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Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., & Ferrario, P. (2016). Application of scintillating properties of liquid xenon and silicon photomultiplier technology to medical imaging. Spectroc. Acta Pt. B, 118, 6–13.
Abstract: We describe a new positron emission time-of-flight apparatus using liquid xenon. The detector is based in a liquid xenon scintillating cell. The cell shape and dimensions can be optimized depending on the intended application. In its simplest form, the liquid xenon scintillating cell is a box in which two faces are covered by silicon photomultipliers and the others by a reflecting material such as Teflon. It is a compact, homogenous and highly efficient detector which shares many of the desirable properties of monolithic crystals, with the added advantage of high yield and fast scintillation offered by liquid xenon. Our initial studies suggest that good energy and spatial resolution comparable with that achieved by lutetium oxyorthosilicate crystals can be obtained with a detector based in liquid xenon scintillating cells. In addition, the system can potentially achieve an excellent coincidence resolving time of better than 100 ps.
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Alekhin, S. et al, & Hernandez, P. (2016). A facility to search for hidden particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case. Rep. Prog. Phys., 79(12), 124201–137pp.
Abstract: This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (search for hidden particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, tau -> 3 μand to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the standard model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals-scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the standard model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation.
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Sekihara, T., Oset, E., & Ramos, A. (2016). On the structure observed in the in-flight He-3(K-, Lambda p)n reaction at J-PARC. Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys., 2016(12), 123D03–27pp.
Abstract: A theoretical investigation is done to clarify the origin of the peak structure observed near the K-pp threshold in the in-flight He-3(K-, Lambda p)n reaction of the J-PARC E15 experiment, which could be a signal of the lightest kaonic nuclei, i.e., the (K) over bar NN (I = 1/2) state. For the investigation, we evaluate the Lambda p invariant mass spectrum assuming two possible scenarios to interpret the experimental peak. One assumes that the Lambda (1405) resonance is generated after the emission of an energetic neutron from the absorption of the initial K-, not forming a bound state with the remaining proton. This uncorrelated Lambda (1405)p system subsequently decays into the final Lambda p. The other scenario implies that, after the emission of the energetic neutron, a (K) over bar NN bound state is formed, decaying eventually into a Lambda p pair. Our results show that the experimental signal observed in the in-flight He-3(K-, Lambda p)n reaction at J-PARC is qualitatively well reproduced by the assumption that a (K) over bar NN bound state is generated in the reaction, definitely discarding the interpretation in terms of an uncorrelated Lambda (1405)p s tate.
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Oliver, J. F., & Rafecas, M. (2016). Modelling Random Coincidences in Positron Emission Tomography by Using Singles and Prompts: A Comparison Study. PLoS ONE, 11(9), e0162096–22pp.
Abstract: Random coincidences degrade the image in Positron Emission Tomography, PET. To compensate for their degradation effects, the rate of random coincidences should be estimated. Under certain circumstances, current estimation methods fail to provide accurate results. We propose a novel method, “Singles-Prompts” (SP), that includes the information conveyed by prompt coincidences and models the pile-up. The SP method has the same structure than the well-known “Singles Rate” (SR) approach. Hence, SP can straightforwardly replace SR. In this work, the SP method has been extensively assessed and compared to two conventional methods, SR and the delayed window (DW) method, in a preclinical PET scenario using Monte-Carlo simulations. SP offers accurate estimates for the randoms rates, while SR and DW tend to overestimate the rates (similar to 10%, and 5%, respectively). With pile-up, the SP method is more robust than SR (but less than DW). At the image level, the contrast is overestimated in SR-corrected images, + 16%, while SP produces the correct value. Spill-over is slightly reduced using SP instead of SR. The DW images values are similar to those of SP except for low-statistic scenarios, where DW behaves as if randoms were not compensated for. In particular, the contrast is reduced, -16%. In general, the better estimations of SP translate into better image quality.
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BABAR Collaboration(Lees, J. P. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2016). Observation of (B)over-bar -> D-(*()) pi(+)pi(-)l(-)(nu)over-bar Decays in e(+)e(-) Collisions at the Upsilon(4S) Resonance. Phys. Rev. Lett., 116(4), 041801–7pp.
Abstract: We report on measurements of the decays of (B) over bar mesons into the semileptonic final states (B) over bar -> D-(*())pi(+)pi(-)l(-)(nu) over bar, where D-(*()) represents a D or D* meson and l(-) is an electron or a muon. These measurements are based on 471 x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs recorded with the BABAR detector at the SLAC asymmetric B factory PEP-II. We determine the branching fraction ratios R-pi+pi-(()*()) = B((B) over bar -> D-(*())pi(+)pi(-)l(-)(nu) over bar /B (B) over bar -> D-(*())l(-)(nu) over bar) using events in which the second B meson is fully reconstructed. We find R pi+pi- = 0.067 +/- 0.010 +/- 0.008 and R pi+pi-* = 0.019 +/- 0.005 +/- 0.004, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. Based on these results and assuming isospin invariance, we estimate that (B) over bar -> D-(*())pi pi l (nu) over bar decays, where pi denotes either a pi(+/-) and pi(0) meson, account for up to half the difference between the measured inclusive semileptonic branching fraction to charm hadrons and the corresponding sum of previously measured exclusive branching fractions.
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