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In this paper, matters considering the immersion of gold nanoparticles inside a magnetic medium are investigated experimentally and theoretically. Three samples with periodic arrays of Au cylinders where studied: particles on a surface of the magnetic dielectric film, inside the magnetic film and directly under the magnetic film. The largest LSPR mediated Faraday rotation resonance enhancement takes place for the case of the nanoparticles submerged inside the magnetic film. Optimal place for nanoparticles is under the magnetic medium surface at 6 nm deep in the considered configurations. It is shown that the most influence on the Faraday rotation enhancement is produced by the magnetic properties of the medium between the nanoantennas. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical analysis.

Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs) are a novel gaseous detector technology employed by the NEWS-G low-mass dark matter search experiment for their high sensitivity to single electrons from ionization. In this paper, we report on the first characterization of the single electron response of SPCs with unprecedented precision, using a UV-laser calibration system. The experimental approach and analysis methodology are presented along with various direct applications for the upcoming next phase of the experiment at SNOLAB. These include the continuous monitoring of the detector response and electron drift properties during dark matter search runs, as well as the experimental measurement of the trigger threshold efficiency. We measure a mean ionization energy of $\mathrm{W}=27.6\pm0.2~\mathrm{eV}$ in $\mathrm{Ne + CH_4}$ $(2\%)$ for 2.8 keV X-rays, and demonstrate the feasibility of performing similar precision measurements at sub-keV energies for future gas mixtures to be used for dark matter searches at SNOLAB., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D

Strain engineering is a powerful technology which exploits stationary external or internal stress of specific spatial distribution for controlling the fundamental properties of condensed materials and nanostructures. This advanced technique modulates in space the carrier density and mobility, the optical absorption and, in strongly correlated systems, the phase, e.g. insulator/metal or ferromagnetic/paramagnetic. However, while successfully accessing nanometer length scale, strain engineering is yet to be brought down to ultrafast time scales allowing strain-assisted control of state of matter at THz frequencies. In our work we demonstrate a control of an optically-driven insulator-to-metal phase transition by a picosecond strain pulse, which paves a way to ultrafast strain engineering in nanostructures with phase transitions. This is realized by simultaneous excitation of VO$_2$ nanohillocks by a 170-fs laser and picosecond strain pulses finely timed with each other. By monitoring the transient optical reflectivity of the VO$_2$, we show that strain pulses, depending on the sign of the strain at the moment of optical excitation, increase or decrease the fraction of VO$_2$ which undergoes an ultrafast phase transition. Transient strain of moderate amplitude $\sim0.1$% applied during ultrafast photo-induced non-thermal transition changes the fraction of VO$_2$ in the laser-induced phase by $\sim1$%. By contrast, if applied after the photo-excitation when the phase transformations of the material are governed by thermal processes, transient strain of the same amplitude produces no measurable effect on the phase state., Comment: Main text: 22 pages, 4 figures. Supplimental Material: 8 pages, 9 figures. Submitted

Since the discovery of the $J/\psi$, the quark model was very successful in describing the spectrum and properties of heavy mesons including only $q\bar q$ components. However since 2003, with the discovery of the $X(3872)$, many states that can not be accommodated on the naive quark model have been discovered, and they made unavoidable to include higher Fock components on the heavy meson states. We will give an overview of the success of the quark model for heavy mesons and point some of the states that are likely to be more complicated structures such as meson-meson molecules., Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of the 15th International Workshop on Meson Physics - MESON2018

The action of focused underwater weak shock waves on a lead sample is revealed to be not restricted by a mechanical influence only. A strong unexpected x-ray emission was registered from the lead foil exposed to shock waves ({\it sound into x-rays}) which were extremely adiabatic compared to processes of x-ray generation. The lead foil, exposed to shock waves, lost a part of its area having the shape of a polygonal hole of the size of $\sim 2mm$. The missing polygon of lead foil looks as a delicately removed part with no damage at the hole surroundings as it should be after a mechanical breaking. This points to a non-mechanical mechanism of hole formation. That missing polygonal lead matter seems to be "disappeared" because the total lead volume was reduced by that amount after exposure to acoustic waves ({\it matter collapse}). Both paradoxical phenomena cannot be explained by a combination of known effects and a fundamentally new mechanism is required to underlie them. The concept of electron anomalous states, which encouraged the experiments and specified main features of them, is likely that mechanism.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration, extragalactic radio flashes of unknown physical origin. FRB 121102, the only known repeating FRB source, has been localized to a star-forming region in a dwarf galaxy at redshift z = 0.193, and is spatially coincident with a compact, persistent radio source. The origin of the bursts, the nature of the persistent source, and the properties of the local environment are still debated. Here we present bursts that show ~100% linearly polarized emission at a very high and variable Faraday rotation measure in the source frame: RM_src = +1.46 x 10^5 rad m^-2 and +1.33 x 10^5 rad m^-2 at epochs separated by 7 months, in addition to narrow (< 30 mus) temporal structure. The large and variable rotation measure demonstrates that FRB 121102 is in an extreme and dynamic magneto-ionic environment, while the short burst durations argue for a neutron star origin. Such large rotation measures have, until now, only been observed in the vicinities of massive black holes (M_BH > 10^4 MSun). Indeed, the properties of the persistent radio source are compatible with those of a low-luminosity, accreting massive black hole. The bursts may thus come from a neutron star in such an environment. However, the observed properties may also be explainable in other models, such as a highly magnetized wind nebula or supernova remnant surrounding a young neutron star., Comment: Published in Nature: DOI: 10.1038/nature25149

