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Let $G$ be a finite group, $p$ a prime number and $P$ a Sylow $p$-subgroup of $G$. Recently, G. Malle, G. Navarro, and P. H. Tiep conjectured that the number of $p$-Brauer characters of $G$ coincides with that of the normaliser ${\bf N}_G(P)$ if and only if $P$ is normal in $G$. We reduce this conjecture to a question about finite simple groups and prove it for the prime $p = 2$. As a by-product of our work, we prove a reduction theorem for the blockwise version of Alperin's lower bound on $p$-Brauer characters and prove it for $2$-blocks of maximal defect. This improves recent results obtained by Malle, Navarro, and Tiep.

This paper presents a thermal characterization of salt mixtures applying the T-History Method and the Differential Scanning Calorimetry DSC techniques. By using water as a standard substance, the original T-History method was developed to analyze materials with melting points under 100 Celsius. This is the first research that proposes to replace water by glycerin to characterize medium melting temperature PCMs from 140 to 220 Celsius. Moreover, the DSC technique was used to validate and compare the results obtained with the T-history method for each mixture. For instance, the system compound of 40 KNO$_3$ to 60 NaNO$_3$ was studied, and the enthalpy of fusion determined by THM and DSC differs by 2.1% between each method. The results given by the two methods for all mixtures showed that both techniques are complementary and present satisfactory agreement with the specialized literature., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, research article

The objective of this study is to analyze the CO2 emissions and economic impacts of the implementation of the National Efficient Cooking Program (NECP) in Ecuador, which aims to migrate the population from Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)-based stoves to electric induction stoves. This program is rooted in the current effort to change Ecuador's energy balance, with hydroelectric power expected to generate 83.61% of national electricity by 2022, ending the need for subsidized LPG. For this analysis, the 2014 baseline situation has been compared with two future scenarios for 2022: a business-as-usual scenario and an NECP-success scenario. This study demonstrates the viability of migration from imported fossil fuels to locally-produced renewable energy as the basis for an efficient cooking facility. The new policies scenario would save US$ 1.162 billion in annual government expenditure on cooking subsidies, and reducing CO2 emissions associated to energy for cooking in 1.8 tCO2/y., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 4 table, research article

The development of dispersion of nanoparticles in the W-1%Y$_2$O$_3$ and W-1%La$_2$O$_3$ (wt%) alloys processed by hot isostatic pressing has been investigated using small angle neutron scattering. The mode values of these centers are found at 10 and 40 nm in W-1%Y$_2$O$_3$, and 15 and 80 nm in W-1%La$_2$O$_3$. The scanning electron microscopy analyses showed the presence of small second phase particles. The contribution of the pore space to the scattering curves has been analyzed using the results obtained for pure W processed following the same procedure used for the alloys, and the porosity measurements of the samples., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, research article

We study rationality properties of irreducible characters of finite groups. We show that the continuity of $2$-rationality is a phenomenon that can be detected in the principal $2$-block, thus refining a recent result of N. N. Hung. We also propose a conjectural group theoretical criterion for the continuity gap at level $1$ for all primes

We continue our investigation of cardinal sequences associated with locally Lindelof, scattered, Hausdorff P-spaces (abbreviated as LLSP spaces). We outline a method for constructing LLSP spaces from cone systems and partial orders with specific properties. Additionally, we establish limitations on the cardinal sequences of LLSP spaces. Finally, we present both a necessary condition and a distinct sufficient condition for a sequence $\langle \kappa_\alpha: \alpha < \omega_2 \rangle$ to be the cardinal sequence of an LLSP space.

Let $p$ and $q$ be different primes and let $G$ be a finite $q$-solvable group. We prove that $\mathrm{Irr}_{p'}(G)\subseteq \mathrm{Irr}_{q'}(G)$ if and only if $\mathbf{N}_G(P)\subseteq \mathbf{N}_G(Q)$ and $\mathbf{C}_{Q'}(P)=1$ for some $P\in\mathrm{Syl}_p(G)$ and $Q\in\mathrm{Syl}_q(G)$. Further, if $B$ is a $q$-block of $G$ and $p$ does not divide the degree of any character in $\mathrm{Irr}(B)$ then we prove that a Sylow $p$-subgroup of $G$ is normalized by a defect group of $B$. This removes the $p$-solvability condition of two theorems of G. Navarro and T. R. Wolf., Comment: 6 pages

