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Collinear laser spectroscopy was performed on the isomer of the aluminium isotope $^{26m}$Al. The measured isotope shift to $^{27}$Al in the $3s^{2}3p\;^{2}\!P^\circ_{3/2} \rightarrow 3s^{2}4s\;^{2}\!S_{1/2}$ atomic transition enabled the first experimental determination of the nuclear charge radius of $^{26m}$Al, resulting in $R_c$=\qty{3.130\pm.015}{\femto\meter}. This differs by 4.5 standard deviations from the extrapolated value used to calculate the isospin-symmetry breaking corrections in the superallowed $\beta$ decay of $^{26m}$Al. Its corrected $\mathcal{F}t$ value, important for the estimation of $V_{ud}$ in the CKM matrix, is thus shifted by one standard deviation to \qty{3071.4\pm1.0}{\second}., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett

We analyze the risks to bank intermediation following the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The CBDC competes with commercial bank deposits as the household's source of liquidity. We revisit the result in the literature regarding the equivalence of payment systems by introducing a collateral constraint for banks when borrowing from the central bank. When comparing two equilibria with and without the CBDC, the central bank can ensure the same equilibrium allocation and price system by offering loans to banks. However, to access loans, banks must hold collateral at the expense of extending credit to firms, and the central bank assumes part of the credit-extension role. Thus, in the equivalence analysis, while the CBDC introduction has no real effects on the economy, it does not guarantee full neutrality as it affects banks' business models. In a dynamic model extension, we analyze the effects of an increase in the CBDC and show that the CBDC not only does not cause bank disintermediation or crowd out of deposits but may foster an expansion of bank credit to firms., Comment: 40 pages, 8 figures

Hyperfine spectra of $^\text{27-32}$Al ($Z=13$) have been measured at the ISOLDE-CERN facility via collinear laser spectroscopy using the $3s^23p\ ^2\text{P}^\text{o} _{3/2}\rightarrow 3s^24s\ ^2\text{S}_{1/2}$ atomic transition. For the first time, mean-square charge radii of radioactive aluminum isotopes have been determined alongside the previously unknown magnetic dipole moment of $^{29}$Al and electric quadrupole moments of $^{29,30}$Al. A potentially reduced charge radius at $N=19$ may suggest an effect of the $N=20$ shell closure, which is visible in the Al chain, contrary to other isotopic chains in the $sd$ shell. The experimental results are compared to theoretical calculations in the framework of the valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group using multiple sets of two and three-nucleon forces from chiral effective field theory. While the trend of experimental magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments is well reproduced, the absolute values are underestimated by theory, consistent with earlier studies. Moreover, both the scale and trend of the charge radii appear to be very sensitive to the chosen interaction.

The thin film configuration presents obvious practical advantages over the 1D implementation in energy harvesting systems such as easily manufacturing and processing and long lasting and stable devices. However, most of the ZnO-based piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) reported so far relay in the exploitation of single-crystalline ZnO nanowires because their self-orientation in the c-axis and ability to accommodate long deformations resulting in a high piezoelectric performance. Herein, we show an innovative approach aiming to produce PENGs by combining polycrystalline ZnO layers fabricated at room temperature by plasma assisted deposition with supported small-molecule organic nanowires (ONWs) acting as 1D scaffold. The resulting hybrid nanostructure is formed by a single-crystalline organic nanowire conformally surrounded by a three dimensional (3D) ZnO shell that combines the mechanical properties of the organic core with the piezoelectric response of the ZnO layer. In a loop forward towards the integration of multiple functions within a single wire, we have also developed ONW@Au@ZnO nanowires including a gold shell acting as inner nanoscopic electrode. Thus, we have built and compare thin films and 3D core@shell ONW@ZnO and ONW@Au@ZnO PENGs showing output piezo-voltages up to 170 mV. The synergistic combination of functionalities in the ONW@Au@ZnO devices promotes an enhanced performance generating piezo-currents almost twenty times larger than the ONW@ZnO nanowires and superior to the thin film nanogenerators for equivalent and higher thicknesses., Comment: 18 pages, 1 Scheme, 2 Figures, 3 Figures in Supporting Information Section

The relativistic multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock (MCDHF) and the non-relativistic multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock (MCHF) methods have been employed to calculate the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole hyperfine structure constants of zinc. The calculated electric field gradients for the $ 4s 4p \,\, ^3 \! P^o_{1} $ and $ 4s 4p \,\, ^3 \! P^o_{2} $ states, together with experimental values of the electric quadrupole hyperfine structure constants, made it possible to extract a nuclear electric quadrupole moment $ Q(^{67}{\rm Zn}) = 0.122(10) $ b. The error bar has been evaluated in a quasi-statistical approach - the calculations had been carried out with eleven different methods, and then the error bar has been estimated from the differences between the results obtained with those methods., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure

Relativistic atomic structure calculations are carried out in alkaline-earth-metal ions using a semiempirical-core-potential approach. The systems are partitioned into frozen-core electrons and an active valence electron. The core orbitals are defined by a Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculation using the grasp2k package. The valence electron is described by a Dirac-like Hamiltonian involving a core-polarization potential to simulate the core-valence electron correlation. The associated equation is solved with the Lagrange-mesh method, which is an approximate variational approach having the form of a mesh calculation because of the use of a Gauss quadrature to calculate matrix elements. Properties involving the low-lying metastable $^2D_{3/2,5/2}$ states of Ca$^{+}$, Sr$^{+}$, and Ba$^{+}$ are studied, such as polarizabilities, one- and two-photon decay rates, and lifetimes. Good agreement is found with other theory and observation, which is promising for further applications in alkali-like systems., Comment: 15 pages, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

