ANTARES Collaboration(Andre, M. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., Illuminati, G., Tönnis, C., Zornoza, J. D., et al. (2017). Sperm whale long-range echolocation sounds revealed by ANTARES, a deep-sea neutrino telescope. Sci Rep, 7, 45517–12pp.
Abstract: Despite dedicated research has been carried out to adequately map the distribution of the sperm whale in the Mediterranean Sea, unlike other regions of the world, the species population status is still presently uncertain. The analysis of two years of continuous acoustic data provided by the ANTARES neutrino telescope revealed the year-round presence of sperm whales in the Ligurian Sea, probably associated with the availability of cephalopods in the region. The presence of the Ligurian Sea sperm whales was demonstrated through the real-time analysis of audio data streamed from a cabled-to-shore deep-sea observatory that allowed the hourly tracking of their long-range echolocation behaviour on the Internet. Interestingly, the same acoustic analysis indicated that the occurrence of surface shipping noise would apparently not condition the foraging behaviour of the sperm whale in the area, since shipping noise was almost always present when sperm whales were acoustically detected. The continuous presence of the sperm whale in the region confirms the ecological value of the Ligurian sea and the importance of ANTARES to help monitoring its ecosystems.
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Esteban, I., Mena, O., & Salvado, J. (2022). Nonstandard neutrino cosmology dilutes the lensing anomaly. Phys. Rev. D, 106(8), 083516–9pp.
Abstract: Despite the impressive success of the standard cosmological model, several anomalies defy its triumph. Among them is the so-called lensing anomaly: The Planck satellite observes stronger cosmic microwave background (CMB) gravitational lensing than expected. The role of neutrinos in this anomaly has been mostly overlooked, despite their key role in CMB lensing, because in the standard scenario they tend to increase the tension. Here, we show that this strongly depends on the assumed neutrino equation of state. We demonstrate that if neutrinos have yet undiscovered long-range interactions, the lensing pattern is significantly affected, rendering the lensing anomaly as a statistical fluctuation. Our results, thus, open up a window to link anomalous CMB lensing with present and future cosmological, astrophysical, and laboratory measurements of neutrino properties.
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KM3NeT Collaboration(Adrian-Martinez, S. et al), Aguilar, J. A., Bigongiari, C., Calvo Diaz-Aldagalan, D., Emanuele, U., Gomez-Gonzalez, J. P., et al. (2013). Expansion cone for the 3-inch PMTs of the KM3NeT optical modules. J. Instrum., 8, T03006–20pp.
Abstract: Detection of high-energy neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources will open a new window on the Universe. The detection principle exploits the measurement of Cherenkov light emitted by charged particles resulting from neutrino interactions in the matter containing the telescope. A novel multi-PMT digital optical module (DOM) was developed to contain 31 3-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). In order to maximize the detector sensitivity, each PMT will be surrounded by an expansion cone which collects photons that would otherwise miss the photocathode. Results for various angles of incidence with respect to the PMT surface indicate an increase in collection efficiency by 30% on average for angles up to 45 degrees with respect to the perpendicular. Ray-tracing calculations could reproduce the measurements, allowing to estimate an increase in the overall photocathode sensitivity, integrated over all angles of incidence, by 27% (for a single PMT). Prototype DOMs, being built by the KM3NeT consortium, will be equipped with these expansion cones.
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Barrio, J., Etxebeste, A., Lacasta, C., Muñoz, E., Oliver, J. F., Solaz, C., et al. (2015). Performance of VATA64HDR16 ASIC for medical physics applications based on continuous crystals and SiPMs. J. Instrum., 10, P12001–12pp.