We obtain CO(1-0) molecular gas measurements with ATCA on a sample of 43 spectroscopically confirmed H$\alpha$ emitters in the Spiderweb protocluster at $z=2.16$ and investigate the relation between their star formation and cold gas reservoirs as a function of environment. We achieve a CO(1-0) detection rate of $\sim23\pm12\%$ with 10 dual CO(1-0) and H$\alpha$ detections at $10<\log M_{*}/M_\odot<11.5$. In addition, we obtain upper limits for the remaining sources. In terms of total gas fractions ($F_{gas}$), our sample is divided into two different regimes with a steep transition at $\log M_{*}/M_\odot\approx10.5$. Galaxies below that threshold have gas fractions that in some cases are close to unity, indicating that their gas reservoir has been replenished by inflows from the cosmic web. However, objects at $\log M_{*}/M_\odot>10.5$ display significantly lower gas fractions and are dominated by AGN (12 out of 20). Stacking results yield $F_{gas}\approx0.55$ for massive emitters excluding AGN, and $F_{gas}\approx0.35$ when examining only AGN candidates. Furthermore, depletion times show that most H$\alpha$ emitters may become passive by $1

We present spectroscopic properties of 22 Lyman-alpha emitters(LAEs) at z=5.5-6.6 with Lyman-alpha(Lya) luminosity log($L_{Lya}$[$ergs^{-1}$])=42.4-43.5, obtained using VLT/MUSE as part of the Middle Ages Galaxy Properties with Integral Field Spectroscopy(MAGPI) survey. Additionally, we incorporate broad-band photometric data from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam(HSC) for 17 LAEs in our sample. The HSC-y band magnitudes show that our LAEs are UV-bright, with rest-frame absolute UV magnitudes -19.7 < $M_{UV}$ < -23.3. We find that the Lya line width increases with luminosity, and this trend becomes more prominent at z > 6 where Lya lines become significantly broadened (> 260 $kms^{-1}$) at luminosities log($L_{Lya}$[$ergs^{-1}$]) > 43. This broadening is consistent with previous studies, suggesting that these sources are located inside larger ionized bubbles. We observe a slightly elevated ionizing photon production efficiency estimated for LAEs at z > 6, indicating that younger galaxies could be producing more ionizing photons per UV luminosity. A tentative anti-correlation between ionizing photon production efficiency and Lya rest-frame equivalent width is noticed, which could indicate a time delay between production and escape of ionizing photon primarily due to supernovae activity. Furthermore, we find a positive correlation between bubble radius and Lya line width, which again suggests that large ionized bubbles are created around these LAEs, allowing them to self-shield from the scattering effects of the intergalactic medium (IGM). We also detect two closely separated LAEs at z=6.046 (projected spatial separation is 15.92 kpc). The size of their respective bubbles suggests that they likely sit inside a common large ionized region. Such a closely-separated LAE pair increases the size of ionized bubble, potentially allowing a boosted transmission of Lya through neutral IGM. (Abridged), Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in PASA

The internal structure of the lowest-lying pseudo-scalar mesons with heavy-light quark content is thoroughly studied using an algebraic model that has been successfully applied to similar physical observables of pseudoscalar and vector mesons with hidden-flavor quark content, ranging from light to heavy quark sectors. This model is based on constructing simple and evidence-based ans\"atze for the mesons' Bethe-Salpeter amplitude (BSA) and quark propagator, allowing the Bethe-Salpeter wave function (BSWF) to be computed algebraically. Its projection onto the light front yields the corresponding light-front wave function (LFWF), which provides easy access to the valence-quark Parton Distribution Amplitude (PDA) by integrating over the transverse momentum squared. We leverage our current knowledge of the PDAs of the lowest-lying pseudo-scalar heavy-light mesons to compute their Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) via the overlap representation of the LFWFs. From this three-dimensional information, various limits and projections allow us to deduce the related Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs), Electromagnetic Form Factors (EFFs), and Impact Parameter Space GPDs (IPS-GPDs). Whenever possible, we make explicit comparisons with available experimental results and previous theoretical predictions., Comment: Submitted to the proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP2024), PoS format

