Experiments with a thin gas-fluidized granular layer revealed a sequence of well-defined transitions as the amplitude and frequency of the gas flow modulation are varied. The observed patterns include subharmonic squares and stripes, quasiperiodic and disordered structures. The wavelength of subharmonic patterns increases with the mean flow rate and decreases with the modulation frequency.

The rare phenomenon of nuclear wobbling motion has been investigated for the nucleus 187 Au. A longitudinal wobbling-bands pair has been identified and clearly distinguished from the associated signature-partner band on the basis of angular distribution measurements. Theoretical calculations in the framework of the Particle Rotor Model (PRM) are found to agree well with the experimental observations. This is the first experimental evidence for longitudinal wobbling bands where the expected signature partner band has also been identified, and establishes this exotic collective mode as a general phenomenon over the nuclear chart.Wobbling is a collective mode that may appear when the moments of inertia of all three principal axes of the nuclear density distribution are unequal. The mode is well known in classical mechanics and its occurrence is a clear signal for a triaxial nuclear shape. For a given angular momentum, uniform rotation about the axis with the largest moment of inertia corresponds to minimal energy. At a somewhat larger energy, this axis precesses (wobbles) about the space-fixed angular momentum axis. In a quantal system such as the nucleus (or a molecule), the mode manifests itself in the appearance of rotational bands that correspond to successive excitations of wobbling phonons, n ω , and alternating signature α = α 0 + n ω , which determines the spin sequence I = α + even number. Adjacent wobbling bands n ω+1 and n ω are connected by collectively-enhanced ∆I = 1 transitions of predominantly E2 character, which are generated by the wobbling motion of the entire charged body. This is in contrast with the signature-partner bands, which represent another type of excitation involving a partial dealignment of the odd particle with respect to its preferred axis; for those, the connecting ∆I = 1 transitions are of predominantly M1 character, with very little, if any, E2 admixtures.Although predicted quite sometime ago [1], this exotic nuclear motion has been observed only rarely in experiments so far, and the list of nuclei exhibiting it is quite short: 105 Pd [2], 135 Pr [3, 4] (and, possibly, 133 La [5]), 161 Lu [6], 163 Lu [7, 8], 165 Lu [9], 167 Lu [10] and 167 Ta [11]-a total of only 7(8) nuclei across the entire nuclear chart.All the aforementioned nuclei have an odd proton occu-pying a high-j orbital, which modifies the wobbling mode. Frauendorf and Dönau [12] classified this coupled mode as "longitudinal wobbling" (LW) and "transverse wobbling" (TW) when, respectively, the odd particle aligns its angular momentum along the medium axis (the axis with the largest moment of inertia), or along one of the perpendicular axes. The wobbling energy, E wobb [see Eq.(1) below], increases with increasing angular momentum for LW while it decreases for TW [12]. In all of the cases mentioned above (except, possibly, 133 La[5]), the wobbling bands have been identified as corresponding to TW because E wobb decreases with increasing angular momentum. We report on the observation of bands structures corresponding to...

We present details of the design, simulation, and initial test results of prototype detectors for the fourth-generation receiver of the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Optimized for the detection of key secondary anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), SPT-3G+ will measure the temperature and polarization of the mm/sub-mm sky at 220, 285, and 345 GHz, beyond the peak of the CMB blackbody spectrum. The SPT-3G+ focal plane will be populated with microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs), allowing for significantly increased detector density with reduced cryogenic complexity. We present simulation-backed designs for single-color dual-polarization MKID pixels at each SPT-3G+ observation frequency. We further describe design choices made to promote resonator quality and uniformity, enabling us to maximize the available readout bandwidth. We also discuss aspects of the fabrication process that enable rapid production of these devices and present an initial dark characterization of a series of prototype devices.

An extensive, model-independent analysis of the nature of triaxial deformation in 76 Ge, a candidate for neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay, was carried out following multi-step Coulomb excitation. Shape parameters deduced on the basis of a rotational-invariant sum-rule analysis provided considerable insight into the underlying collectivity of the ground-state and γ bands. Both sequences were determined to be characterized by the same β and γ deformation parameter values. In addition, compelling evidence for low-spin, rigid triaxial deformation in 76 Ge was obtained for the first time from the analysis of the statistical fluctuations of the quadrupole asymmetry deduced from the measured E2 matrix elements. These newly determined shape parameters are important input and constraints for calculations aimed at providing, with suitable accuracy, the nuclear matrix elements relevant to 0νββ.