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NEXT Collaboration(Alvarez, V. et al), Agramunt, J., Ball, M., Bayarri, J., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., et al. (2012). SiPMs coated with TPB: coating protocol and characterization for NEXT. J. Instrum., 7, P02010.
Abstract: Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) are the photon detectors chosen for the tracking read-out in NEXT, a neutrinoless beta beta decay experiment which uses a high pressure gaseous xenon time projection chamber (TPC). The reconstruction of event track and topology in this gaseous detector is a key handle for background rejection. Among the commercially available sensors that can be used for tracking, SiPMs offer important advantages, mainly high gain, ruggedness, cost-effectiveness and radio-purity. Their main drawback, however, is their non sensitivity in the emission spectrum of the xenon scintillation (peak at 175 nm). This is overcome by coating these sensors with the organic wavelength shifter tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB). In this paper we describe the protocol developed for coating the SiPMs with TPB and the measurements performed for characterizing the coatings as well as the performance of the coated sensors in the UV-VUV range.
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Garces, E. A., Miranda, O. G., Tortola, M., & Valle, J. W. F. (2012). Low-energy neutrino-electron scattering as a standard model probe: The potential of LENA as case study. Phys. Rev. D, 85(7), 073006–6pp.
Abstract: Several proposals for studying neutrinos with large detectors are currently under discussion. We suggest that they could provide a precise measurement of the electroweak mixing angle as well as a probe for new physics, such as nonstandard neutrino interactions, and the electroweak gauge structure. We illustrate this explicitly for the case of the LENA proposal, either with an artificial radioactive source or by using the solar neutrino flux.
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Poltoratska, I. et al, & Rubio, B. (2012). Pygmy dipole resonance in Pb-208. Phys. Rev. C, 85(4), 041304–5pp.
Abstract: Scattering of protons of several hundred MeV is a promising new spectroscopic tool for the study of electric dipole strength in nuclei. A case study of Pb-208 shows that, at very forward angles, J(pi) = 1(-) states are strongly populated via Coulomb excitation. A separation from nuclear excitation of other modes is achieved by a multipole decomposition analysis of the experimental cross sections based on theoretical angular distributions calculated within the quasiparticle-phonon model. The B(E1) transition strength distribution is extracted for excitation energies up to 9MeV; that is, in the region of the so-called pygmy dipole resonance (PDR). The Coulomb-nuclear interference shows sensitivity to the underlying structure of the E1 transitions, which allows for the first time an experimental extraction of the electromagnetic transition strength and the energy centroid of the PDR.
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Bhattacharya, T., Cirigliano, V., Cohen, S. D., Filipuzzi, A., Gonzalez-Alonso, M., Graesser, M. L., et al. (2012). Probing novel scalar and tensor interactions from (ultra)cold neutrons to the LHC. Phys. Rev. D, 85(5), 054512–29pp.
Abstract: Scalar and tensor interactions were once competitors to the now well-established V – A structure of the standard model weak interactions. We revisit these interactions and survey constraints from low-energy probes (neutron, nuclear, and pion decays) as well as collider searches. Currently, the most stringent limit on scalar and tensor interactions arise from 0(+) -> 0(+) nuclear decays and the radiative pion decay pi -> e nu gamma, respectively. For the future, we find that upcoming neutron beta decay and LHC measurements will compete in setting the most stringent bounds. For neutron beta decay, we demonstrate the importance of lattice computations of the neutron-to-proton matrix elements to setting limits on these interactions, and provide the first lattice estimate of the scalar charge and a new average of existing results for the tensor charge. Data taken at the LHC is currently probing these interactions at the 10(-2) level (relative to the standard weak interactions), with the potential to reach the less than or similar to 10(-3) level. We show that, with some theoretical assumptions, the discovery of a charged spin-0 resonance decaying to an electron and missing energy implies a lower limit on the strength of scalar interactions probed at low energy.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amoros, G., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., et al. (2012). Searches for supersymmetry with the ATLAS detector using final states with two leptons and missing transverse momentum in root s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions. Phys. Lett. B, 709(3), 137–157.
Abstract: Results of three searches are presented for the production of supersymmetric particles decaying into final states with missing transverse momentum and exactly two isolated leptons, e or mu. The analysis uses a data sample collected during the first half of 2011 that corresponds to a total integrated luminosity of 1 fb(-1) of root s = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Opposite-sign and same-sign dilepton events are separately studied, with no deviations from the Standard Model expectation observed. Additionally, in opposite-sign events, a search is made for an excess of same-flavour over different-flavour lepton pairs. Effective production cross sections in excess of 9.9 fb for opposite-sign events containing supersymmetric particles with missing transverse momentum greater than 250 GeV are excluded at 95% CL For same-sign events containing supersymmetric particles with missing transverse momentum greater than 100 GeV, effective production cross sections in excess of 14.8 fb are excluded at 95% CL The latter limit is interpreted in a simplified electroweak gaugino production model excluding chargino masses up to 200 GeV, under the assumption that slepton decay is dominant.
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