Near-infrared (NIR) emission is less affected by dust than UV and optical emission and is therefore useful for studying the properties of dust-obscured galaxies. Although rest-frame NIR observations of high-redshift galaxies have long been made using space telescopes, their structures were unresolved due to the lack of angular resolution. This letter reports the early results from the analysis of high-resolution Pa$\beta$ imaging of the Spiderweb protocluster at $z=2.16$ with the JWST Near Infrared Camera. We investigate radial profiles of Pa$\beta$ lines and rest-frame NIR continua from luminous H$\alpha$-emitting galaxies (HAEs) in the protocluster. Particularly, we compare those of 11 HAEs (N-HAEs) on the star-forming main sequence with those of 8 HAEs (X-HAEs) with X-ray AGNs. Resultant composite Pa$\beta$ line images of N-HAEs indicate significant star formation in galactic disks. In contrast, X-HAEs are dominated by point source components rather than outer star formation, as inferred from our earlier work based on multi-wavelength SED fitting. Given their higher stellar potentials suggested from their rest-frame NIR images, the different characteristics may be driven by the impact of AGN feedback., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures; Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters

We report the results of the deep and wide Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.2 mm mapping of the Spiderweb protocluster at $z=2.16$. The observations were divided into six contiguous fields covering a survey area of 19.3\,arcmin$^2$. With $\sim$13h on-source time, the final maps in the six fields reach the 1$\sigma$ rms noise in a range of $40.3-57.1 \mu$Jy at a spatial resolution of $0.5-0.9$ arcsec. By using different source extraction codes and careful visual inspection, we detect 47 ALMA sources at a significance higher than 4$\sigma$. We construct the differential and cumulative number counts down to $\sim0.2$ mJy after the correction for purity and completeness obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. The ALMA 1.2 mm number counts of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) in the Spiderweb protocluster are overall two times that of general fields, some fields/regions showing even higher overdensities (more than a factor of 3). This is consistent with the results from previous studies over a larger scale using single-dish instruments. Comparison of the spatial distributions between different populations indicates that our ALMA sources are likely drawn from the same distribution as CO(1-0) emitters from the COALAS large program, but distinct from that of H$\alpha$ emitters. The cosmic SFR density of the ALMA sources is consistent with previous results (e.g. LABOCA 870 $\mu$m observations) after accounting for the difference in volume. We show that molecular gas masses estimates from dust measurements are not consistent with the ones derived from CO(1-0) and thus have to be taken with caution. The multiplicity fraction of single-dish DSFGs is higher than that of the field. Moreover, two extreme concentrations of ALMA sources are found on the outskirts of the Spiderweb protocluster, with an excess of more than 12 times that of general fields., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A

We report the initial result of our Pa$\beta$ narrowband imaging on a protocluster with the JWST Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam). As NIRCam enables deep narrowband imaging of rest-frame NIR lines at $z>1$, we target one of the most studied protoclusters, the Spiderweb protocluster at $z=2.16$, in which previous studies have confirmed more than a hundred member galaxies. The NIRCam F405N narrowband filter covers in Pa$\beta$ line the protocluster redshift given by known protocluster members, allowing the search for new member candidates. The weight-corrected color-magnitude diagram obtained 57 sources showing narrowband excesses, 41 of which satisfy further color selection criteria for limiting the sample to Pa$\beta$ emitter candidates at $z\sim2.16$, and 24 of them do not have H$\alpha$ emitter counterparts. The Pa$\beta$ emitter candidates appear to follow the spatial distribution of known protocluster members; however, follow-up spectroscopic confirmation is required. Only 17 out of 58 known H$\alpha$-emitting cluster members are selected as Pa$\beta$ emitters in the current data, albeit the rest fall out of the narrowband selection owing to their small Pa$\beta$ equivalent widths. We derive Pa$\beta$ luminosity function in the Spiderweb protocluster, showing a normalization density of $\log{\phi^\ast}=-2.53\pm0.15$ at a characteristic Pa$\beta$ luminosity of $\log{L^\ast}=42.33\pm0.17$. Furthermore, we examine the possibility of detecting faint line emitters visible only in the narrow-band image, but find no promising candidates., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables; Accepted for publication in ApJ

The Electron-Ion Collider, a next generation electron-hadron and electron-nuclei scattering facility, will be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The wealth of new data will shape research in hadron physics, from nonperturbative QCD techniques to perturbative QCD improvements and global QCD analyses, for the decades to come. With the present proposal, Latin America based physicists, whose expertise lies on the theory and phenomenology side, make the case for the past and future efforts of a growing community, working hand-in-hand towards developing theoretical tools and predictions to analyze, interpret and optimize the results that will be obtained at the EIC, unveiling the role of the glue that binds us all. This effort is along the lines of various initiatives taken in the U.S., and supported by colleagues worldwide, such as the ones by the EIC User Group which were highlighted during the Snowmass Process and the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5)., Comment: White Paper contribution to the Latin American Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructure (III LASF4RI

