\alpha$ production cross sections, and complete fusion cross sections on these and other targets at several energies are also utilised for comparative studies. The reaction cross section extracted from the three potentials (Best Fit, Global OMP and SPP) are in reasonable agreement for all the targets except for the energies below the barrier where the results from SPP deviate by 30-50 \%. Inclusive $\alpha$ particle production cross sections were also extracted by integrating the $\alpha$ particle angular distributions. The present data and data available from literature of reaction and $\alpha$-particle production cross sections were utilised to make systematic studies. Systematics of reaction and $\alpha$-particle production cross sections revealed their universal behaviour., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures

We re-investigate the interactions between static color sources in a finite temperature gluonic medium using both high resolution isotropic and anisotropic quenched lattice QCD ensembles. The underlying ill-posed inverse problem, related to the extraction of spectral functions, is attacked with a range of different methods, including Bayesian inference, Pad\'e interpolation and model fits. Among the latter we include a tail amended Gaussian ansatz and a HTL-inspired fit ansatz. We reconfirm the presence of a dominant low-lying spectral feature that supports the existence of a potential picture for the in-medium evolution of the static charges at late real times. Using the raw unmodified lattice data, all applicable methods show clear signs of screening of the real-part of the potential. After applying a subtraction procedure featured in a previous study we find however that screening disappears from the extracted potential. Paths towards the resolution of this puzzle are discussed., Comment: 54 pages, 40 figures

Instruction tuning benefits from large and diverse datasets; however, creating such datasets involves a high cost of human labeling. While synthetic datasets generated by large language models (LLMs) have partly solved this issue, they often contain low-quality data. One effective solution is selectively annotating unlabelled instructions, especially given the relative ease of acquiring unlabeled instructions or texts from various sources. However, how to select unlabelled instructions is not well-explored, especially in the context of LLMs. Therefore, we introduce SelectLLM, an alternative framework that leverages the capabilities of LLMs to select unlabeled instructions more effectively. Specifically, SelectLLM consists of two key steps: Coreset-based clustering of unlabelled instructions for enlarging diversity and prompting of LLM to identify the most beneficial instructions within each cluster. We evaluate SelectLLM on AlpacaEval2 and MT-Bench, demonstrating its ability to outperform state-of-the-art methods like Alpagasus. In addition, we compare the performance and compatibility of SelectLLM with various LLMs, such as ChatGPT, LLaMA-3.1-70B, and Gemma-2-27b. SelectLLM's adaptability and robustness are further evidenced by its ability to maintain high performance across both human and synthetic datasets. All code and data are publicly available (https://github.com/minnesotanlp/select-llm)., Comment: First Authors: Ritik Sachin Parkar and Jaehyung Kim | Second Author: Jong Inn Park | PI: Dongyeop Kang

This work delves into the expanding role of large language models (LLMs) in generating artificial data. LLMs are increasingly employed to create a variety of outputs, including annotations, preferences, instruction prompts, simulated dialogues, and free text. As these forms of LLM-generated data often intersect in their application, they exert mutual influence on each other and raise significant concerns about the quality and diversity of the artificial data incorporated into training cycles, leading to an artificial data ecosystem. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to aggregate various types of LLM-generated text data, from more tightly constrained data like "task labels" to more lightly constrained "free-form text". We then stress test the quality and implications of LLM-generated artificial data, comparing it with human data across various existing benchmarks. Despite artificial data's capability to match human performance, this paper reveals significant hidden disparities, especially in complex tasks where LLMs often miss the nuanced understanding of intrinsic human-generated content. This study critically examines diverse LLM-generated data and emphasizes the need for ethical practices in data creation and when using LLMs. It highlights the LLMs' shortcomings in replicating human traits and behaviors, underscoring the importance of addressing biases and artifacts produced in LLM-generated content for future research and development. All data and code are available on our project page., Comment: Core Authors: Debarati Das, Karin De Langis, Anna Martin-Boyle, Jaehyung Kim, Minhwa Lee and Zae Myung Kim | Project lead : Debarati Das | PI : Dongyeop Kang

