MEDIUM EFFECTS ON CHARGED PION RATIO IN HEAVY ION COLLISIONS
We have recently studied in the delta-resonance–nucleon-hole model the dependence of the pion spectral function in hot dense asymmetric nuclear matter on the charge of the pion due to the pion p-wave interaction in nuclear medium. In a thermal model, this isospin-dependent effect enhances the ratio of negatively charged to positively charged pions in neutron-rich nuclear matter, and the effect is comparable to that due to the uncertainties in the theoretically predicted stiffness of nuclear symmetry energy at high densities. This effect is, however, reversed if we also take into account the s-wave interaction of the pion in nuclear medium as given by chiral perturbation theory, resulting instead in a slightly reduced ratio of negatively charged to positively charged pions. Relevance of our results to the determination of the nuclear symmetry energy from the ratio of negatively to positively charged pions produced in heavy ion collisions is discussed.

title: Locating the inner edge of the neutron star crust using terrestrial nuclear laboratory data
abstract: Within both dynamical and thermodynamical approaches using the equation of state for neutron-rich nuclear matter constrained by the recent isospin diffusion data from heavy-ion reactions in the same subsaturation density range as the neutron star crust, the density and pressure at the inner edge separating the liquid core from the solid crust of neutron stars are determined to be $0.040 {\mathrm{fm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}\ensuremath{\leqslant}{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{t}\ensuremath{\leqslant}0.065 {\mathrm{fm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ and 0.01 MeV/${\mathrm{fm}}^{3}\ensuremath{\leqslant}{P}_{t}\ensuremath{\leqslant}0.26$ MeV/${\mathrm{fm}}^{3}$, respectively. These together with the observed minimum crustal fraction of the total moment of inertia allow us to set a new limit for the radius of the Vela pulsar significantly different from the previous estimate. It is further shown that the widely used parabolic approximation to the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter leads systematically to significantly higher core-crust transition densities and pressures, especially with stiffer symmetry energy functionals.

title: Imprints of Nuclear Symmetry Energy on Properties of Neutron Stars
abstract: Significant progress has been made in recent years in constraining the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy using terrestrial nuclear laboratory data. Around and below the nuclear matter saturation density, the experimental constraints start to merge in a relatively narrow region. At supra-saturation densities, there are, however, still large uncertainties. After summarizing the latest experimental constraints on the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy, we highlight a few recent studies examining imprints of nuclear symmetry energy on the binding energy, energy release during hadron-quark phase transitions as well as the ω-mode frequency and damping time of gravitational wave emission of neutron stars.

title: Non-Newtonian gravity in finite nuclei
abstract: In this talk, we report our recent study of constraining the non-Newtonian gravity at femtometer scale. We incorporate the Yukawa-type non-Newtonian gravitational potential consistently to the Skyrme functional form using the exact treatment for the direct contribution and density-matrix expansion method for the exchange contribution. The effects from the non-Newtonian potential on finite nuclei properties are then studied together with a well-tested Skyrme force. Assuming that the framework without non-Newtonian gravity can explain the binding energies and charge radii of medium to heavy nuclei within 2% error, we set an upper limit for the strength of the non-Newtonian gravitational potential at femtometer scale.

title: Anisotropic flows and dihadron correlations in heavy ion collisions
abstract: Using a multiphase transport model that includes both initial partonic and final hadronic scatterings, we have studied anisotropic flows and dihadron correla tions as functions of pseudorapidity and azimuthal angular differences between trigger and associated particles in heavy ion collisions at LHC. With parameters in the model determined from fitting t he measured multiplicity density of mid-pseudorapidity charged particles in central collis ions and their elliptic flow in mid-central collisions, the calculated higher-order anisotropic flows from the two-particle cumulant method reproduce approximately those measured in experiments. Similar to experimental results, the two-dimensional dihadron correlations at most central collisions show a ridge structure at the near side and a broad structure at the away side. The short- and long-range dihadron azimuthal correlations, corresponding to small and large pseudorapidity differences, respectively, are studied for triggering particles with different transverse mom enta and are found to be qualitatively consistent with experimental results.

title: Nuclear constraints on non-Newtonian gravity at femtometer scale
abstract: Effects of the non-Newtonian gravity on properties of finite nuclei are studied by consistently incorporating both the direct and exchange contribution of the Yukawa potential in the Hartree–Fock approach using a well-tested Skyrme force for the strong interaction. It is shown for the first time that the strength of the Yukawa term in the non-Newtonian gravity is limited to log (|α|) < 1.75/[λ(fm)]0.54 + 33.6 within the length scale of λ = 1 − 10 fm in order for the calculated properties of finite nuclei not to be in conflict with accurate experimental data available.