The present work reports results from systematic multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations of electronic isotope shift factors for a set of transitions between low-lying states in neutral zinc. These electronic quantities together with observed isotope shifts between different pairs of isotopes provide the changes in mean-square charge radii of the atomic nuclei. Within this computational approach, different models for electron correlation are explored in a systematic way to determine a reliable computational strategy and to estimate theoretical error bars of the isotope shift factors., Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1610.09233, arXiv:1604.07594

The present work reports results from systematic multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations of electronic isotope shift factors for a set of transitions between low-lying states in neutral aluminium. These electronic quantities together with observed isotope shifts between different pairs of isotopes provide the changes in mean-square charge radii of the atomic nuclei. Two computational approaches are adopted for the estimation of the mass- and field shift factors. Within these approaches, different models for electron correlation are explored in a systematic way to determine a reliable computational strategy and estimate theoretical error bars of the isotope shift factors., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1604.07594

We present measurements of polarization lensing using the 150 GHz maps which include all data taken by the BICEP2 & Keck Array CMB polarization experiments up to and including the 2014 observing season (BK14). Despite their modest angular resolution ($\sim 0.5^\circ$), the excellent sensitivity ($\sim 3\mu$K-arcmin) of these maps makes it possible to directly reconstruct the lensing potential using only information at larger angular scales ($\ell\leq 700$). From the auto-spectrum of the reconstructed potential we measure an amplitude of the spectrum to be $A^{\phi\phi}_{\rm L}=1.15\pm 0.36$ (Planck $\Lambda$CDM prediction corresponds to $A^{\phi\phi}_{\rm L}=1$), and reject the no-lensing hypothesis at 5.8$\sigma$, which is the highest significance achieved to date using an EB lensing estimator. Taking the cross-spectrum of the reconstructed potential with the Planck 2015 lensing map yields $A^{\phi\phi}_{\rm L}=1.13\pm 0.20$. These direct measurements of $A^{\phi\phi}_{\rm L}$ are consistent with the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, and with that derived from the previously reported BK14 B-mode auto-spectrum ($A^{\rm BB}_{\rm L}=1.20\pm 0.17$). We perform a series of null tests and consistency checks to show that these results are robust against systematics and are insensitive to analysis choices. These results unambiguously demonstrate that the B-modes previously reported by BICEP / Keck at intermediate angular scales ($150\lesssim\ell\lesssim 350$) are dominated by gravitational lensing. The good agreement between the lensing amplitudes obtained from the lensing reconstruction and B-mode spectrum starts to place constraints on any alternative cosmological sources of B-modes at these angular scales., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures

Relativistic dipolar to hexadecapolar polarizabilities of the ground state and some excited states of hydrogenic atoms are calculated by using numerically exact energies and wave functions obtained from the Dirac equation with the Lagrange-mesh method. This approach is an approximate variational method taking the form of equations on a grid because of the use of a Gauss quadrature approximation. The partial polarizabilities conserving the absolute value of the quantum number $\kappa$ are also numerically exact with small numbers of mesh points. The ones where $|\kappa|$ changes are very accurate when using three different meshes for the initial and final wave functions and for the calculation of matrix elements. The polarizabilities of the $n=2$ excited states of hydrogenic atoms are also studied with a separate treatment of the final states that are degenerate at the nonrelativistic approximation. The method provides high accuracies for polarizabilities of a particle in a Yukawa potential and is applied to a hydrogen atom embedded in a Debye plasma., Comment: 3 figures, published in Physical Review A. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1512.02815

The present work reports results from systematic multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations of isotope shifts for several well-known transitions in neutral magnesium. Relativistic normal and specific mass shift factors as well as the electronic probability density at the origin are calculated. Combining these electronic quantities with available nuclear data, energy and transition level shifts are determined for the $^{26}$Mg$-^{24}$Mg pair of isotopes. Different models for electron correlation are adopted. It is shown that although valence and core-valence models provide accurate values for the isotope shifts, the inclusion of core-core excitations in the computational strategy significantly improves the accuracy of the transition energies and normal mass shift factors., Comment: 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review A

Relativistic two-photon decay rates of the $2s_{1/2}$ and $2p_{1/2}$ states towards the $1s_{1/2}$ ground state of hydrogenic atoms are calculated by using numerically exact energies and wave functions obtained from the Dirac equation with the Lagrange-mesh method. This approach is an approximate variational method taking the form of equations on a grid because of the use of a Gauss quadrature approximation. Highly accurate values are obtained by a simple calculation involving different meshes for the initial, final and intermediate wave functions and for the calculation of matrix elements. The accuracy of the results with a Coulomb potential is improved by several orders of magnitude in comparison with benchmark values of the literature. The general requirement of gauge invariance is also successfully tested, down to rounding errors. The method provides high accuracies for two-photon decay rates of a particle in other potentials and is applied to a hydrogen atom embedded in a Debye plasma simulated by a Yukawa potential., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A