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A recent composite-dark-matter scenario assumes that the dominant fraction of dark matter consists of O-helium (OHe) dark atoms, in which a lepton-like doubly charged particle O is bound with a primordial helium nucleus. It liberates the physics of dark matter from unknown features of new physics, but it demands a deep understanding of the details of known nuclear and atomic physics, which are still unclear. Here, we consider in detail the physics of the binding of OHe to various nuclei of interest for direct dark matter searches. We show that standard quantum mechanics leads to bound states in the keV region, but does not seem to provide a simple mechanism that stabilizes them. The crucial role of a barrier in the OHe-nucleus potential is confirmed for such a stabilization.
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The primordial abundance of 7Li as predicted by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) is more than a factor 2 larger than what has been observed in metal-poor halo stars. Herein, we analyze the possibility that this discrepancy originates from incorrect assumptions about the nuclear reaction cross sections relevant for BBN. To do this, we introduce an efficient method to calculate the changes in the 7Li abundance produced by arbitrary (temperature dependent) modifications of the nuclear reaction rates. Then, considering that 7Li is mainly produced from 7Be via the electron capture process 7Be + e -> 7Li + nu_e, we assess the impact of the various channels of 7Be destruction. Differently from previous analysis, we consider the role of unknown resonances by using a complete formalism which takes into account the effect of Coulomb and centrifugal barrier penetration and that does not rely on the use of the narrow-resonance approximation. As a result of this, the possibility of a nuclear physics solution to the 7Li problem is significantly suppressed. Given the present experimental and theoretical constraints, it is unlikely that the 7Be + n destruction rate is underestimated by the 2.5 factor required to solve the problem. We exclude, moreover, that resonant destruction in the channels 7Be + t and 7Be + 3He can explain the 7Li puzzle. New unknown resonances in 7Be + d and 7Be + alpha could potentially produce significant effects. Recent experimental results have ruled out such a possibility for 7Be+d. On the other hand, for the 7Be + alpha channel very favorable conditions are required. The possible existence of a partially suitable resonant level in 11C is studied in the framework of a coupled-channel model and the possibility of a direct measurement is considered.
We review recent lattice QCD activities with emphasis on the impact on nuclear physics. In particular, the progress toward the determination of nuclear and baryonic forces (potentials) using Nambu-Bethe-Salpeter (NBS) wave functions is presented. We discuss major challenges for multi-baryon systems on the lattice: (i) signal to noise issue and (ii) computational cost issue. We argue that the former issue can be avoided by extracting energy-independent (non-local) potentials from time-dependent NBS wave functions without relying on the ground state saturation, and the latter cost is drastically reduced by developing a novel unified contraction algorithm. The lattice QCD results for nuclear forces, hyperon forces and three-nucleon forces are presented, and physical insights are discussed. Comparison to results from the traditional Lueschers method is given, and open issues to be resolved are addressed as well.
The Gamma Factory (GF) is an ambitious proposal, currently explored within the CERN Physics Beyond Colliders program, for a source of photons with energies up to $approx 400,$MeV and photon fluxes (up to $approx 10^{17}$ photons per second) exceeding those of the currently available gamma sources by orders of magnitude. The high-energy (secondary) photons are produced via resonant scattering of the primary laser photons by highly relativistic partially-stripped ions circulating in the accelerator. The secondary photons are emitted in a narrow cone and the energy of the beam can be monochromatized, eventually down to the $approx1$ ppm level, via collimation, at the expense of the photon flux. This paper surveys the new opportunities that may be afforded by the GF in nuclear physics and related fields.
Effective field theory is a powerful organizing principle that allows to describe physics below a certain scale model-independently. Above that energy scale, identified with the cutoff, the EFT description breaks down and new physics is expected to appear, as confirmed in many familiar examples in quantum field theory. In this work, we examine the validity of effective field theory methods applied to inflation. We address the issue of whether Planck-suppressed non-renormalizable interactions are suppressed enough to be safely neglected when computing inflationary predictions. We focus on non-derivative non-renormalizable operators and estimate the cutoff that should suppress them using two independent approaches: (i) the usual unitarity and perturbativity argument, (ii) by computing the UV-divergent part of the inflaton entropy, known to scale as the square of the UV-cutoff. We find that in the absence of gravity (decoupling limit) the cutoff appears to depends linearly on the total inflaton excursion. On the other hand, once gravity is restored, the cutoff is brought back to the Planck scale. These results suggest that inflationary scenarios with super-Planckian excursion are not natural from the EFT viewpoint.
Dark Matter constitutes most of the matter in the presently accepted cosmological model for our Universe. The extreme conditions of ordinary baryonic matter, namely high density and compactness, in Neutron Stars make these objects suitable to gravitationally accrete such a massive component provided interaction strength between both, luminous and dark sectors, at current experimental level of sensitivity. We consider several different DM phenomenological models from the myriad of those presently allowed. In this contribution we review astrophysical aspects of interest in the interplay of ordinary matter and a fermionic light Dark Matter component. We focus in the interior nuclear medium in the core and external layers, i.e. the crust, discussing the impact of a novel dark sector in relevant stellar quantities for (heat) energy transport such as thermal conductivity or emissivities.
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