The computation of the domination-type parameters is a challenging problem in Cartesian product graphs. We present an algorithmic method to compute the $2$-domination number of the Cartesian product of a path with small order and any cycle, involving the $(\min,+)$ matrix product. We establish some theoretical results that provide the algorithms necessary to compute that parameter, and the main challenge to run such algorithms comes from the large size of the matrices used, which makes it necessary to improve the techniques to handle these objects. We analyze the performance of the algorithms on modern multicore CPUs and on GPUs and we show the advantages over the sequential implementation. The use of these platforms allows us to compute the $2$-domination number of cylinders such that their paths have at most $12$ vertices.

The Roman domination in a graph $G$ is a variant of the classical domination, defined by means of a so-called Roman domination function $f\colon V(G)\to \{0,1,2\}$ such that if $f(v)=0$ then, the vertex $v$ is adjacent to at least one vertex $w$ with $f(w)=2$. The weight $f(G)$ of a Roman dominating function of $G$ is the sum of the weights of all vertices of $G$, that is, $f(G)=\sum_{u\in V(G)}f(u)$. The Roman domination number $\gamma_R(G)$ is the minimum weight of a Roman dominating function of $G$. In this paper we propose algorithms to compute this parameter involving the $(\min,+)$ powers of large matrices with high computational requirements and the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) allows us to accelerate such operations. Specific routines have been developed to efficiently compute the $(\min ,+)$ product on GPU architecture, taking advantage of its computational power. These algorithms allow us to compute the Roman domination number of cylindrical graphs $P_m\Box C_n$ i.e., the Cartesian product of a path and a cycle, in cases $m=7,8,9$, $ n\geq 3$ and $m\geq $10$, n\equiv 0\pmod 5$. Moreover, we provide a lower bound for the remaining cases $m\geq 10, n\not\equiv 0\pmod 5$.

The two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) found in KTaO3-based interfaces has garnered attention due to its remarkable electronic properties. In this study, we investigated the conducting system embedded at the Si3N4/Al//KTO(110) heterostructure. We demonstrate that the Al/KTO interface supports a conducting system, with the Si3N4 passivation layer acting as a barrier to oxygen diffusion, enabling ex-situ characterization. Our findings reveal that the mobility and carrier density of the system can be tuned by varying the Al layer thickness. Using scanning transmission electron microscopy, electron energy-loss spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, we characterized the structural and chemical composition of the interface. We found that the Al layer fully oxidizes into AlOx, drawing oxygen from the KTaO3 substrate. The oxygen depletion zone extends 3-5 nm into the substrate and correlates to the Al thickness. Heterostructures with thicker Al layers exhibit higher carrier densities but lower mobilities, likely due to interactions with the oxygen vacancies that act as scattering centers. These findings highlight the importance of considering the effect and extent of the oxygen depletion zone when designing and modeling two-dimensional electron systems in complex oxides.

A novel method to reconstruct the energy of hadronic showers in the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) is presented. The HGCAL is a sampling calorimeter with very fine transverse and longitudinal granularity. The active media are silicon sensors and scintillator tiles readout by SiPMs and the absorbers are a combination of lead and Cu/CuW in the electromagnetic section, and steel in the hadronic section. The shower reconstruction method is based on graph neural networks and it makes use of a dynamic reduction network architecture. It is shown that the algorithm is able to capture and mitigate the main effects that normally hinder the reconstruction of hadronic showers using classical reconstruction methods, by compensating for fluctuations in the multiplicity, energy, and spatial distributions of the shower's constituents. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using test beam data collected in 2018 prototype of the CMS HGCAL accompanied by a section of the CALICE AHCAL prototype. The capability of the method to mitigate the impact of energy leakage from the calorimeter is also demonstrated.