Recent advances in reinforcement learning (RL) have shown much promise across a variety of applications. However, issues such as scalability, explainability, and Markovian assumptions limit its applicability in certain domains. We observe that many of these shortcomings emanate from the simulator as opposed to the RL training algorithms themselves. As such, we propose a semantic proxy for simulation based on a temporal extension to annotated logic. In comparison with two high-fidelity simulators, we show up to three orders of magnitude speed-up while preserving the quality of policy learned. In addition, we show the ability to model and leverage non-Markovian dynamics and instantaneous actions while providing an explainable trace describing the outcomes of the agent actions., Comment: Submitted to 2024 IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing

In this work we consider a generalization of the well-known multivehicle routing problem: given a network, a set of agents occupying a subset of its nodes, and a set of tasks, we seek a minimum cost sequence of movements subject to the constraint that each task is visited by some agent at least once. The classical version of this problem assumes a central computational server that observes the entire state of the system perfectly and directs individual agents according to a centralized control scheme. In contrast, we assume that there is no centralized server and that each agent is an individual processor with no a priori knowledge of the underlying network (including task and agent locations). Moreover, our agents possess strictly local communication and sensing capabilities (restricted to a fixed radius around their respective locations), aligning more closely with several real-world multiagent applications. These restrictions introduce many challenges that are overcome through local information sharing and direct coordination between agents. We present a fully distributed, online, and scalable reinforcement learning algorithm for this problem whereby agents self-organize into local clusters and independently apply a multiagent rollout scheme locally to each cluster. We demonstrate empirically via extensive simulations that there exists a critical sensing radius beyond which the distributed rollout algorithm begins to improve over a greedy base policy. This critical sensing radius grows proportionally to the $\log^*$ function of the size of the network, and is, therefore, a small constant for any relevant network. Our decentralized reinforcement learning algorithm achieves approximately a factor of two cost improvement over the base policy for a range of radii bounded from below and above by two and three times the critical sensing radius, respectively.

A systematic analysis of the fusion cross sections around the Coulomb barrier energies with stable weakly bound ($^{6}$Li,$^{7}$Li,$^{9}$Be) and strongly bound $^{12}$C projectiles on various targets was performed by using neutron flow model and coupled channels approach. The analysis show that both the models are successful in explaining the near barrier fusion data. Further, it is also observed that the collective degrees of freedom as well as the neutron flow influence the near barrier fusion process involving weakly bound projectiles., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We present results on the in-medium interactions of static quark anti-quark pairs using realistic 2+1 HISQ flavor lattice QCD. Focus is put on the extraction of spectral information from Wilson line correlators in Coulomb gauge using four complementary methods. Our results indicate that on HISQ lattices, the position of the dominant spectral peak associated with the real-part of the interquark potential remains unaffected by temperature. This is in contrast to prior work in quenched QCD and we present follow up comparisons to newly generated quenched ensembles., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, talk given at the XVth Quark confinement and the Hadron spectrum conference, Aug. 1st - 6th, 2022, Stavanger, Norway. Date of presentation Aug. 5th 2022

The contribution of one neutron stripping cross section to the total reaction cross section has been studied for $^9$Be projectile incident on $^{169}$Tm, $^{181}$Ta, $^{187}$Re and $^{197}$Au targets around Coulomb barrier energy. The measured one neutron stripping cross sections for these systems have been compared with the coupled channel calculations. The recently developed global set of optical model potential parameters for $^9$Be projectile has been used in the present calculations. The cumulative of measured complete fusion (CF), incomplete fusion (ICF), one neutron stripping and calculated non-capture breakup (NCBU) cross sections is found to explain almost the reaction cross sections for all the targets. A very small contribution from target inelastic states and elastic breakup may contribute to the remaining part. The percentage fraction of cross section for CF, ICF, one neutron stripping, and NCBU over reaction cross section show the dominance of neutron transfer and NCBU at below barrier energies while CF and ICF processes have the major contribution at above barrier energies., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures

Elastic scattering angular distribution for weakly bound nucleus $^{6}$Li on the deformed rare earth $^{159}$Tb target nucleus has been measured at energies around the Coulomb barrier. The elastic scattering cross sections for this reaction consist of inelastic contributions from low lying excited states of $^{159}$Tb. The pure elastic cross-sections have been extracted from the admixture of elastic and inelastic data. The optical model potential parameters for the system have been obtained from the extracted pure elastic scattering cross sections. Coupled channel calculations have been performed with this set of potential parameters, to compare the theoretical and experimental inelastic scattering cross sections. The work has been extended to obtain the spectroscopic factor for $^{158}$Tb+n configuration from the experimental 1n-pickup data.

