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A VRR-LRR analyzer with handheld fiber‐optic probe is reported for the first time for diagnosis of brain GBM in vivo. The sensitivity for identification is 80% compared with histopathology examination. © OSA 2019. The Author(s).

Global hyperon polarization, P¯H, in Au+Au collisions over a large range of collision energy, sNN, was recently measured and successfully reproduced by hydrodynamic and transport models with intense fluid vorticity of the quark-gluon plasma. While naïve extrapolation of data trends suggests a large P¯H as the collision energy is reduced, the behavior of P¯H at small sNN¡7.7 GeV is unknown. Operating the STAR experiment in fixed-target mode, we measured the polarization of Λ hyperons along the direction of global angular momentum in Au+Au collisions at sNN=3 GeV. The observation of substantial polarization of 4.91±0.81(stat.)±0.15(syst.)% in these collisions may require a reexamination of the viscosity of any fluid created in the collision, of the thermalization timescale of rotational modes, and of hadronic mechanisms to produce global polarization. © 2021 American Physical Society.

According to first-principle lattice QCD calculations, the transition from quark-gluon plasma to hadronic matter is a smooth crossover in the region μB≤Tc. In this range the ratio, C6/C2, of net-baryon distributions are predicted to be negative. In this Letter, we report the first measurement of the midrapidity net-proton C6/C2 from 27, 54.4, and 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The dependence on collision centrality and kinematic acceptance in (pT, y) are analyzed. While for 27 and 54.4 GeV collisions the C6/C2 values are close to zero within uncertainties, it is observed that for 200 GeV collisions, the C6/C2 ratio becomes progressively negative from peripheral to central collisions. Transport model calculations without critical dynamics predict mostly positive values except for the most central collisions within uncertainties. These observations seem to favor a smooth crossover in the high-energy nuclear collisions at top RHIC energy. © 2021 American Physical Society.

Reentrance, the return of a system from an ordered phase to a previously encountered less-ordered one as a controlled parameter is continuously varied, is a recurring theme found in disparate physical systems, yet its microscopic cause is often not investigated thoroughly. Here, through detailed characterization and theoretical modeling, we uncover the microscopic mechanism behind reentrance in the strongly frustrated pyrochlore antiferromagnet Er2Sn2O7. We use single crystal heat capacity measurements to expose that Er2Sn2O7 exhibits multiple instances of reentrance in its magnetic field B vs temperature T phase diagram for magnetic fields along three cubic high symmetry directions. Through classical Monte Carlo simulations, mean field theory, and classical linear spin-wave expansions, we argue that the origins of the multiple occurrences of reentrance observed in Er2Sn2O7 are linked to soft modes. These soft modes arise from phase competition and enhance thermal fluctuations that entropically stabilize a specific ordered phase, resulting in an increased transition temperature for certain field values and thus the reentrant behavior. Our work represents a detailed examination into the mechanisms responsible for reentrance in a frustrated magnet and may serve as a template for the interpretation of reentrant phenomena in other physical systems. © 2021 American Physical Society.

