Blume, M., Navab, N., & Rafecas, M. (2012). Joint image and motion reconstruction for PET using a B-spline motion model. Phys. Med. Biol., 57(24), 22pp.
Abstract: We present a novel joint image and motion reconstruction method for PET. The method is based on gated data and reconstructs an image together with amotion function. The motion function can be used to transform the reconstructed image to any of the input gates. All available events (from all gates) are used in the reconstruction. The presented method uses a B-spline motion model, together with a novel motion regularization procedure that does not need a regularization parameter (which is usually extremely difficult to adjust). Several image and motion grid levels are used in order to reduce the reconstruction time. In a simulation study, the presented method is compared to a recently proposed joint reconstruction method. While the presented method provides comparable reconstruction quality, it is much easier to use since no regularization parameter has to be chosen. Furthermore, since the B-spline discretization of the motion function depends on fewer parameters than a displacement field, the presented method is considerably faster and consumes less memory than its counterpart. The method is also applied to clinical data, for which a novel purely data-driven gating approach is presented.
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Bodenstein, S., Bordes, J., Dominguez, C. A., Peñarrocha, J., & Schilcher, K. (2012). Bottom-quark mass from finite energy QCD sum rules. Phys. Rev. D, 85(3), 034003–5pp.
Abstract: Finite energy QCD sum rules involving both inverse-and positive-moment integration kernels are employed to determine the bottom-quark mass. The result obtained in the (MS) over bar scheme at a reference scale of 10 GeV is m (m) over bar (b)(10 GeV) = 3623(9) MeV. This value translates into a scale-invariant mass (m) over bar (b)((m) over bar (b)) = 4171(9) MeV. This result has the lowest total uncertainty of any method, and is less sensitive to a number of systematic uncertainties that affect other QCD sum rule determinations.
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Bonnet, F., Hirsch, M., Ota, T., & Winter, W. (2012). Systematic study of the d=5 Weinberg operator at one-loop order. J. High Energy Phys., 07(7), 153–23pp.
Abstract: We perform a systematic study of the d = 5 Weinberg operator at the one-loop level. We identify three different categories of neutrino mass generation: (1) finite irreducible diagrams; (2) finite extensions of the usual seesaw mechanisms at one-loop and (3) divergent loop realizations of the seesaws. All radiative one-loop neutrino mass models must fall in to one of these classes. Case (1) gives the leading contribution to neutrino mass naturally and a classic example of this class is the Zee model. We demonstrate that in order to prevent that a tree level contribution dominates in case (2), Majorana fermions running in the loop and an additional Z(2) symmetry are needed for a genuinely leading one-loop contribution. In the type-II loop extensions, the Yukawa coupling will be generated at one loop, whereas the type-I/III extensions can be interpreted as loop-induced inverse or linear seesaw mechanisms. For the divergent diagrams in category (3), the tree level contribution cannot be avoided and is in fact needed as counter term to absorb the divergence.
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Bordes, J., Dominguez, C. A., Moodley, P., Peñarrocha, J., & Schilcher, K. (2012). Corrections to the SU(3) x SU(3) Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation and chiral couplings L-8(r) and H-r(2). J. High Energy Phys., 10(10), 102–11pp.
Abstract: Next to leading order corrections to the SU(3) x SU(3) Gell-Mann-OakesRenner relation (GMOR) are obtained using weighted QCD Finite Energy Sum Rules (FESR) involving the pseudoscalar current correlator. Two types of integration kernels in the FESR are used to suppress the contribution of the kaon radial excitations to the hadronic spectral function, one with local and the other with global constraints. The result for the pseudoscalar current correlator at zero momentum is psi(5)(0) = (2.8 +/- 0.3) x 10(-3) GeV4, leading to the chiral corrections to GMOR: delta(K) = (55 +/- 5)%. The resulting uncertainties are mostly due to variations in the upper limit of integration in the FESR, within the stability regions, and to a much lesser extent due to the uncertainties in the strong coupling and the strange quark mass. Higher order quark mass corrections, vacuum condensates, and the hadronic resonance sector play a negligible role in this determination. These results confirm an independent determination from chiral perturbation theory giving also very large corrections, i.e. roughly an order of magnitude larger than the corresponding corrections in chiral SU(2) x SU(2). Combining these results with our previous determination of the corrections to GMOR in chiral SU(2) x SU(2), delta(pi), we are able to determine two low energy constants of chiral perturbation theory, i.e. L-8(r) = (1.0 +/- 0.3) x 10(-3), and H-2(r) = -(4.7 +/- 0.6) x 10(-3), both at the scale of the rho-meson mass.
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Borja, E. F., Garay, I., & Strobel, E. (2012). Revisiting the quantum scalar field in spherically symmetric quantum gravity. Class. Quantum Gravity, 29(14), 145012–19pp.
Abstract: We extend previous results in spherically symmetric gravitational systems coupled with a massless scalar field within the loop quantum gravity framework. As a starting point, we take the Schwarzschild spacetime. The results presented here rely on the uniform discretization method. We are able to minimize the associated discrete master constraint using a variational method. The trial state for the vacuum consists of a direct product of a Fock vacuum for the matter part and a Gaussian centered around the classical Schwarzschild solution. This paper follows the line of research presented by Gambini et al (2009 Class. Quantum Grav. 26 215011 (arXiv: 0906.1774v1)) and a comparison between their result and the one given in this work is made.
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