We have studied finite temperature complex static quark-antiquark potentials for 2+1 flavor QCD using highly improved staggered action with physical strange quark masses and light quark masses corresponding to a pion mass of 161 MeV. We calculated the potential using Wilson line correlators fixed in Coulomb gauge. For the extraction, we have used HTL motivated parametrization of the correlators. We found that the real part of the potential is screened above the crossover temperature and it's close to singlet free energies, whereas the imaginary part is increasing with both distance and temperature., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, Contribution to the 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 26th-30th July 2021, Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology

We explore the interactions between a quark anti-quark pair in a thermal medium based on lattice QCD ensembles with $N_f = 2+1$ dynamical HISQ flavors. Our dataset spans the phenomenologically relevant temperature range between T=140MeV-2GeV based on lattice sizes $N_\tau=10,12$ and $16$, with an aspect ratio of $N_\sigma/N_\tau=4$. The peak position $\Omega$ and the width $\Gamma$ of the spectral function of Wilson-line correlators in Coulomb gauge is computed. We assess the information content in the correlation functions and deploy three complementary strategies to reconstruct spectral information: model fits, Pad\'e approximation and the Bayesian BR method. Limitations of each approach are carefully assessed., Comment: Contribution to The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE2021 26th-30th July, 2021 Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 9 pages, 7 figure, LaTeX, uses PoS class

We study the interactions of a static quark antiquark pair at non-zero temperature using realistic 2+1 flavor lattice QCD calculations. The study consists of two parts: the first investigates the properties of Wilson line correlators in Coulomb gauge and compares to predictions of hard-thermal loop perturbation theory. As a second step we extract the spectral functions underlying the correlators using four conceptually different methods: spectral function fits, a HTL inspired fit for the correlation function, Pad\'e rational approximation and the Bayesian BR spectral reconstruction. We find that our high statistics Euclidean lattice data are amenable to different hypotheses for the shapes of the spectral function and we compare the implications of each analysis method for the existence and properties of a well defined ground state spectral peak.

One neutron stripping cross sections ($\sigma_{-1n}$) are measured in $^{9}$Be+$^{159}$Tb system in the energy range E$_{cm}$/V$_{B}$ $\sim$ 0.79 - 1.24 using offline gamma counting technique. The CRC model calculations including the ground state and the 2$^{+}$ resonance state of $^{8}$Be, carried out using the FRESCO code, give a reasonable description of the measured data. In addition, comparisons of reduced 1n-stripping cross sections- $\sigma_{red}$ with $^{9}$Be for different target nuclei (A $\sim$150-200), and $\sigma_{red}$ for $^{9}$Be, $^{6}$Li with $^{159}$Tb target are presented. While no strong target dependence is observed with $^{9}$Be projectile, $\sigma_{red}$($^{9}$Be) is significantly larger than that for $^{6}$Li, which is consistent with the Q-value for transfer reactions and breakup threshold energy of projectiles., Comment: 5 pages, 6 Figures

The origin of the large $\alpha$ particle production and incomplete fusion in reactions involving weakly-bound $\alpha$+$x$ cluster nuclei still remains unresolved. While the (two-step) process of breakup followed by capture of the ``free" complementary fragment ($x$) is widely believed to be responsible, a few recent studies suggest the dominant role of (direct) cluster stripping. To achieve an unambiguous experimental discrimination between these two processes, a coincidence measurement between the outgoing $\alpha$ particles and $\gamma$ rays from the heavy residues has been performed for the $^7$Li($\alpha$+triton)+$^{93}$Nb system. Proper choice of kinematical conditions allowed for the first time a significant population of the region accessible only to the direct triton stripping process and not to breakup followed by the capture of the ``free'' triton (from the three-body continuum). This result, also supported by a cluster-transfer calculation, clearly establishes the dominance of the direct cluster-stripping mechanism in the large alpha production.