We measure the absolute proper motion of Leo I using a WFPC2/HST data set that spans up to 10 yr to date the longest time baseline utilized for this satellite. The measurement relies on ∼2300 Leo I stars located near the center of light of the galaxy; the correction to absolute proper motion is based on 174 Gaia EDR3 stars and 10 galaxies. Having generated highly precise, relative proper motions for all Gaia EDR3 stars in our WFPC2 field of study, our correction to the absolute EDR3 system does not rely on these Gaia stars being Leo I members. This new determination also benefits from a recently improved astrometric calibration of WFPC2. The resulting proper-motion value, (μ α , μ δ ) = (-0.007 0.035, - 0.119 0.026) mas yr-1 is in agreement with recent, large-area, Gaia EDR3-based determinations. We discuss all the recent measurements of Leo I's proper motion and adopt a combined, multistudy average of (μ α 3 meas,μ δ 3 meas)=(-0.036±0.016,-0.130±0.010) mas yr-1. This value of absolute proper motion for Leo I indicates its orbital pole is well aligned with that of the vast polar structure, defined by the majority of the brightest dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way. © 2021. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to probe the atmospheres and surface properties of hot, terrestrial planets via emission spectroscopy. We identify 18 potentially terrestrial planet candidates detected by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) that would make ideal targets for these observations. These planet candidates cover a broad range of planet radii (R p ∼0.6-2.0R ) and orbit stars of various magnitudes (K s = 5.78-10.78, V = 8.4-15.69) and effective temperatures (T eff ∼3000-6000 K). We use ground-based observations collected through the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) and two vetting tools - DAVE and TRICERATOPS - to assess the reliabilities of these candidates as planets. We validate 13 planets: TOI-206 b, TOI-500 b, TOI-544 b, TOI-833 b, TOI-1075 b, TOI-1411 b, TOI-1442 b, TOI-1693 b, TOI-1860 b, TOI-2260 b, TOI-2411 b, TOI-2427 b, and TOI-2445 b. Seven of these planets (TOI-206 b, TOI-500 b, TOI-1075 b, TOI-1442 b, TOI-2260 b, TOI-2411 b, and TOI-2445 b) are ultra-short-period planets. TOI-1860 is the youngest (133 ± 26 Myr) solar twin with a known planet to date. TOI-2260 is a young (321 ± 96 Myr) G dwarf that is among the most metal-rich ([Fe/H] = 0.22 ± 0.06 dex) stars to host an ultra-short-period planet. With an estimated equilibrium temperature of 1/42600 K, TOI-2260 b is also the fourth hottest known planet with R p ¡ 2 R . © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.

We discuss the design, construction, and operation of a new intensity interferometer, based on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut. While this paper will focus on observations taken with an original two-telescope configuration, the current instrumentation consists of three portable 0.6 m Dobsonian telescopes with single-photon avalanche diode detectors located at the Newtonian focus of each telescope. Photons detected at each station are time stamped and read out with timing correlators that can give cross-correlations in timing to a precision of 48 ps. We detail our observations to date with the system, which has now been successfully used at our university in 16 nights of observing. Components of the instrument were also deployed on one occasion at Lowell Observatory, where the Perkins and Hall telescopes were made to function as an intensity interferometer. We characterize the performance of the instrument in detail. In total, the observations indicate the detection of a correlation peak at the level of 6.76σ when observing unresolved stars, and consistency with partial or no detection when observing at a baseline sufficient to resolve the star. Using these measurements, we conclude that the angular diameter of Arcturus is larger than 15 mas and that of Vega is between 0.8 and 17 mas. While the uncertainties are large at this point, both results are consistent with measures from amplitude-based long baseline optical interferometers. © 2022. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

We report on the measurements of directed flow v1 and elliptic flow v2 for hadrons (π±, K±, KS0, p, ϕ, Λ and Ξ−) from Au+Au collisions at sNN=3 GeV and v2 for (π±, K±, p and p‾) at 27 and 54.4 GeV with the STAR experiment. While at the two higher energy midcentral collisions the number-of-constituent-quark (NCQ) scaling holds, at 3 GeV the v2 at midrapidity is negative for all hadrons and the NCQ scaling is absent. In addition, the v1 slopes at midrapidity for almost all observed hadrons are found to be positive, implying dominant repulsive baryonic interactions. The features of negative v2 and positive v1 slope at 3 GeV can be reproduced with a baryonic mean-field in transport model calculations. These results imply that the medium in such collisions is likely characterized by baryonic interactions. © 2022 The Author(s)

In high-energy heavy-ion collisions, partonic collectivity is evidenced by the constituent quark number scaling of elliptic flow anisotropy for identified hadrons. A breaking of this scaling and dominance of baryonic interactions is found for identified hadron collective flow measurements in sNN = 3 GeV Au+Au collisions. In this paper, we report measurements of the first- and second-order azimuthal anisotropic parameters, v1 and v2, of light nuclei (d, t, 3He, 4He) produced in sNN = 3 GeV Au+Au collisions at the STAR experiment. An atomic mass number scaling is found in the measured v1 slopes of light nuclei at mid-rapidity. For the measured v2 magnitude, a strong rapidity dependence is observed. Unlike v2 at higher collision energies, the v2 values at mid-rapidity for all light nuclei are negative and no scaling is observed with the atomic mass number. Calculations by the Jet AA Microscopic Transport Model (JAM), with baryonic mean-field plus nucleon coalescence, are in good agreement with our observations, implying baryonic interactions dominate the collective dynamics in 3 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC. © 2022 The Author