We perform a detailed study of the $\Upsilon$-, $\eta_b$- and $B_c$-nucleus systems in momentum space to calculate the bound-state energies and the corresponding coordinate space radial wave functions. A comparison is made among different methods to obtain the partial wave decomposition of meson-nucleus potentials in momentum space, namely, (i) the spherical Bessel transform of the numerically obtained original potential in coordinate space, (ii) the partial wave decomposition of the Fourier transform of the Woods-Saxon approximated form for the original potential, and (iii) the spherical Bessel transform of the Woods-Saxon approximation of the numerically obtained original potential. The strong nuclear bound-state energies for the $\Upsilon$-$^{4}$He, $\Upsilon$-$^{12}$C, $\eta_b$-$^{4}$He, $\eta_b$-$^{12}$C, $B_c$-$^{4}$He (no Coulomb), and $B_c$-$^{12}$C (no Coulomb) systems and the corresponding wave functions in coordinate space are compared for the three methods. Furthermore, as an initial and realistic study, the $B_c^{\pm}$-$^{12}$C bound states are studied for the first time, with the effects of self-consistently calculated Coulomb potentials in $^{12}$C (when the $B_c^{\pm}$ mesons are absent)., Comment: 19 pages, 23 figures (69 .eps files for figures)

Most microphones operate by detecting the sound-pressure induced motion of a membrane. In contrast, here we introduce a microphone that operates by monitoring the sound-pressure-induced modulation of the compressibility of air. By driving a graphene membrane at its resonance frequency, the gas, that is trapped in a squeeze-film beneath it, is compressed at high frequency. Since the stiffness of the gas film depend on the air pressure, the resonance frequency of the graphene is modulated by variations in sound pressure. We demonstrate that this squeeze-film microphone principle can be used to detect sound and music by tracking the membrane's resonance frequency using a phase-locked loop (PLL). Since the sound detection principle is different from conventional devices, the squeeze-film microphone potentially offers advantages like increased dynamic range, and a lower susceptibility to pressure-induced failure and vibration-induced noise. Moreover, it might be made much smaller, as demonstrated by the microphone in this work that operates using a circular graphene membrane with an area that is more than a factor 1000 smaller than that of MEMS microphones., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

We study the new $Z'$ boson as a portal for the production of Higgs bosons $h_0$ and $H_0$ predicted by the Bestest Little Higgs Model through the Higgs-strahlung processes $\mu^+\mu^- \to (Z, Z') \to Zh_0, ZH_0$. We focus on the resonance and non-resonance effects of the $Zh_0, ZH_0$ signals. In our analysis, we consider the center-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s}=3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 30$ TeV and integrated luminosities of ${\cal L}=2, 4, 6, 10, 30$ ${\rm ab^{-1}}$ projected for a future muon collider. The possibility of performing precision measurements for the Higgs bosons $h_0$ and $H_0$ is very promising at the future muon collider. Furthermore, our results may be helpful to the High Energy Physics community. Complementarily, we generate and provide the Feynman rules necessary for studying the processes $\mu^+\mu^- \to (Z, Z') \to Zh_0, ZH_0$., Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures

We introduce and characterize the operational diversity order (ODO) in fading channels, as a proxy to the classical notion of diversity order at any arbitrary operational signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Thanks to this definition, relevant insights are brought up in a number of cases: (i) We quantify that in dominant line-of-sight scenarios an increased diversity order is attainable compared to that achieved asymptotically, even in the single-antenna case; (ii) this effect is attenuated, but still visible, in the presence of an additional dominant specular component; (iii) the decay slope in Rayleigh product channels increases very slowly, never fully achieving unitary slope for a finite SNR.

Let p be a prime. In this paper we provide a lower bound for the number of almost p-rational characters of degree coprime to p in the principal p-block of a finite group of order divisible by p. We further describe the p-local structure of the groups for which the above-mentioned bound is sharp., Comment: To appear in Publicacions Matem\`atiques

Recently, G. Navarro introduced a new conjecture that unifies the Alperin Weight Conjecture and the Glauberman correspondence into a single statement. In this paper, we reduce this problem to simple groups and prove it for several classes of groups and blocks. Our reduction can be divided into two steps. First, we show that assuming the so-called Inductive (Blockwise) Alperin Weight Condition for finite simple groups, we obtain an analogous statement for arbitrary finite groups, that is, an automorphism-equivariant version of the Alperin Weight Conjecture inducing isomorphisms of modular character triples. Then, we show that the latter implies Navarro's conjecture for each finite group., Comment: Corrected some typos