We report on a preliminary study of static quark anti-quark potential at non-zero temperature in $2+1$ flavor QCD using $96^3\times N_{\tau}$ lattices with lattice spacing $a=0.028$fm, physical strange quark mass and light quark masses corresponding to pion mass of about $300$ MeV. We use $N_\tau=32,~24,~20$ and $16$ that correspond to temperature range $T=220-441$ MeV. The in order to obtain the potential we calculate the Wilson line correlator in Coulomb gauge with additional HYP smearing to reduce the noise at large quark anti-quark separations. We apply $0$, $5$ and $10$ steps of HYP smearing to ensure that there is no physical effect from over-smearing. At the two highest temperatures we also consider a noise reduction technique that is based on an interpolation in the spatial separation between the static quark and anti-quark., Comment: Contribution to The 38th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, LATTICE2021 26th-30th July, 2021 Zoom/Gather@Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 7 pages, 4 figure, LaTeX, uses PoS class, typos corrected

Background: Multinucleon transfer reactions at energies around the Coulomb barrier offer a vital opportunity to study rich physics of nuclear structure and dynamics. Despite the continuous development in the field, we have still limited knowledge about how deformation - one of the representative nuclear structures - affects multinucleon transfer reactions. Purpose: To shed light on the effect of deformation in multinucleon transfer processes, we study the $^{16}$O+$^{154}$Sm reaction at $E_{\rm lab}$=85 MeV (around the Coulomb barrier) and 134 MeV (substantially above the Coulomb barrier), where the target nucleus, $^{154}$Sm, is a well-established, deformed nucleus. Results: Angular distributions for elastic scattering and for various transfer channels were measured over a wide angular range at the BARC-TIFR pelletron-Linac accelerator facility, Mumbai. The $Q$-value- and angle-integrated isotope production cross sections have been extracted from the measured angular distributions. The experimental data are analyzed along with time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations. For the lower incident energy case, we find a reasonable agreement between the measurements and the TDHF calculations for a-few-nucleon transfer channels; whereas TDHF underestimates cross sections for many-nucleon transfers, consistent with earlier works. On the other side, we find that calculated cross sections for secondary reaction products for the higher incident energy case, qualitatively explains the measured trends of isotopic distributions observed for the lower energy. The latter observation indicates possible underestimation of excitation energies in the present TDHF+GEMINI analysis. Although certain orientation effects were observed in TDHF results, it is difficult to disentangle them from the $Q$-value- and angle-integrated production cross sections. (Shortened due to the arXiv's length limit.), Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures; v2 - Title has been revised. Analysis of TKEL spectra with two figures (Figs. 3 and 4) has been added. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review C

The relative importance of neutron transfer and breakup process in reaction around Coulomb barrier energies have been studied for the $^{7}$Li+$^{124}$Sn system. Coupled channel calculations have been performed to understand the one neutron stripping and pickup cross sections along with the breakup in the $^{7}$Li+$^{124}$Sn system. The systematics of one and two neutron striping and pickup cross sections with $^7$Li projectile on several targets show an approximate universal behaviour that have been explained by a simple model. Complete reaction mechanism have been studied by comparing the reaction cross sections with cumulative cross sections of total fusion and one neutron transfer., Comment: 6 figures

Measurement of angular distributions and energy spectra of $\alpha$ and deuterons through breakup, transfer and incomplete fusion processes to dis-entangle their relative contributions and to investigate relative importance of breakup-fusion compared to transfer. Inclusive $\alpha$ production cross-sections have been measured for $^6$Li + $^{51}$V system near Coulomb barrier energies. Theoretical calculations for estimation of various reaction channels contributing to $\alpha$ production have been performed with finite range coupled reaction method using \textsc{FRESCO} code. The cross-sections from non-capture breakup (NCBU) ($\alpha$ + \textit{d}) and 1\textit{n}, 1\textit{p}, and 1\textit{d} transfer channels, compound nuclear decay channel and incomplete fusion (ICF) leading to $\alpha$ production were estimated to get the cumulative production cross-sections. Contributions from breakup, transfer and incomplete fusion channels could reproduce the integral direct $\alpha$ production cross-sections and their angular distributions quite well. The direct $\alpha$ production cross-sections are in agreement with other targets. The $\alpha$ production cross-sections are higher compared to the deuteron production. Kinematic analysis of the energy spectra of $\alpha$ particles and deuterons suggest that $\alpha$ particle spectra is dominated by breakp-fusion and deuteron spectra have contribution of breakup and transfer reactions. A systematic study of direct $\alpha$ production with various targets follow a universal behavior on average but noticeable differences are observed for different targets. A ratio of $\alpha$ and deuteron yields for a wide mass range of targets shows a saturation above barrier and an increasing production of $\alpha$ particles relative to deuteron around Coulomb barrier., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures

Fusion cross-sections have been measured for the asymmetric system 16O+165Ho at energies near and deep below the Coulomb barrier with an aim to investigate the occurrence of fusion hindrance for the system. Fusion cross sections down to ~ 700 nb have been measured using the off-beam gamma-ray technique. The fusion cross sections have been compared with the coupled channel calculations. Although the onset of fusion hindrance could not be observed experimentally, an indication of a small deviation of the experimental fusion cross-sections with respect to the calculated cross-sections could be observed at the lowest energy measured. However, the energy onset of fusion hindrance has been obtained from the extrapolation technique and is found to be about 2 MeV below the lowest energy of the present measurement.