Measurement by the STAR experiment at RHIC of the cold nuclear matter (CNM) effects experienced by inclusive J/ψ at mid-rapidity in 0-100% p+Au collisions at sNN = 200 GeV is presented. Such effects are quantified utilizing the nuclear modification factor, RpAu, obtained by taking a ratio of J/ψ yield in p+Au collisions to that in p+p collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The differential J/ψ yield in both p+p and p+Au collisions is measured through the dimuon decay channel, taking advantage of the trigger capability provided by the Muon Telescope Detector in the RHIC 2015 run. Consequently, the J/ψ RpAu is derived within the transverse momentum (pT) range of 0 to 10 GeV/c. A suppression of approximately 30% is observed for pT<2 GeV/c, while J/ψ RpAu becomes compatible with unity for pT greater than 3 GeV/c, indicating the J/ψ yield is minimally affected by the CNM effects at high pT. Comparison to a similar measurement from 0-20% central Au+Au collisions reveals that the observed strong J/ψ suppression above 3 GeV/c is mostly due to the hot medium effects, providing strong evidence for the formation of the quark-gluon plasma in these collisions. Several model calculations show qualitative agreement with the measured J/ψ RpAu, while their agreement with the J/ψ yields in p+p and p+Au collisions is worse. © 2022 The Author(s)

We report a new measurement of the production cross section for inclusive electrons from open heavy-flavor hadron decays as a function of transverse momentum (pT) at midrapidity (|y|¡0.7) in p+p collisions at s=200 GeV. The result is presented for 2.5¡pT¡10 GeV/c with an improved precision above 6 GeV/c with respect to the previous measurements, providing more constraints on perturbative QCD calculations. Moreover, this measurement also provides a high-precision reference for measurements of nuclear modification factors for inclusive electrons from open-charm and -bottom hadron decays in heavy-ion collisions. © 2022 American Physical Society.

We report high-precision measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, ALL, for midrapidity inclusive jet and dijet production in polarized pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of √s=200 GeV. The new inclusive jet data are sensitive to the gluon helicity distribution, Δg(x,Q2), for gluon momentum fractions in the range from x≃0.05 to x≃0.5, while the new dijet data provide further constraints on the x dependence of Δg(x,Q2). The results are in good agreement with previous measurements at √s=200 GeV and with recent theoretical evaluations of prior world data. Our new results have better precision and thus strengthen the evidence that Δg(x,Q2) is positive for x>0.05.

We present the first inclusive measurements of the invariant and softdrop jet mass in proton-proton collisions at √s=200 GeV at STAR. The measurements are fully corrected for detector effects, and reported differentially in both the jet transverse momentum and jet radius parameter. We compare the measurements to established leading-order Monte Carlo event generators and find that STAR-tuned pythia-6 reproduces the data, while LHC tunes of pythia-8 and herwig-7 do not agree with the data, providing further constraints on parameter tuning. Finally, we observe that softdrop grooming, for which the contribution of wide-angle nonperturbative radiation is suppressed, shifts the jet mass distributions into closer agreement with the partonic jet mass as determined by both pythia-8 and a next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy perturbative QCD calculation. These measurements complement recent LHC measurements in a different kinematic region, as well as establish a baseline for future jet mass measurements in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC.