The internal structure of all lowest-lying pseudo-scalar mesons with heavy-light quark content is studied in detail using an algebraic model that has been applied recently, and successfully, to the same physical observables of pseudo-scalar and vector mesons with hidden-flavor quark content, from light to heavy quark sectors. The algebraic model consists on constructing simple and evidence-based \emph{ans\"atze} of the meson's Bethe-Salpeter amplitude (BSA) and quark's propagator in such a way that the Bethe-Salpeter wave function (BSWF) can then be readily computed algebraically. Its subsequent projection onto the light front yields the light front wave function (LFWF) whose form allows us a simple access to the valence-quark Parton Distribution Amplitude (PDA) by integrating over the transverse momentum squared. We exploit our current knowledge of the PDAs of lowest-lying pseudo-scalar heavy-light mesons to compute their Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) through the overlap representation of LFWFs. From these three dimensional knowledge, different limits/projections lead us to deduce the related Parton Distribution functions (PDFs), Electromagnetic Form Factors (EFFs), and Impact parameter space GPDs (IPS-GPDs). When possible, we make explicit comparisons with available experimental results and earlier theoretical predictions., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures

We present updated and extended results for the $\eta$- and $\eta'$-nucleus bound state energies, obtained by solving the Schr\"{o}dinger and Klein-Gordon equations with complex optical potentials, for a wide range of nuclei. The $\eta$ and $\eta'$ nuclear potentials are obtained in the local density approximation from the mass shift of these mesons in nuclear matter, which is calculated within the quark-meson coupling model. Our results show that the $\eta$ and $\eta'$ mesons are expected to form mesic nuclei with all the nuclei considered. However, the signal for the formation of the $\eta$- and $\eta'$-mesic nuclei may be difficult to identify experimentally due to possible large widths., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables

Microlensing of stars in strongly lensed galaxies can lead to temporary extreme magnification factors ($\mu\!>\!1000$), enabling their detection at high redshifts. Following the discovery of Icarus, several stars at cosmological distances ($z\!>\!1$) have been observed using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This emerging field of gravitational lensing holds promise to study individual high redshift stars. Also offers the opportunity to study the substructure in the lens plane with implications for dark matter models, as more lensed stars are detected and analysed statistically. Due to the computational demands of simulating microlensing at large magnification factors, it is important to develop fast and accurate analytical approximations for the probability of magnification in such extreme scenarios. In this study, we consider different macro-model magnification and microlensing surface mass density scenarios and study how the probability of extreme magnification factors depends on these factors. To achieve this, we create state of the art large simulations of the microlensing effect in these scenarios. Through the analysis of these simulations, we derive analytical scaling relationships that can bypass the need for expensive numerical simulations. Our results are useful to interpret current observations of stars at cosmic distances which are extremely magnified and under the influence of microlenses., Comment: 24 pages, 29 figures

This document presents the initial scientific case for upgrading the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab (JLab) to 22 GeV. It is the result of a community effort, incorporating insights from a series of workshops conducted between March 2022 and April 2023. With a track record of over 25 years in delivering the world's most intense and precise multi-GeV electron beams, CEBAF's potential for a higher energy upgrade presents a unique opportunity for an innovative nuclear physics program, which seamlessly integrates a rich historical background with a promising future. The proposed physics program encompass a diverse range of investigations centered around the nonperturbative dynamics inherent in hadron structure and the exploration of strongly interacting systems. It builds upon the exceptional capabilities of CEBAF in high-luminosity operations, the availability of existing or planned Hall equipment, and recent advancements in accelerator technology. The proposed program cover various scientific topics, including Hadron Spectroscopy, Partonic Structure and Spin, Hadronization and Transverse Momentum, Spatial Structure, Mechanical Properties, Form Factors and Emergent Hadron Mass, Hadron-Quark Transition, and Nuclear Dynamics at Extreme Conditions, as well as QCD Confinement and Fundamental Symmetries. Each topic highlights the key measurements achievable at a 22 GeV CEBAF accelerator. Furthermore, this document outlines the significant physics outcomes and unique aspects of these programs that distinguish them from other existing or planned facilities. In summary, this document provides an exciting rationale for the energy upgrade of CEBAF to 22 GeV, outlining the transformative scientific potential that lies within reach, and the remarkable opportunities it offers for advancing our understanding of hadron physics and related fundamental phenomena., Comment: Updates to the list of authors; Preprint number changed from theory to experiment; Updates to sections 4 and 6, including additional figures

Let $G$ be a finite group, $p$ a prime and $B$ a Brauer $p$-block of $G$ with defect group $D$. We prove that if the number of irreducible ordinary characters in $B$ is $5$ then $D\cong C_5, C_7, D_8$ or $Q_8$, assuming that the Alperin--McKay conjecture holds for $B$.