In this work $\textit{n}$-transfer and incomplete fusion cross sections for $^{9}$Be + $^{197}$Au system are reported over a wide energy range, E$_{c.m.}$ $\approx$ 29-45 MeV. The experiment was carried out using activation technique and off-line gamma counting. The transfer process is found to be the dominant mode as compared to all other reaction channels. Detailed coupled reaction channel (CRC) calculations have been performed for $\textit{n}$-transfer stripping and pickup cross sections. The measured 1$\textit{n}$-stripping cross sections are explained with CRC calculations by including the ground state and the 2$^{+}$ resonance state (E = 3.03 MeV) of $^{8}$Be. The calculations for 1$\textit{n}$-pickup, including only the ground state of $^{10}$Be agree reasonably well with the measured cross sections, while it overpredicts the data at subbarrier energies. For a better insight into the role of projectile structure in the transfer process, a comprehensive analysis of 1$\textit{n}$-stripping reaction has been carried out for various weakly bound projectiles on $^{197}$Au target nucleus. The transfer cross sections scaled with the square of total radius of interacting nuclei show the expected Q-value dependence of 1$\textit{n}$-stripping channel for weakly bound stable projectiles.

The production of $\alpha$-particles in reactions using both the strongly and weakly bound projectiles at energies around the Coulomb barrier show several interesting features. To understand these, the role of various reaction mechanisms responsible for $\alpha$-production, such as non-capture breakup, capture of only one of the fragments subsequent to projectile breakup and their contribution to reaction cross sections have been investigated. A systematic study of the $\alpha$-particle production based on available data for various projectile target systems have been performed and a classification based on projectile type is obtained., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

To probe the role of the intrinsic structure of the projectile on sub-barrier fusion, measurement of fusion cross sections has been carried out in $^{9}$Be + $^{197}$Au system in the energy range E$_{c.m.}$/V$_B$ $\approx$ 0.82 to 1.16 using off-beam gamma counting method. Measured fusion excitation function has been analyzed in the framework of the coupled-channel approach using CCFULL code. It is observed that the coupled-channel calculations, including couplings to the inelastic state of the target and the first two states of the rotational band built on the ground state of the projectile, provide a very good description of the sub-barrier fusion data. At above barrier energies, the fusion cross section is found to be suppressed by $\approx$ 39(2)\% as compared to the coupled-channel prediction. A comparison of reduced excitation function of $^{9}$Be + $^{197}$Au with other $x$ + $^{197}$Au shows a larger enhancement for $^9$Be in the sub-barrier region amongst Z=2-5 weakly and tightly bound projectiles, which indicates the prominent role of the projectile deformation in addition to the weak binding., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. C

To disentangle the role of shell effects and dynamics, fission fragment mass distributions of $^{191}$Au, a nucleus in the newly identified island of mass asymmetric fission in the sub-lead region, have been measured down to excitation energy of $\approx$20 MeV above the fission barrier via two different entrance channels, viz. $^{16}$O+$^{175}$Lu and $^{37}$Cl+$^{154}$Sm reactions. Apart from having signature of the shell effects in both the cases, clear experimental evidence of quasifission has been observed in the mass distributions of the Cl induced reaction, that has also been substantiated by the theoretical calculations. This crucial evidence along with a systematic analysis of available experimental data has revealed that the dynamics in the entrance channel has significant influence on most of the reactions used earlier to explore the persistence of recently discovered mass asymmetry in $\beta$-delayed fission at low energy in this mass region, ignoring which might lead to ambiguity in interpreting the heavy-ion data., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