The beam energy scan (BES) program at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) was extended to energies below √sNN=7.7 GeV in 2015 by successful implementation of the fixed-target mode of operation in the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC) experiment. In this mode, ions circulate in one ring of the collider and interact with a stationary target at the entrance of the STAR time projection chamber. The first results for Au+Au collisions at √sNN=4.5 GeV are presented, demonstrating good performance of all the relevant detector subsystems in fixed-target mode. Results presented here include directed and elliptic flow of identified hadrons, and radii from pion femtoscopy. The latter, together with recent HADES results, reveal a long-sought peak structure that may be caused by the system evolving through a first-order phase transition from quark-gluon plasma to the hadronic phase. Directed and elliptic flow for pions are presented for the first time at this beam energy. Pion and proton elliptic flow show behavior which hints at constituent quark scaling, and demonstrate that a definitive conclusion will be achievable using the full statistics of the ongoing second phase of BES (BES-II). In particular, BES-II to date has recorded fixed-target data sets with two orders of magnitude more events at each of nine energies between √sNN=3.0 and 7.7 GeV.

We report a systematic measurement of cumulants, Cn, for net-proton, proton, and antiproton multiplicity distributions, and correlation functions, κn, for proton and antiproton multiplicity distributions up to the fourth order in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 54.4, 62.4, and 200 GeV. The Cn and κn are presented as a function of collision energy, centrality and kinematic acceptance in rapidity, y, and transverse momentum, pT. The data were taken during the first phase of the Beam Energy Scan (BES) program (2010–2017) at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) facility. The measurements are carried out at midrapidity (|y|< 0.5) and transverse momentum 0.4<pT<2.0GeV/c, using the STAR detector at RHIC. We observe a nonmonotonic energy dependence (√sNN = 7.7–62.4 GeV) of the net-proton C4/C2 with the significance of 3.1σ for the 0–5% central Au+Au collisions. This is consistent with the expectations of critical fluctuations in a QCD-inspired model. Thermal and transport model calculations show a monotonic variation with √sNN. For the multiparticle correlation functions, we observe significant negative values for a two-particle correlation function, κ2, of protons and antiprotons, which are mainly due to the effects of baryon number conservation. Furthermore, it is found that the four-particle correlation function, κ4, of protons plays a role in determining the energy dependence of proton C4/C1 below 19.6 GeV, which cannot be understood by the effect of baryon number conservation.

We present systematic measurements of azimuthal anisotropy for strange and multistrange hadrons (K0s, Λ, Ξ, and Ω) and ϕ mesons at midrapidity (|y|< 1.0) in collisions of U+U nuclei at √sNN=193 GeV, recorded by the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Transverse momentum (pT) dependence of flow coefficients (v2, v3, and v4) is presented for minimum bias collisions and three different centrality intervals. Number of constituent quark scaling of the measured flow coefficients in U+U collisions is discussed. We also present the ratio of vn scaled by the participant eccentricity (ɛn{2}) to explore system size dependence and collectivity in U+U collisions. The magnitude of v2/ɛ2 is found to be smaller in U+U collisions than that in central Au+Au collisions contradicting naive eccentricity scaling. Furthermore, the ratios between various flow harmonics (v3/v3/22, v4/v4/22) are studied and compared with hydrodynamic and transport model calculations.

Two new imaging instruments, ‘Alopeke and Zorro, were designed, built, and commissioned at the Gemini-North and Gemini-South telescopes in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Here we describe them and present the results from over a year of operation. The two identical instruments are based on the legacy of the DSSI (Differential Speckle Survey Instrument) instrument, successfully used for years at the WIYN and the Gemini telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. ‘Alopeke and Zorro are dual-channel imagers having both speckle (6.7″) and “wide-field” (∼1 arcminute) field-of-view options. They were built to primarily perform speckle interferometry providing diffraction-limited imagery at optical wavebands, yielding pixel scale uncertainties of ±0.21 mas, position angle uncertainties of ±0.7◦, and photometric uncertainties of Δm ± 0.02–0.04 magnitudes (for the blue and red channels, respectively) when run through the standard data reduction pipeline. One of their main scientific roles is the validation and characterization of exoplanets and their host stars as discovered by transit surveys such as the NASA Kepler, K2, and TESS missions. The limiting magnitude for speckle observations at Gemini can be quite faint (r ∼18 in good observing conditions) but typically the observed targets are brighter. The instruments can also function as conventional CCD imagers providing a 1 arc-minute field of view and allowing simultaneous two-color, high-speed time-series operation. These resident visitor instruments are remotely operable and are available for use by the community via the peer-reviewed proposal process.