The ability to control Poisson's ratio of functional materials has been one of the main objectives of researchers attempting to develop structures efficient from the perspective of protective, biomedical and soundproofing devices. This task becomes even more challenging at small scales, such as the microscale, where the possibility to control mechanical properties of functional materials is very significant, like in the case of flexible electronics. In this work, we propose novel microscopic 2D and 3D functionally-graded mechanical metamaterials capable of exhibiting a broad range of Poisson's ratio depending on their composition. More specifically, we show that upon adjusting the number of structural elements corresponding to one type of the substructure at the expense of another, it is possible to change the resultant Poisson's ratio of the entire system from highly positive to highly negative values as well as to achieve arbitrary intermediate values. Finally, in addition to static properties, we also analyze the dynamic properties of these structures. Namely, we show how the variation in the composition of the considered mechanical metamaterials affects the velocity of a wave propagating through the system. This, in turn, could be essential in the case of applications utilizing localized wave attenuation or sensors., Comment: This article was published in the journal Composite Structures: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2023.117151

We construct a contact interaction model for the $\eta$ and $\eta'$ mesons in the SDE-BSE approach to QCD and compute several static properties of these mesons and their transition form factors. We find that this model gives an excellent description of the $\eta$ and $\eta'$ static properties, namely their masses, decay width and decay constants. However, a contact interaction disagrees with experimental data for $Q^2$ greater than 2 GeV$^2$, and produces transition form factors in conflict with perturbative QCD prediction. This is not surpring and the reasons for this are explained, Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRD

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a second-generation continuously operated, wide field-of-view, TeV gamma-ray observatory. The HAWC observatory and its analysis techniques build on experience of the Milagro experiment in using ground-based water Cherenkov detectors for gamma-ray astronomy. HAWC is located on the Sierra Negra volcano in M\'exico at an elevation of 4100 meters above sea level. The completed HAWC observatory principal detector (HAWC) consists of 300 closely spaced water Cherenkov detectors, each equipped with four photomultiplier tubes to provide timing and charge information to reconstruct the extensive air shower energy and arrival direction. The HAWC observatory has been optimized to observe transient and steady emission from sources of gamma rays within an energy range from several hundred GeV to several hundred TeV. However, most of the air showers detected are initiated by cosmic rays, allowing studies of cosmic rays also to be performed. This paper describes the characteristics of the HAWC main array and its hardware., Comment: Accepted for publications in Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A (2023) 168253 ( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168900223002437 ); 39 pages, 14 Figures

We describe finite groups whose principal block contains only characters of prime power degree., Comment: Minor corrections

Inspired by the recent development of an algebraic model which provides an adequate and unified description of the internal structure of the lowest-lying pseudo-scalar mesons, belonging both to the light quarks sector and to the one of heavy quarks, we perform its first extension to the vector-meson case. The algebraic model describes meson's structure in terms of the spectral density function that appears in a Nakanishi integral representation of the covariant quark-antiquark bound-state amplitude, \emph{i.e.}, the Bethe-Salpeter amplitude. We compute the leading-twist light-front wave functions of the $\rho(770)$, $\phi(1020)$, $J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons through their connection with the parton distribution amplitudes. Among the results we present, the following are of particular interest: (i) transverse light-front wave functions can be obtained algebraically from the corresponding parton distribution amplitudes, whereas that is not the case for longitudinal light-front wave functions, which requires an intermediate step where a spectral density function must be derived from the particular parton distribution amplitude; (ii) the derived spectral density functions show marked differences between light and heavy vector mesons, the latter being narrower as compared to the former; these are also non-positive definite, although the integral over the entire curve is larger than zero as expected; and (iii) the longitudinal and transverse light-front wave functions of vector mesons with light quark content exhibit steep $x$- and $p_\perp^2$-dependence, while those of the $J/\psi$ and $\Upsilon(1S)$ mesons are characterized by narrow distributions in the $x$-range but, comparatively, much more gradual fall-offs with respect to the $p_\perp^2$-range depicted., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures and 4 tables. Version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

The ability to change significantly mechanical and wave propagation properties of a structure without rebuilding it has been one of the main challenges in the field of mechanical metamaterials. This stems from the enormous appeal that, especially in the case of micro-scale systems, such tunable behavior may offer from the perspective of applications ranging from biomedical to protective devices. In this work, a novel micro-scale mechanical metamaterial is proposed that can undergo a transition from one type of configuration to another, with one configuration having a very negative Poisson's ratio, corresponding to strong auxeticity, and the other having a highly positive Poisson's ratio. The formation of phononic band gaps, at the same time, can be controlled, which can be very useful in the design of vibration dampers and sensors. Finally, it is shown experimentally that reconfiguration of the system, leading to a change in its properties, can be induced and controlled remotely through application of a magnetic field, thanks to appropriately distributed magnetic inclusions., Comment: This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Advanced Materials: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202210993