Accurate knowledge of the response of the detection system is very crucial for unambiguous interpretation of the experimental data. A simulation code has been developed using the Monte Carlo technique involving 3-body kinematics for the analysis of data obtained with segmented large area Si $\Delta E-E$ detector telescopes in nuclear reaction measurements. Care was taken in the analysis to maximize the angular coverage and statistics. The emphasis is placed to extract the absolute cross sections of the different reaction processes, for which coincident measurements are unavoidable. The estimated detection efficiency of different coincidence events are found to depend on various parameters, e.g., the relative energy of the breakup fragments, incident beam energy of the projectile, ground state $Q$-value of the reaction, the excitation of the ejectile as well as target like nuclei, mass asymmetry of the breakup fragments, detection threshold, and geometric solid angle of the detection setup. The interpretation of the various observables from the exclusive measurements of breakup and transfer breakup reactions is reported., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures

In beam test experiments have been carried out for particle identification using digital pulse shape analysis in a 500~$\mu$m thick Neutron Transmutation Doped (nTD) silicon detector with an indigenously developed FPGA based 12 bit resolution, 1 GHz sampling digitizer. The nTD Si detector was used in a low-field injection setup to detect light heavy-ions produced in reactions of $\sim$ 5 MeV/A $^{7}$Li and $^{12}$C beams on different targets. Pulse height, rise time and current maximum have been obtained from the digitized charge output of a high bandwidth charge and current sensitive pre-amplifier. Good isotopic separation have been achieved using only the digitized charge output in case of light heavy-ions. The setup can be used for charged particle spectroscopy in nuclear reactions involving light heavy-ions around the Coulomb barrier energies., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures

The complete and incomplete fusion cross sections for $^{7}$Li+$^{124}$Sn reaction were measured using online and offline characteristic $\gamma$-ray detection techniques. The complete fusion (CF) cross sections at energies above the Coulomb barrier were found to be suppressed by $\sim$ 26 \% compared to the coupled channel calculations. This suppression observed in complete fusion cross sections is found to be commensurate with the measured total incomplete fusion (ICF) cross sections. There is a distinct feature observed in the ICF cross sections, i.e., $\textit{t}$-capture is found to be dominant than $\alpha$-capture at all the measured energies. A simultaneous explanation of complete, incomplete and total fusion (TF) data was also obtained from the calculations based on Continuum Discretized Coupled Channel method with short range imaginary potentials. The cross section ratios of CF/TF and ICF/TF obtained from the data as well as the calculations showed the dominance of ICF at below barrier energies and CF at above barrier energies., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

The reaction mechanism of deep-inelastic multinucleon transfer processes in the $^{16}$O+$^{27}$Al reaction at an incident $^{16}$O energy ($E_{\rm lab}=134$ MeV) substantially above the Coulomb barrier has been studied both experimentally and theoretically. Elastic-scattering angular distribution, total kinetic energy loss spectra and angular distributions for various transfer channels have been measured. The $Q$-value- and angle-integrated isotope production cross sections have been deduced. To obtain deeper insight into the underlying reaction mechanism, we have carried out a detailed analysis based on the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) theory. A recently developed method, TDHF+GEMINI, has been applied to evaluate production cross sections for secondary products. From a comparison between the experimental and theoretical cross sections, we find that the theory qualitatively reproduces the experimental data. Significant effects of secondary light-particle emissions are demonstrated. Possible interplay between fusion-fission, deep-inelastic, multinucleon transfer and particle evaporation processes are discussed., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, including Supplemental Material; v2 - two figures and one table added, revised according to the Referee's suggestions

We use the breakup absorption model to simultaneously describe the measured cross-sections of the Complete fusion (CF), Incomplete fusion (ICF), and Total fusion (TF) in nuclear reactions induced by weakly bound nuclei $^{6,7}$Li on $^{209}$Bi and $^{198}$Pt targets. The absorption cross-sections are calculated using the Continuum Discretized Coupled Channels (CDCC) method with different choices of short range imaginary potentials to get the ICF, CF and TF cross-sections. It is observed that the cross-sections for deuteron-ICF/deuteron-capture are of similar magnitude as the $\alpha$-ICF/$\alpha$-capture, in case of $^{6}$Li projectile, while the cross-sections for triton-ICF/triton-capture is more dominant than $\alpha$-ICF/$\alpha$-capture in case of $^{7}$Li projectile. Both these observations are also corroborated by the experimental data. The ratio of ICF to TF cross-sections, which defines the value of fusion suppression factor is found to be in agreement with the data available from the literature. The cross-section ratio of CF/TF and ICF/TF show opposite behavior, the former decreases while the latter increases as the energy is lowered, which shows the dominance of ICF at below barrier energies. We have also studied the correlation of the ICF cross-sections with the non-capture breakup (NCBU) cross-sections as a function of energy, which shows that the NCBU is more significant than ICF at below barrier energies., Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. C (6 pages, 5 figures)