Wide field planetary camera 2 (WFPC2) exposures are already some 20 years older than Gaia epoch observations, or future James Webb Space Telescope observations. As such, they offer an unprecedented time baseline for high-precision proper-motion studies, provided the full astrometric potential of these exposures is reached. We have started such a project with the work presented here being its first step. We explore geometric distortions beyond the well-known ones published in the early 2000 s. This task is accomplished by using the entire database of WFPC2 exposures in filters F555W, F606W and F814W and three standard astrometric catalogs: Gaia EDR3, 47 Tuc and ωCen. The latter two were constructed using Hubble Space Telescope observations made with cameras other than WFPC2. We explore a suite of centering algorithms, and various distortion maps in order to understand and quantify their performance. We find no high-frequency systematics beyond the 34th-row correction, down to a resolution of 10 pixels. Low-frequency systematics starting at a resolution of 50 pixels are present at a level of 30–50 millipix (1.4–2.3 mas) for the PC and 20–30 millipix (2–3 mas) for the WF chips. We characterize these low-frequency systematics by providing correction maps and updated cubic-distortion coefficients for each filter.

We extend results first announced by Franz et al., that identified vA 351 = H346 in the Hyades as a multiple star system containing a white dwarf. With Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor fringe tracking and scanning, and more recent speckle observations, all spanning 20.7 years, we establish a parallax, relative orbit, and mass fraction for two components, with a period, and total mass 2.1 . With ground-based radial velocities from the McDonald Observatory Otto Struve 2.1 m Telescope Sandiford Spectrograph, and Center for Astrophysics Digital Speedometers, spanning 37 years, we find that component B consists of BC, two M dwarf stars orbiting with a very short period ( days), having a mass ratio / = 0.95. We confirm that the total mass of the system can only be reconciled with the distance and component photometry by including a fainter, higher-mass component. The quadruple system consists of three M dwarfs (A, B, C) and one white dwarf (D). We determine individual M dwarf masses = 0.53 ± 0.10 , = 0.43 ± 0.04 , and = 0.41 ± 0.04 . The white dwarf mass, 0.54 ± 0.04 , comes from cooling models, an assumed Hyades age of 670 Myr, and consistency with all previous and derived astrometric, photometric, and radial velocity results. Velocities from Hα and He i emission lines confirm the BC period derived from absorption lines, with similar (He i) and higher (Hα) velocity amplitudes. We ascribe the larger Hα amplitude to emission from a region each component shadows from the other, depending on the line of sight.

The STAR Collaboration reports measurements of the transverse single-spin asymmetry (TSSA) of inclusive π0 at center-of-mass energies (√s) of 200 GeV and 500 GeV in transversely polarized proton-proton collisions in the pseudo-rapidity region 2.7 to 4.0. The results at the two different energies show a continuous increase of the TSSA with Feynman-x, and, when compared to previous measurements, no dependence on √s from 19.4 GeV to 500 GeV is found. To investigate the underlying physics leading to this large TSSA, different topologies have been studied. π0 with no nearby particles tend to have a higher TSSA than inclusive π0. The TSSA for inclusive electromagnetic jets, sensitive to the Sivers effect in the initial state, is substantially smaller, but shows the same behavior as the inclusive π0 asymmetry as a function of Feynman-x. To investigate final-state effects, the Collins asymmetry of π0 inside electromagnetic jets has been measured. The Collins asymmetry is analyzed for its dependence on the π0 momentum transverse to the jet thrust axis and its dependence on the fraction of jet energy carried by the π0. The asymmetry was found to be small in each case for both center-of-mass energies. All the measurements are compared to QCD-based theoretical calculations for transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution functions and fragmentation functions. Some discrepancies are found, which indicates new mechanisms might be involved.