title: Submillimeter / millimeter observations of the molecular clouds associated with Tycho’s supernova remnant
abstract: We have carried out CO J = 2 - 1 and CO J = 3 - 2 observations toward Tycho's supernova remnant (SNR) using the KOSMA 3m-telescope. From these observations, we identified three molecular clouds (MCs) around the SNR. The small cloud in the southwest was discovered for the first time. In the north and east, two MCs (Cloud A and Cloud B) adjacent in space display a bow-shaped morphology, and have broad emission lines, which provide some direct evidences of the SNR-MCs interaction. The MCs are revealed at -69~ -59 km s -1 , coincident with Tycho's SNR. The MCs associated with Tycho's SNR have a mass of ~ 2.13 × 10 3 M ⊙ . Position-velocity diagrams show the two clouds to be adjacent in velocity, which means cloud-cloud collision could occur in this region. The maximum value (0.66 ± 0.10) of the integrated CO line intensity ratio (I CO J =3-2 /I CO J =2-1 ) for the three MCs agrees well with the previous measurement of individual Galactic MCs, implying that the SNR shock drove into the MCs. The two MCs have a line intensity ratio gradient. The distribution of the ratio appears to indicate that the shock propagates from the southwest to the northeast.

title: 3D Simulations for a Micron‐Scale, Dielectric‐Based Acceleration Experiment
abstract: An experimental program to demonstrate a dielectric, slab‐symmetric accelerator structure has been underway for the past two years. These resonant devices are driven by a side‐coupled 800‐nm laser and can be configured to maintain the field profile necessary for synchronous acceleration and focusing of relativistic or nonrelativistic particles. We present 3D simulations of various versions of the structure geometry, including a metal‐walled structure relevant to ongoing cold tests on resonant properties, and an all‐dielectric structure to be constructed for a proof‐of‐principle acceleration experiment.

title: The open cluster NGC 6823 and possible triggered star formation associated with SNR G59.5+0.1
abstract: We investigate the environment in the vicinity of the supernova remnant (SNR) G59.5+0.1 and identify all the young stellar objects (YSOs) around the SNR, to derive the physical properties, obtain insight into the star-formation history, and determine whether SNR G59.5+0.1 can trigger star formation in this region.  We perform the submillimeter/millimeter observations in CO lines toward the southeast of SNR G59.5+0.1 with the KOSMA 3 m Telescope. High values of the integrated CO line-intensity ratio RICO(3−2)/ICO(2−1) is identified as one good signature of the SNR-MC (molecular cloud) interacting system. To investigate the impact of SNR G59.5+0.1 on the process of star formation, we use GLIMPSE I catalog to select YSOs (including Class I and Class II sources).  The CO emission forming an arc-like shape and mid-infrared 8.28 μm emission are coincident with SNR G59.5+0.1, which ‐

title: Extracting the jet transport coefficient from jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions
abstract: Within five different approaches to parton propagation and energy loss in dense matter, a phenomenological study of experimental data on suppression of large $p_T$ single inclusive hadrons in heavy-ion collisions at both RHIC and LHC was carried out. The evolution of bulk medium used in the study for parton propagation was given by 2+1D or 3+1D hydrodynamic models which are also constrained by experimental data on bulk hadron spectra. Values for the jet transport parameter $\hat q$ at the center of the most central heavy-ion collisions are extracted or calculated within each model, with parameters for the medium properties that are constrained by experimental data on the hadron suppression factor $R_{AA}$. For a quark with initial energy of 10 GeV we find that $\hat q\approx 1.2 \pm 0.3$ GeV$^2$/fm at an initial time $\tau_0=0.6$ fm/$c$ in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV/n and $\hat q\approx 1.9 \pm 0.7 $ GeV$^2$/fm in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=2.76 $ TeV/n. Compared to earlier studies, these represent significant convergence on values of the extracted jet transport parameter, reflecting recent advances in theory and the availability of new experiment data from the LHC.

title: Azimuthal jet flavor tomography with CUJET2.0 of nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC
abstract: A bstractA perturbative QCD based jet tomographic Monte Carlo model, CUJET2.0, is presented to predict jet quenching observables in relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC/BNL and LHC/CERN energies. This model generalizes the DGLV theory of flavor dependent radiative energy loss by including multi-scale running strong coupling effects. It generalizes CUJET1.0 by computing jet path integrations though more realistic 2 + 1D transverse and longitudinally expanding viscous hydrodynamical fields contrained by fits to low pT flow data. The CUJET2.0 output depends on three control parameters, (αmax, fE, fM ), corresponding to an assumed upper bound on the vacuum running coupling in the infrared and two chromo-electric and magnetic QGP screening mass scales (fEμ(T ), fMμ(T )) where μ(T ) is the 1-loop Debye mass. We compare numerical results as a function of αmax for pure and deformed HTL dynamically enhanced scattering cases corresponding to (fE = 1, 2, fM = 0) to data of the nuclear modification factor, RAAf(pT, ϕ; s,b$$ \sqrt{s}, b $$) for jet fragment flavors f = π, D, B, e at s$$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 0.2 − 2.76 ATeV c.m. energies per nucleon pair and with impact parameter b = 2.4, 7.5 fm. A χ2 analysis is presented and shows that RAAπ data from RHIC and LHC are consistent with CUJET2.0 at the χ2/d.o.f < 2 level for αmax = 0.23 − 0.30. The corresponding q^$$ \widehat{q} $$(Ejet, T )/T3 effective jet transport coefficient field of this model is computed to facilitate comparison to other jet tomographic models in the literature. The predicted elliptic asymmetry, v2(pT ; s$$ \sqrt{s} $$, b) is, however, found to significantly underestimated relative to RHIC and LHC data. We find the χv22$$ {\chi}_{v_2}^2 $$ analysis shows that v2 is very sensitive to allowing even as little as 10% variations of the path averaged αmax along in and out of reaction plane paths.