Abstract: Detectors based on Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) coupled to continuous crystals are being tested in medical physics applications due to their potential high resolution and sensitivity. To cope with the high granularity required for a very good spatial resolution, SiPM matrices with a large amount of elements are needed. To be able to read the information coming from each individual channel, dedicated ASICs are employed. The VATA64HDR16 ASIC is a 64-channel, charge-sensitive amplifier that converts the collected charge into a proportional current or voltage signal. A complete assessment of the suitability of that ASIC for medical physics applications based on continuous crystals and SiPMs has been carried out. The input charge range is linear from 20 pC up to 55 pC. The energy resolution obtained at 511 keV is 10% FWHM with a LaBr3 crystal and 16% FWHM with a LYSO crystal. A coincidence timing resolution of 24 ns FWHM is obtained with two LYSO crystals.
Keywords: Solid state detectors; Photon detectors for UV, visible and IR photons (solid-state) (PIN diodes, APDs, Si-PMTs, G-APDs, CCDs, EBCCDs, EMCCDs etc); Front-end electronics for detector readout; Gamma detectors (scintillators, CZT, HPG, HgI etc)
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SCiMMA and SNEWS Collaborations(Baxter, A. L. et al), & Colomer, M. (2022). Collaborative experience between scientific software projects using Agile Scrum development. Softw.-Pract. Exp., 52, 2077–2096.
Abstract: Developing sustainable software for the scientific community requires expertise in software engineering and domain science. This can be challenging due to the unique needs of scientific software, the insufficient resources for software engineering practices in the scientific community, and the complexity of developing for evolving scientific contexts. While open-source software can partially address these concerns, it can introduce complicating dependencies and delay development. These issues can be reduced if scientists and software developers collaborate. We present a case study wherein scientists from the SuperNova Early Warning System collaborated with software developers from the Scalable Cyberinfrastructure for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics project. The collaboration addressed the difficulties of open-source software development, but presented additional risks to each team. For the scientists, there was a concern of relying on external systems and lacking control in the development process. For the developers, there was a risk in supporting a user-group while maintaining core development. These issues were mitigated by creating a second Agile Scrum framework in parallel with the developers' ongoing Agile Scrum process. This Agile collaboration promoted communication, ensured that the scientists had an active role in development, and allowed the developers to evaluate and implement the scientists' software requirements. The collaboration provided benefits for each group: the scientists actuated their development by using an existing platform, and the developers utilized the scientists' use-case to improve their systems. This case study suggests that scientists and software developers can avoid scientific computing issues by collaborating and that Agile Scrum methods can address emergent concerns.
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Gariazzo, S., Martinez-Mirave, P., Mena, O., Pastor, S., & Tortola, M. (2023). Non-unitary three-neutrino mixing in the early Universe. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 046–18pp.
Abstract: Deviations from unitarity in the three-neutrino mixing canonical picture are expected in many physics scenarios beyond the Standard Model. The mixing of new heavy neutral leptons with the three light neutrinos would in principle modify the strength and flavour structure of charged-current and neutral-current interactions with matter. Non-unitarity effects would therefore have an impact on the neutrino decoupling processes in the early Universe and on the value of the effective number of neutrinos, Neff. We calculate the cosmological energy density in the form of radiation with a non-unitary neutrino mixing matrix, addressing the possible interplay between parameters. Highly accurate measurements of Neff from forthcoming cosmological observations can provide independent and complementary limits on the departures from unitarity. For completeness, we relate the scenario of small deviations from unitarity to non-standard neutrino interactions and compare the forecasted constraints to other existing limits in the literature.
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Martinez-Reviriego, P., Esperante, D., Grudiev, A., Gimeno, B., Blanch, C., Gonzalez-Iglesias, D., et al. (2024). Dielectric assist accelerating structures for compact linear accelerators of low energy particles in hadrontherapy treatments. Front. Physics, 12, 1345237–12pp.
