Abstract: We present the technical/physical foundations of a new imaging technique that combines ordinary radiographic information (generated by conventional X-ray settings) with the patient's volume to derive densitometric images. Traditionally, these images provide quantitative information about tissues densities. In our approach, they graphically enhance either soft or bony regions. After measuring the patient's volume with contour recognition devices, the physical traversed lengths within it (as the Roentgen beam intersects the patient) are calculated and pixel-wise associated with the original radiograph (X). In order to derive this map of lengths (L), the camera equations of the X-ray system and the contour sensor are determined. The patient's surface is also translated to the point-of-view of the X-ray beam and all its entrance/exit points are sought with the help of ray-casting methods. The derived L is applied to X as a physical operation (subtraction), obtaining soft tissue-(D-S) or bone-enhanced (D'(B)) figures. In the D-S type, the contained graphical information can be linearly mapped to the average electronic density (traversed by the X-ray beam). This feature represents an interesting proof-of-concept of associating density data to radiographs, but most important, their intensity histogram is objectively compressed, i.e., the dynamic range is more shrunk (compared against the corresponding X). This leads to other advantages: improvement in the visibility of border/edge areas (high gradient), extended manual window level/width manipulations during screening, and immediate correction of underexposed X instances. In the D-B' type, high-density elements are highlighted and easier to discern. All these results can be achieved with low-energy beam exposures, saving costs and dose. Future work will deepen this clinical side of our research. In contrast with other image-based modifiers, the proposed method is grounded on the measurement of a physical entity: the span of the X-ray beam within a body while undertaking a radiographic examination.

Abstract: We present the results of the first combined dark matter search targeting the Galactic Center using the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino telescopes. For dark matter particles with masses from 50 to 1000 GeV, the sensitivities on the self-annihilation cross section set by ANTARES and IceCube are comparable, making this mass range particularly interesting for a joint analysis. Dark matter self-annihilation through the tau(+)tau(-) , mu(+)mu(-) , b (b) over bar, and W+W- channels is considered for both the Navarro-Frenk-White and Burkert halo profiles. In the combination of 2101.6 days of ANTARES data and 1007 days of IceCube data, no excess over the expected background is observed. Limits on the thermally averaged dark matter annihilation cross section <sigma(A)upsilon > are set. These limits present an improvement of up to a factor of 2 in the studied dark matter mass range with respect to the individual limits published by both collaborations. When considering dark matter particles with a mass of 200 GeV annihilating through the tau(+)tau(-)channel, the value obtained for the limit is 7.44 x 10(-24) cm(3) s(-1 )for the Navarro-Frenk-White halo profile. For the purpose of this joint analysis, the model parameters and the likelihood are unified, providing a benchmark for forthcoming dark matter searches performed by neutrino telescopes.

Abstract: We present the results of an updated fit of short-baseline neutrino oscillation data in the framework of 3+1 active-sterile neutrino mixing. We first consider v(e) and (v) over bar (e) disappearance in the light of the Gallium and reactor anomalies. We discuss the implications of the recent measurement of the reactor (v) over bar (e) spectrum in the NEOS experiment, which shifts the allowed regions of the parameter space towards smaller values of |U-e1|(2). The beta-decay constraints of the Mainz and Troitsk experiments allow us to limit the oscillation length between about 2 cm and 7 m at 3 sigma for neutrinos with an energy of 1 MeV. The corresponding oscillations can be discovered in a model-independent way in ongoing reactor and source experiments by measuring v(e) and (v) over bar (e), disappearance as a function of distance. We then consider the global fit of the data on short-baseline v(mu)((-)) -> v(e)((-)) transitions in the light of the LSND anomaly, taking into account the constraints from v(e)(( )) and v(mu)((-)) disappearance experiments, including the recent data of the MINOS and IceCube experiments. The combination of the NEOS constraints on |U-e4|(2) and the MINOS and IceCube constraints on |U-mu 4|(2) lead to an unacceptable appearance-disappearance tension which becomes tolerable only in a pragmatic fit which neglects the MiniBooNE low-energy anomaly. The minimization of the global chi(2) in the space of the four mixing parameters Delta m(41)(2), |U-e4|(2), |U-mu 4|(2) and |U-4 tau|(2) leads to three allowed regions with narrow Delta m(41)(2) widths at Delta m(41)(2) approximate to 1.7 (best-fit), 1.3 (at 2 sigma), 2.4 (at 3 sigma) eV(2). The effective amplitude of short-baseline v(mu)((-)) -> v(e)((-)) oscillations is limited by 0.00048 less than or similar to sin(2) 2 nu(e mu) less than or similar to 0.0020 at 3 sigma The restrictions of the allowed regions of the mixing parameters with respect to our previous global fits are mainly due to the NEOS constraints. We present a comparison of the allowed regions of the mixing parameters with the sensitivities of ongoing experiments, which show that it is likely that these experiments will determine in a definitive way if the reactor, Gallium and LSND anomalies are due to active-sterile neutrino oscillations or not.

Abstract: We present the results of a global fit to the Aligned Two-Higgs Doublet Model, assuming that there are no new sources of CP violation beyond the quark mixing matrix. We use the most constraining flavour observables, electroweak precision measurements and the available data on Higgs signal strengths and collider searches for heavy scalars, together with the theoretical requirements of perturbativity and positivity of the scalar potential. The combination of all these constraints restricts the values of the scalar masses, the couplings of the scalar potential and the flavour-alignment parameters. The numerical fits have been performed using the open-source HEPfit package.

Abstract: We present the nonrelativistic limit of the stellar structure equations of Ricci-based gravities, a family of metric-affine theories whose Lagrangian is built via contractions of the metric with the Ricci tensor of an a priori independent connection. We find that this limit is characterized by four parameters that arise in the expansion of several geometric quantities in powers of the stress-energy tensor of the matter fields. We discuss the relevance of this result for the phenomenology of nonrelativistic stars, such as main-sequence stars as well as several substellar objects.