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We utilize a graphene field-effect transistor to measure back-gate charging by positrons. The device consists of an exfoliated graphene flake transferred onto hexagonal Boron Nitride, placed on a 1 cm2 substrate of 500 μm thick conducting p-Si capped by 285 nm-thick SiO2. It is placed at close proximity to a 25 μCi 22Na positron source emitting a constant flux of positrons, which during the measurement annihilate within the back-gate. We demonstrate that when the back-gate is allowed to float, the charging current of ≈20 fA causes the buildup of positive charge which capacitively couples to the graphene device and is detected as a variation in the two-terminal conductance. Furthermore, a prolonged exposure to positrons causes a shift in the graphene transport characteristics, associated with local charges at the immediate environment of the graphene flake. Our results demonstrate the utility of two-dimensional layered materials as probes for charging dynamics of positrons in solids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent experiments and many-body calculations indicate that approximately 20% of the nucleons in medium and heavy nuclei (A ≥ 12) are part of short-range correlated (SRC) primarily neutron-proton (np) pairs. We find that using chiral dynamics to account for the formation of np pairs due to the effects of iterated and irreducible two-pion exchange leads to values consistent with the 20% level. We further apply chiral dynamics to study how these correlations influence the calculations of nuclear charge radii, that traditionally truncate their effect, to find that they are capable of introducing non-negligible effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atomic nucleus is composed of two different kinds of fermions: protons and neutrons. If the protons and neutrons did not interact, the Pauli exclusion principle would force the majority of fermions (usually neutrons) to have a higher average momentum. Our high-energy electron-scattering measurements using 12C, 27Al, 56Fe, and 208Pb targets show that even in heavy, neutron-rich nuclei, short-range interactions between the fermions form correlated high-momentum neutron-proton pairs. Thus, in neutron-rich nuclei, protons have a greater probability than neutrons to have momentum greater than the Fermi momentum. This finding has implications ranging from nuclear few-body systems to neutron stars and may also be observable experimentally in two-spin-state, ultracold atomic gas systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]