Effects of isospin and momentum dependent interactions on thermal properties of asymmetric nuclear matter
Thermal properties of asymmetric nuclear matter are studied within a self-consistent thermal model using an isospin and momentum-dependent interaction (MDI) constrained by the isospin diffusion data in heavy-ion collisions, a momentum-independent interaction (MID), and an isoscalar momentum-dependent interaction (eMDYI). In particular, we study the temperature dependence of the isospin-dependent bulk and single-particle properties, the mechanical and chemical instabilities, and liquid-gas phase transition in hot asymmetric nuclear matter. Our results indicate that the temperature dependence of the equation of state and the symmetry energy are not so sensitive to the momentum dependence of the interaction. The symmetry energy at fixed density is found to generally decrease with temperature and for the MDI interaction the decrement is essentially due to the potential part. It is further shown that only the low momentum part of the single-particle potential and the nucleon effective mass increases significantly with temperature for the momentum-dependent interactions. For the MDI interaction, the low momentum part of the symmetry potential is significantly reduced with increasing temperature. For the mechanical and chemical instabilities as well as the liquid-gas phase transition in hot asymmetric nuclear matter, our results indicate that the boundaries of these instabilities and the phase-coexistence region generally shrink with increasing temperature and are sensitive to the density dependence of the symmetry energy and the isospin and momentum dependence of the nuclear interaction, especially at higher temperatures.

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: 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: 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: 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: PROPERTIES AND KEPLERIAN ROTATION OF THE HOT CORE IRAS 20126+4104
abstract: We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations of the massive star-forming region IRAS 20126+4104 in the millimeter continuum and in several molecular line transitions. With the SMA data, we have detected nine molecular transitions, including deuterated hydrogen cyanide, CH{sub 3}OH, H{sub 2}CO, and HC{sub 3}N molecules, and imaged each molecular line. From the 1.3 mm continuum emission a compact millimeter source is revealed, which is also associated with H{sub 2}O, OH, and CH{sub 3}OH masers. Using a rotation temperature diagram, we derive that the rotational temperature and the column density of CH{sub 3}OH are 200 K and 3.7 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 17} cm{sup -2}, respectively. The calculated results and analysis further indicate that a hot core coincides with IRAS 20126+4104. The position-velocity diagrams of H{sub 2}CO (3{sub 0,3}-2{sub 0,2}) and HC{sub 3}N (25-24) clearly present Keplerian rotation. Moreover, H{sub 2}CO (3{sub 0,3}-2{sub 0,2}) is found to trace the disk rotation for the first time.

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 tricky azimuthal dependence of jet quenching at RHIC and LHC via CUJET2.0
abstract: High transverse momentum neutral pion and charged hadron suppression pattern with respect to reaction plane at RHIC and LHC energies in central and semi-peripheral AA collisions are studied in a perturbative QCD based model, CUJET2.0. CUJET2.0 has dynamical DGLV radiation kernel and Thoma–Gyulassy elastic energy loss, with both being generalized to including multi-scale running strong coupling as well as energy loss probability fluctuations, and the full jet path integration is performed in a low p T flow data constrained medium which has 2+1D viscous hydrodynamical expanding profile. We find that in CUJET2.0, with only one control parameter, α max , the maximum coupling strength, fixed to be 0.26, the computed nuclear modification factor R AA in central and semi-peripheral AA collisions are consistent with RHIC and LHC data at average χ 2 / d.o.f. 1.5 level. Simultaneous agreements with high p T azimuthal anisotropy v 2 data are acquired given average α max over in-plane and out-of-plane paths varying as little as 10%, suggesting a non-trivial dependence of the high p T single particle v 2 on the azimuthally varied strong coupling.

title: Energy determination at BEPC-II
abstract: The BEPC-II collider beam energy calibration system is discussed. The system is based on the Compton backscattering method. The expected precision of the electron and positron beam energy e determination is δ e / e ≈ 3

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.