Valdes-Cortez, C., Mansour, I., Rivard, M. J., Ballester, F., Mainegra-Hing, E., Thomson, R. M., et al. (2021). A study of Type B uncertainties associated with the photoelectric effect in low-energy Monte Carlo simulations. Phys. Med. Biol., 66(10), 105014–14pp.
Abstract: Purpose. To estimate Type B uncertainties in absorbed-dose calculations arising from the different implementations in current state-of-the-art Monte Carlo (MC) codes of low-energy photon cross-sections (<200 keV). Methods. MC simulations are carried out using three codes widely used in the low-energy domain: PENELOPE-2018, EGSnrc, and MCNP. Three dosimetry-relevant quantities are considered: mass energy-absorption coefficients for water, air, graphite, and their respective ratios; absorbed dose; and photon-fluence spectra. The absorbed dose and the photon-fluence spectra are scored in a spherical water phantom of 15 cm radius. Benchmark simulations using similar cross-sections have been performed. The differences observed between these quantities when different cross-sections are considered are taken to be a good estimator for the corresponding Type B uncertainties. Results. A conservative Type B uncertainty for the absorbed dose (k = 2) of 1.2%-1.7% (<50 keV), 0.6%-1.2% (50-100 keV), and 0.3% (100-200 keV) is estimated. The photon-fluence spectrum does not present clinically relevant differences that merit considering additional Type B uncertainties except for energies below 25 keV, where a Type B uncertainty of 0.5% is obtained. Below 30 keV, mass energy-absorption coefficients show Type B uncertainties (k = 2) of about 1.5% (water and air), and 2% (graphite), diminishing in all materials for larger energies and reaching values about 1% (40-50 keV) and 0.5% (50-75 keV). With respect to their ratios, the only significant Type B uncertainties are observed in the case of the water-to-graphite ratio for energies below 30 keV, being about 0.7% (k = 2). Conclusions. In contrast with the intermediate (about 500 keV) or high (about 1 MeV) energy domains, Type B uncertainties due to the different cross-sections implementation cannot be considered subdominant with respect to Type A uncertainties or even to other sources of Type B uncertainties (tally volume averaging, manufacturing tolerances, etc). Therefore, the values reported here should be accommodated within the uncertainty budget in low-energy photon dosimetry studies.
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Garcilazo, H., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2016). Maximal isospin few-body systems of nucleons and Xi hyperons. Phys. Rev. C, 94(2), 024002–3pp.
Abstract: By using local central Yukawa-type interactions that reproduce the low-energy parameters of the latest updates of the Nijmegen ESC08c potentials, we show that the N Xi, NN Xi, N Xi Xi, and NN Xi Xi systems with maximal isospin are bound. Since in these states the strong decay N Xi -> Lambda Lambda is forbidden by isospin conservation, these strange few-body systems will be stable under the strong interaction. These results may suggest that other states with different number of Ns and Xi s in the maximal isospin channel could also be bound.
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Richard, J. M., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2018). Few-body quark dynamics for doubly heavy baryons and tetraquarks. Phys. Rev. C, 97(3), 035211–10pp.
Abstract: We discuss the adequate treatment of the three- and four-body dynamics for the quark model picture of double-charm baryons and tetraquarks. We stress that the variational and Born-Oppenheimer approximations give energies very close to the exact ones, while the diquark approximation might be somewhat misleading. The Hall-Post inequalities also provide very useful lower bounds that exclude the possibility of stable tetraquarks for some mass ratios and some color wave functions.
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Fernandez-Carames, T., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2010). Charged charmonium molecules. Phys. Rev. D, 82(5), 054032–5pp.
Abstract: We make use of a self-consistent quark-model based study of four-quark charmonium-like states to interpret recent charmonium experimental data. We conclude that there exists a D*(D) over bar* meson-meson molecule with quantum numbers (I-G) J(PC) = (1(-))2(++). Our study confirms the presence of charged charmonium-like resonances on the excited charmonium spectrum. We find support from recent experimental data by the Belle Collaboration [R. Mizuk et al. (Belle Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 78, 072004 (2008)]. Confirmation of the experimental data by the Belle Collaboration and the determination of the quantum numbers of the new structures would help in discriminating among different theoretical models and would give further support to the theoretical analysis of T. Fernandez-Carames, A. Valcarce, and J. Vijande [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 222001 (2009)].
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Vijande, J., Valcarce, A., & Richard, J. M. (2012). Stability of hexaquarks in the string limit of confinement. Phys. Rev. D, 85(1), 014019–6pp.
Abstract: The stability of systems containing six quarks or antiquarks is studied within a simple string model inspired by the strong-coupling regime of quantum chromodynamics and used previously for tetraquarks and pentaquarks. We discuss both six-quark (q(6)) and three-quark-three-antiquark (q(3)($) over bar (3)) states. The quarks are assumed to be distinguishable and thus not submitted to antisymmetrization. It is found that the ground state of (q(6)) is stable against dissociation into two isolated baryons. For the case of (q(3)($) over bar (3)), our results indicate the existence of a bound state very close to the threshold. The investigations are extended to (q(3)Q(3)) and (Q(3) ($) over bar (3)) systems with two different constituent masses, and their stability is discussed as a function of the mass ratio.
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