The two-step process of transfer followed by breakup is explored by measuring a rather complete set of exclusive data for reaction channels populating states in the ejectile continua of the $^7$Li+$^{93}$Nb system at energies close to the Coulomb barrier. The cross sections for $\alpha+\alpha$ events from one proton pickup were found to be smaller than those for $\alpha+d$ events from one neutron stripping and $\alpha+t$ events from direct breakup of $^7$Li. Coupled channels Born approximation and continuum discretized coupled channels calculations describe the data well and support the conclusion that the $\alpha+d$ and $\alpha+\alpha$ events are produced by direct transfer to unbound states of the ejectile., Comment: Published in Phys. Rev. C (Rapid Communication) 93, 061602(R) (2016)

Measurements of fusion cross-sections of 7Li and 12C with 198Pt at deep sub-barrier energies are reported to unravel the role of the entrance channel in the occurrence of fusion hindrance. The onset of fusion hindrance has been clearly observed in 12C + 198Pt system but not in 7Li + 198Pt system, within the measured energy range. Emergence of the hindrance, moving from lighter (6,7Li) to heavier (12C,16O) projectiles is explained employing a model that considers a gradual transition from a sudden to adiabatic regime at low energies. The model calculation reveals a weak effect of the damping of coupling to collective motion for the present systems as compared to that obtained for systems with heavier projectiles., Comment: Accepted in Phys. Letts. B

So far, the well known two branches of real discrete spectrum of complex PT-symmetric Scarf II potential are kept isolated. Here, we suggest that these two need to be brought together as doublets: $E^n_{\pm}(\lambda)$ with $n=0,1,2...$. Then if strength $(\lambda)$ of the imaginary part of the potential is varied smoothly some pairs of real eigenvalue curves can intersect and cross each other at $\lambda=\lambda_{*}$; this is unlike one dimensional Hermitian potentials. However, we show that the corresponding eigenstates at $\lambda=\lambda_{*}$ are identical or linearly dependent denying degeneracy in one dimension, once again. Other pairs of eigenvalue curves coalesce to complex-conjugate pairs completing the scenario of spontaneous breaking of PT-symmetry at $\lambda=\lambda_{c}$. To re-emphasize, sharply at $\lambda=\lambda_{*}$ and $\lambda_{c}$, two real eigenvalues coincide, nevertheless their corresponding eigenfunctions become identical or linearly dependent and the Hamiltonian looses diagonalizability., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures and two Tables

The role of the breakup process and one neutron stripping on the near barrier fusion are investigated for the weakly bound projectile $^{9}$Be on $^{28}$Si, $^{89}$Y, $^{124}$Sn, $^{144}$Sm and $^{208}$Pb targets. Continuum-discretized coupled channels (CDCC) calculations for the breakup with a $^{8}$Be + n model of the $^{9}$Be nucleus and coupled reactions channels (CRC) calculations for the one neutron stripping to several single particle states in the target are performed for these systems. A good description of the experimental fusion cross sections above the Coulomb barrier is obtained from the CDCC-CRC calculations for all the systems. The calculated incomplete fusion probabilities for different target systems are found to be consistent with the systematic behaviour of the complete fusion suppression factors as a function of target atomic mass, obtained from the experimental data., Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. C

The inclusive cross sections of the $\alpha$-particles produced in the reaction $^{6}$Li+$^{159}$Tb have been measured at energies around the Coulomb barrier. The measured cross sections are found to be orders of magnitude larger than the calculated cross sections of $^{6}$Li breaking into $\alpha$ and $d$ fragments, thus indicating contributions from other processes. The experimental cross sections of $1n$-stripping and $1n$-pickup processes have been determined from an entirely different measurement, reported earlier. Apart from incomplete fusion and/ $d$-transfer processes, the $1n$-stripping process is found to be a significant contributor to the inclusive $\alpha$-particle cross sections in this reaction.

