Solevi, P., Muñoz, E., Solaz, C., Trovato, M., Dendooven, P., Gillam, J. E., et al. (2016). Performance of MACACO Compton telescope for ion-beam therapy monitoring: first test with proton beams. Phys. Med. Biol., 61(14), 5149–5165.
Abstract: In order to exploit the advantages of ion-beam therapy in a clinical setting, delivery verification techniques are necessary to detect deviations from the planned treatment. Efforts are currently oriented towards the development of devices for real-time range monitoring. Among the different detector concepts proposed, Compton cameras are employed to detect prompt gammas and represent a valid candidate for real-time range verification. We present the first on-beam test of MACACO, a Compton telescope (multi-layer Compton camera) based on lanthanum bromide crystals and silicon photo-multipliers. The Compton telescope was first characterized through measurements and Monte Carlo simulations. The detector linearity was measured employing Na-22 and Am-Be sources, obtaining about 10% deviation from linearity at 3.44 MeV. A spectral image reconstruction algorithm was tested on synthetic data. Point-like sources emitting gamma rays with energy between 2 and 7 MeV were reconstructed with 3-5 mm resolution. The two-layer Compton telescope was employed to measure radiation emitted from a beam of 150 MeV protons impinging on a cylindrical PMMA target. Bragg-peak shifts were achieved via adjustment of the PMMA target location and the resulting measurements used during image reconstruction. Reconstructed Bragg peak profiles proved sufficient to observe peak-location differences within 10 mm demonstrating the potential of the MACACO Compton Telescope as a monitoring device for ion-beam therapy.
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Ferrando Solera, S., Pich, A., & Vale Silva, L. (2024). Direct bounds on Left-Right gauge boson masses at LHC Run 2. J. High Energy Phys., 02(2), 027–39pp.
Abstract: While the third run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is ongoing, the underlying theory that extends the Standard Model remains so far unknown. Left-Right Models (LRMs) introduce a new gauge sector, and can restore parity symmetry at high enough energies. If LRMs are indeed realized in nature, the mediators of the new weak force can be searched for in colliders via their direct production. We recast existing experimental limits from the LHC Run 2 and derive generic bounds on the masses of the heavy LRM gauge bosons. As a novelty, we discuss the dependence of the WR and ZR total width on the LRM scalar content, obtaining model-independent bounds within the specific realizations of the LRM scalar sectors analysed here. These bounds avoid the need to detail the spectrum of the scalar sector, and apply in the general case where no discrete symmetry is enforced. Moreover, we emphasize the impact on the WR production at LHC of general textures of the right-handed quark mixing matrix without manifest left-right symmetry. We find that the WR and ZR masses are constrained to lie above 2 TeV and 4 TeV, respectively.
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AMON and ANTARES Collaborations(Ayala Solares, H. A. et al), Barrios-Marti, J., Coleiro, A., Colomer, M., Gozzini, R., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2019). A Search for Cosmic Neutrino and Gamma-Ray Emitting Transients in 7.3 yr of ANTARES and Fermi LAT Data. Astrophys. J., 886(2), 98–8pp.
Abstract: We analyze 7.3 yr of ANTARES high-energy neutrino and Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) gamma-ray data in search of cosmic neutrino + gamma-ray (nu + gamma) transient sources or source populations. Our analysis has the potential to detect either individual nu + gamma transient sources (durations delta t less than or similar to 1000 s), if they exhibit sufficient gamma-ray or neutrino multiplicity, or a statistical excess of nu + gamma transients of individually lower multiplicities. Individual high gamma-ray multiplicity events could be produced, for example, by a single ANTARES neutrino in coincidence with a LAT-detected gamma-ray burst. Treating ANTARES track and cascade event types separately, we establish detection thresholds by Monte Carlo scrambling of the neutrino data, and determine our analysis sensitivity by signal injection against these scrambled data sets. We find our analysis is sensitive to nu + gamma transient populations responsible for >5% of the observed gamma-coincident neutrinos in the track data at 90% confidence. Applying our analysis to the unscrambled data reveals no individual nu + gamma events of high significance; two ANTARES track + Fermi gamma-ray events are identified that exceed a once per decade false alarm rate threshold (p = 17%). No evidence for subthreshold nu + gamma source populations is found among the track (p = 39%) or cascade (p = 60%) events. Exploring a possible correlation of high-energy neutrino directions with Fermi gamma-ray sky brightness identified in previous work yields no added support for this correlation. While TXS.0506+056, a blazar and variable (nontransient) Fermi gamma-ray source, has recently been identified as the first source of high-energy neutrinos, the challenges in reconciling observations of the Fermi gamma-ray sky, the IceCube high-energy cosmic neutrinos, and ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays using only blazars suggest a significant contribution by other source populations. Searches for transient sources of high-energy neutrinos thus remain interesting, with the potential for either neutrino clustering or multimessenger coincidence searches to lead to discovery of the first nu + gamma transients.
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AMON Team, H. A. W. C. and I. C. C.(A. S., H.A. et al), & Salesa Greus, F. (2021). Multimessenger Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Coincidence Alerts Using HAWC and IceCube Subthreshold Data. Astrophys. J., 906(1), 63–10pp.
Abstract: The High Altitude Water Cerenkov (HAWC) and IceCube observatories, through the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON) framework, have developed a multimessenger joint search for extragalactic astrophysical sources. This analysis looks for sources that emit both cosmic neutrinos and gamma rays that are produced in photohadronic or hadronic interactions. The AMON system is running continuously, receiving subthreshold data (i.e., data that are not suited on their own to do astrophysical searches) from HAWC and IceCube, and combining them in real time. Here we present the analysis algorithm, as well as results from archival data collected between 2015 June and 2018 August, with a total live time of 3.0 yr. During this period we found two coincident events that have a false-alarm rate (FAR) of <1 coincidence yr(-1), consistent with the background expectations. The real-time implementation of the analysis in the AMON system began on 2019 November 20 and issues alerts to the community through the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network with an FAR threshold of <4 coincidences yr(-1).
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AMON Team, A. N. T. A. R. E. S. and H. A. W. C. C.(A. S., H.A. et al), Alves Garres, S., Calvo, D., Carretero, V., Gozzini, R., Hernandez-Rey, J. J., et al. (2023). Search for Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Coincidences Using HAWC and ANTARES Data. Astrophys. J., 944(2), 166–9pp.
Abstract: In the quest for high-energy neutrino sources, the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network has implemented a new search by combining data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory and the Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (ANTARES) neutrino telescope. Using the same analysis strategy as in a previous detector combination of HAWC and IceCube data, we perform a search for coincidences in HAWC and ANTARES events that are below the threshold for sending public alerts in each individual detector. Data were collected between 2015 July and 2020 February with a live time of 4.39 yr. Over this time period, three coincident events with an estimated false-alarm rate of <1 coincidence per year were found. This number is consistent with background expectations.
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