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment prepares its Phase-2 upgrade for the high-luminosity era of the LHC operation (HL-LHC). Due to the increase of occupancy, trigger latency and rates, the full electronics of the CMS Drift Tube (DT) chambers will need to be replaced. In the new design, the time bin for the digitisation of the chamber signals will be of around 1~ns, and the totality of the signals will be forwarded asynchronously to the service cavern at full resolution. The new backend system will be in charge of building the trigger primitives of each chamber. These trigger primitives contain the information at chamber level about the muon candidates position, direction, and collision time, and are used as input in the L1 CMS trigger. The added functionalities will improve the robustness of the system against ageing. An algorithm based on analytical solutions for reconstructing the DT trigger primitives, called Analytical Method, has been implemented both as a software C++ emulator and in firmware. Its performance has been estimated using the software emulator with simulated and real data samples, and through hardware implementation tests. Measured efficiencies are 96 to 98\% for all qualities and time and spatial resolutions are close to the ultimate performance of the DT chambers. A prototype chain of the HL-LHC electronics using the Analytical Method for trigger primitive generation has been installed during Long Shutdown 2 of the LHC and operated in CMS cosmic data taking campaigns in 2020 and 2021. Results from this validation step, the so-called Slice Test, are presented., Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures

The ALICE-USA collaboration presents its plans for the 2023 U.S. Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science., Comment: 26 pages. 1 figure

We report an extended measurement of the neutron cross section on argon in the energy range of 95-720 MeV. The measurement was obtained with a 4.3-hour exposure of the Mini-CAPTAIN detector to the WNR/LANSCE beam at LANL. Compared to an earlier analysis of the same data, this extended analysis includes a reassessment of systematic uncertainties, in particular related to unused wires in the upstream part of the detector. Using this information we doubled the fiducial volume in the experiment and increased the statistics by a factor of 2.4. We also shifted the analysis from energy bins to time-of-flight bins. This change reduced the overall considered energy range, but improved the understanding of the energy spectrum of incoming neutrons in each bin. Overall, the new measurements are extracted from a fit to the attenuation of the neutron flux in five time-of-flight regions: 140 ns - 180 ns, 120 ns - 140 ns, 112 ns - 120 ns, 104 ns - 112 ns, 96 ns - 104 ns. The final cross sections are given for the flux-averaged energy in each time-of-flight bin: $\sigma(146~\rm{MeV})=0.60^{+0.14}_{-0.14}\pm0.08$(syst) b, $\sigma(236~\rm{MeV})=0.72^{+0.10}_{-0.10}\pm0.04$(syst) b, $\sigma(319~\rm{MeV})=0.80^{+0.13}_{-0.12}\pm0.040$(syst) b, $\sigma(404~\rm{MeV})=0.74^{+0.14}_{-0.09}\pm0.04$(syst) b, $\sigma(543~\rm{MeV})=0.74^{+0.09}_{-0.09}\pm0.04$(syst) b., Comment: 15 pages, 7 tables, 11 figures. Prepared for submission to PRD

In heavy-ion collisions, fluctuations of conserved charges are known to be sensitive observables to probe criticality for the QCD phase transition and to locate the position of the putative critical end point (CEP). In this work we seek to show that the Linear Sigma Model with quarks produces an effective description of the QCD phase diagram in which deviations from a Hadron Resonance Gas are due to plasma screening effects, encoded in the contribution of the ring diagrams. Accounting for these, it is possible to include in the description the effect of long-range correlations. To set the model parameters we use LQCD results for the crossover transition at vanishing chemical potential. Finally, studying baryon number fluctuations from the model, we show that the CEP can be located within the HADES and/or the lowest end of the NICA energy domain, $\sqrt{s_{NN}}\sim 2$ GeV., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics 2022

Let $G$ be a finite group and $\pi$ be a set of primes. We study finite groups with a large number of conjugacy classes of $\pi$-elements. In particular, we obtain precise lower bounds for this number in terms of the $\pi$-part of the order of $G$ to ensure the existence of a nilpotent or abelian Hall $\pi$-subgroup in $G$., Comment: 18 pages