New Experiments With Spheres-Gas (NEWS-G) is a direct dark matter detection experiment using Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs) with light noble gases to search for low-mass Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). We report the results from the first physics run taken at the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) with SEDINE, a 60 cm diameter prototype SPC operated with a mixture of $\mathrm{Ne}+\mathrm{CH}_{4}$ (0.7 %) at 3.1 bars for a total exposure of $9.7\;\mathrm{kg\cdot days}$. New constraints are set on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-section in the sub-$\mathrm{GeV/c^2}$ mass region. We exclude cross-sections above $4.4 \times \mathrm{10^{-37}\;cm^2}$ at 90 % confidence level (C.L.) for a 0.5 $\mathrm{GeV/c^2}$ WIMP. The competitive results obtained with SEDINE are promising for the next phase of the NEWS-G experiment: a 140 cm diameter SPC to be installed at SNOLAB by summer 2018., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, acknowledgments section updated

The original charmonium two-body problem, like the $c\bar c$ structure of the $J/\psi$ meson, has become more involved in the last few years with the discovery of new resonances such as the tentative molecular state $X(3872)$ or the possible pentaquark one $P_{c}(4380)^{+}$. We discuss herein how these exotic states (and others) can be described in a unified way adding higher Fock state components to the naive quark model picture. In particular, we present our theoretical results on the pentaquark states $P_{c}(4380)^{+}$ and $P_{c}(4450)^{+}$, and on the new charmonium-like resonances $X(4140)$, $X(4274)$, $X(4500)$ and $X(4700)$ that have been reported in $2016$ by the LHCb Collaboration., Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics (EFB23). August 8-12, 2016. Aarhus, Denmark

The recently discovered $P_c(4380)^+$ and $P_c(4450)^+$ states at LHCb have masses close to the $\bar D\Sigma_c^*$ and $\bar D^*\Sigma_c$ thresholds, respectively, which suggest that they may have significant meson-baryon molecular components. We analyze these states in the framework of a constituent quark model which has been applied to a wide range of hadronic observables, being the model parameters, therefore, completely constrained. The $P_c(4380)^+$ and $P_c(4450)^+$ are studied as molecular states composed by charmed baryons and open charm mesons. Several bound states with the proper binding energy are found in the $\bar D\Sigma_c^*$ and $\bar D^*\Sigma_c$ channels. We discuss the possible assignments of these states from their decay widths. Moreover, two more states are predicted, associated with the $\bar D\Sigma_c$ and $\bar D^* \Sigma_c^*$ thresholds., Comment: 5 pages, 2 tables

Since the discovery of the $X(3872)$ the study of heavy meson molecules has been the subject of many investigations. On the experimental side different experiments have looked for its spin partners and the bottom analogs. On the theoretical side different approaches have been used to understand this state. Some of them are EFT that impose HQSS and so they make predictions for the partners of the $X(3872)$, suggesting the existence of a $J^{PC}=2^{++}$ partner in the charm sector or $J^{PC}=1^{++}$ or $2^{++}$ analogs in the bottom. In our work, in order to understand the $X(3872)$, we use a Chiral quark model in which, due to the proximity to the $DD^*$ threshold, we include $c\bar c$ states coupled to $DD^*$ molecular components. In this coupled channel model the relative position of the bare $c\bar c$ states with two meson thresholds are very important. We have looked for the $X(3872)$ partners and we don't find a bound state in the $D^*D^*$ $J^{PC}=2^{++}$. In the bottom sector we find the opposite situation where the $B^*B^*$ with $J^{PC}=2^{++}$ is bounded while the $J^{PC}=1^{++}$ is not bounded. These results shows how the coupling with $c\bar c$ states can induced different results than those expected by HQSS. The reason is that this symmetry is worse in the open heavy meson sector than in the hidden heavy meson sector., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, sent as contribution to the proceedings of the XVI International Conference on Hadron Spectroscopy

The anomalously large rates of some hadronic transitions from quarkonium are studied using QCD multipole expansion (QCDME) in the framework of a constituent quark model which has been successful in describing hadronic phenomenology. The hybrid intermediate states needed in the QCDME method are calculated in a natural extension of our constituent quark model based on the Quark Confining String (QCS) scheme. Some of the anomalies are explained due to the presence of an hybrid state with a mass near the mass of the decaying resonance whereas other are justified by the presence of molecular components in the wave function. Some unexpected results are pointed out., Comment: Conference proceedings of the XI Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum (CONFINEMENT XI). Saint Petersburg (Russia) from 8 to 12 September 2014