The nucleosynthesis of elements beyond iron is dominated by neutron captures in the s and r processes. However, 32 stable, proton-rich isotopes cannot be formed during those processes, because they are shielded from the s-process flow and r-process beta-decay chains. These nuclei are attributed to the p and rp process. For all those processes, current research in nuclear astrophysics addresses the need for more precise reaction data involving radioactive isotopes. Depending on the particular reaction, direct or inverse kinematics, forward or time-reversed direction are investigated to determine or at least to constrain the desired reaction cross sections. The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) will offer unique, unprecedented opportunities to investigate many of the important reactions. The high yield of radioactive isotopes, even far away from the valley of stability, allows the investigation of isotopes involved in processes as exotic as the r or rp processes., Comment: Invited Talk given at the Conference Nuclear Physice in Astrophysics VI (NPA6), Lisbon, Portugal, May 19-24 2013. To appear in the NPA6 Proceedings in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS)

Two cluster structures of 9Be namely, 5He+4He and 8Be+n have been considered for its breakup to describe the available data on elastic scattering for 9Be projectile with 28Si, 64Zn and 144Sm targets. The results of these calculations suggest that the breakup coupling effects are significant for 5He+4He cluster model at above the barrier energies, while they are dominant at relatively lower energies for 8Be+n model. The addition of one neutron stripping channel in the 8Be+n model gives an overall good description of the elastic data for all the systems considered. The couplings generated by breakup in 8Be+n model have different behaviour than the coupling effects obtained within the 5He+4He model, the former being more prominent at lower energies and for the heavier target systems. The behaviour of extracted dynamic polarisation potentials (DPP) generated due to breakup and one neutron transfer couplings have been investigated., Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. C

Exclusive measurements of prompt $\gamma$-rays from the heavy-residues with various light charged particles in the $^7$Li + $^{198}$Pt system, at an energy near the Coulomb barrier (E/$V_b$ $\sim$ 1.6) are reported. Recent dynamic classical trajectory calculations, constrained by the measured fusion, $\alpha$ and $t$ capture cross-sections have been used to explain the excitation energy dependence of the residue cross-sections. These calculations distinctly illustrate a two step process, breakup followed by fusion in case of the capture of $t$ and $\alpha$ clusters; whereas for $^{6}$He + $p$ and $^{5}$He + $d$ configurations, massive transfer is inferred to be the dominant mechanism. The present work clearly demonstrates the role played by the cluster structures of $^7$Li in understanding the reaction dynamics at energies around the Coulomb barrier., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Letts. B

High spin states in $^{112}$In were investigated using $^{100}$Mo($^{16}$O, p3n) reaction at 80 MeV. The excited level have been observed up to 5.6 MeV excitation energy and spin $\sim$ 20$\hbar$ with the level scheme showing three dipole bands. The polarization and lifetime measurements were carried out for the dipole bands. Tilted axis cranking model calculations were performed for different quasi-particle configurations of this doubly odd nucleus. Comparison of the calculations of the model with the B(M1) transition strengths of the positive and negative parity bands firmly established their configurations., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables

Complete and incomplete fusion cross sections for $^{6}$Li+$^{159}$Tb have been measured at energies around the Coulomb barrier by the $\gamma$-ray method. The measurements show that the complete fusion cross sections at above-barrier energies are suppressed by $\sim$34% compared to the coupled channels calculations. A comparison of the complete fusion cross sections at above-barrier energies with the existing data of $^{11,10}$B+$^{159}$Tb and $^{7}$Li+$^{159}$Tb shows that the extent of suppression is correlated with the $\alpha$-separation energies of the projectiles. It has been argued that the Dy isotopes produced in the reaction $^{6}$Li+$^{159}$Tb, at below-barrier energies are primarily due to the $d$-transfer to unbound states of $^{159}$Tb, while both transfer and incomplete fusion processes contribute at above-barrier energies., Comment: Phys. Rev. C (accepted)

The observation of a large cross-section for the alpha + d channel compared to breakup into the alpha + t channel from an exclusive measurement for the 7Li+65Cu system at 25 MeV is presented. A detailed analysis of the angular distribution using coupled channels Born approximation calculations has provided clear evidence that the observed alpha + d events arise from a two step process, i.e. direct transfer to the 2.186 MeV (3+) resonance in the alpha + d continuum of 6Li followed by breakup, and are not due to final state interaction effects., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, To be published in Phys. Letts. B