Abstract: Dielectric Assist Accelerating (DAA) structures based on ultralow-loss ceramic are being studied as an alternative to conventional disk-loaded copper cavities. This accelerating structure consists of dielectric disks with irises arranged periodically in metallic structures working under the TM02-pi mode. In this paper, the numerical design of an S-band DAA structure for low beta particles, such as protons or carbon ions used for Hadrontherapy treatments, is shown. Four dielectric materials with different permittivity and loss tangent are studied as well as different particle velocities. Through optimization, a design that concentrates most of the RF power in the vacuum space near the beam axis is obtained, leading to a significant reduction of power loss on the metallic walls. This allows to fabricate cavities with an extremely high quality factor, over 100,000, and shunt impedance over 300 M omega/m at room temperature. During the numerical study, the design optimization has been improved by adjusting some of the cell parameters in order to both increase the shunt impedance and reduce the peak electric field in certain locations of the cavity, which can lead to instabilities in its normal functioning.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amos, K. R., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Bouchhar, N., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2023). Inclusive and differential cross-sections for dilepton ttbar production measured in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 141–78pp.
Abstract: Differential and double-differential distributions of kinematic variables of leptons from decays of top-quark pairs (t (t) over bar) are measured using the full LHC Run 2 data sample collected with the ATLAS detector. The data were collected at a pp collision energy of root s = 13TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb(-1). The measurements use events containing an oppositely charged e μpair and b-tagged jets. The results are compared with predictions from several Monte Carlo generators. While no prediction is found to be consistent with all distributions, a better agreement with measurements of the lepton p(T) distributions is obtained by reweighting the t (t) over bar sample so as to reproduce the top-quark p(T) distribution from an NNLO calculation. The inclusive top-quark pair production cross-section is measured as well, both in a fiducial region and in the full phase-space. The total inclusive cross-section is found to be sigma(t (t) over bar) = 829 +/- 1 (stat) +/- 13 (syst) +/- 8 (lumi) +/- 2 (beam) pb, where the uncertainties are due to statistics, systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the beam energy. This is in excellent agreement with the theoretical expectation.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amos, K. R., Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Bouchhar, N., Cabrera Urban, S., et al. (2023). Measurements of Zγ plus jets differential cross sections in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 072–57pp.
Abstract: Differential cross-section measurements of Z gamma production in association with hadronic jets are presented, using the full 139 fb(-1) dataset of root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions collected by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the LHC. Distributions are measured using events in which the Z boson decays leptonically and the photon is usually radiated from an initial-state quark. Measurements are made in both one and two observables, including those sensitive to the hard scattering in the event and others which probe additional soft and collinear radiation. Different Standard Model predictions, from both parton-shower Monte Carlo simulation and fixed-order QCD calculations, are compared with the measurements. In general, good agreement is observed between data and predictions from MATRIX and MiNNLOPS, as well as next-to-leading-order predictions from MadGraph5_aMC@NLO and Sherpa.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo, F. L., Castillo Gimenez, V., et al. (2021). Differential cross-section measurements for the electroweak production of dijets in association with a Z boson in proton-proton collisions at ATLAS. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(2), 163–42pp.
Abstract: Differential cross-sectionmeasurements are presented for the electroweak production of two jets in association with a Z boson. These measurements are sensitive to the vector-boson fusion production mechanism and provide a fundamental test of the gauge structure of the Standard Model. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by ATLAS at root s = 13 TeV and with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). The differential cross-sections are measured in the Z -> l(+)l(-) decay channel (l = e, mu) as a function of four observables: the dijet invariant mass, the rapidity interval spanned by the two jets, the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets, and the transverse momentum of the dilepton pair. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution and are sufficiently precise to distinguish between different state-of-the-art theoretical predictions calculated using Powheg+Pythia8, Herwig7+Vbfnlo and Sherpa 2.2. The differential cross-sections are used to search for anomalous weak-boson self-interactions using a dimension-six effective field theory. Themeasurement of the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets is found to be particularly sensitive to the interference between the Standard-Model and dimension-six scattering amplitudes and provides a direct test of charge-conjugation and parity invariance in the weak-boson self-interactions.
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