ANTARES Collaboration(Tamburini, C. et al), Aguilar, J. A., Bigongiari, C., Dornic, D., Emanuele, U., Gomez-Gonzalez, J. P., et al. (2013). Deep-Sea Bioluminescence Blooms after Dense Water Formation at the Ocean Surface. PLoS One, 8(7), e67523–10pp.
Abstract: The deep ocean is the largest and least known ecosystem on Earth. It hosts numerous pelagic organisms, most of which are able to emit light. Here we present a unique data set consisting of a 2.5-year long record of light emission by deep-sea pelagic organisms, measured from December 2007 to June 2010 at the ANTARES underwater neutrino telescope in the deep NW Mediterranean Sea, jointly with synchronous hydrological records. This is the longest continuous time-series of deep-sea bioluminescence ever recorded. Our record reveals several weeks long, seasonal bioluminescence blooms with light intensity up to two orders of magnitude higher than background values, which correlate to changes in the properties of deep waters. Such changes are triggered by the winter cooling and evaporation experienced by the upper ocean layer in the Gulf of Lion that leads to the formation and subsequent sinking of dense water through a process known as “open-sea convection”. It episodically renews the deep water of the study area and conveys fresh organic matter that fuels the deep ecosystems. Luminous bacteria most likely are the main contributors to the observed deep-sea bioluminescence blooms. Our observations demonstrate a consistent and rapid connection between deep open-sea convection and bathypelagic biological activity, as expressed by bioluminescence. In a setting where dense water formation events are likely to decline under global warming scenarios enhancing ocean stratification, in situ observatories become essential as environmental sentinels for the monitoring and understanding of deep-sea ecosystem shifts.
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Tolos, L., Cabrera, D., Garcia-Recio, C., Molina, R., Nieves, J., Oset, E., et al. (2013). Strangeness and charm in nuclear matter. Nucl. Phys. A, 914, 461–471.
Abstract: The properties of strange (K, (K) over bar and (K) over bar*) and open-charm (D, (D) over bar and D*) mesons in dense matter are studied using a unitary approach in coupled channels for meson-baryon scattering. In the strangeness sector, the interaction with nucleons always comes through vector-meson exchange, which is evaluated by chiral and hidden gauge Lagrangians. For the interaction of charmed mesons with nucleons we extend the SU(3) Weinberg-Tomozawa Lagrangian to incorporate spin-flavor symmetry and implement a suitable flavor symmetry breaking. The in-medium solution for the scattering amplitude accounts for Pauli blocking effects and meson self-energies. On one hand, we obtain the K, (K) over bar and (K) over bar* spectral functions in the nuclear medium and study their behaviour at finite density, temperature and momentum. We also make an estimate of the transparency ratio of the gamma A -> K+ K*(-) A' reaction, which we propose as a tool to detect in-medium modifications of the (K) over bar* meson. On the other hand, in the charm sector, several resonances with negative parity are generated dynamically by the s-wave interaction between pseudoscalar and vector meson multiplets with 1/2(+) and 3/2(+) baryons. The properties of these states in matter are analyzed and their influence on the open-charm meson spectral functions is studied. We finally discuss the possible formation of D-mesic nuclei at FAIR energies.
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Martinez Torres, A., Khemchandani, K. P., Nielsen, M., Navarra, F. S., & Oset, E. (2013). Exploring the D* rho system within QCD sum rules. Phys. Rev. D, 88(7), 074033–14pp.
Abstract: We present a study of the D* rho system made by using the method of QCD sum rules to determine the mass of possible resonances generated in the same system. Using isospin and spin projectors, we investigate the different configurations and obtain evidences for three D* mesons with isospin I = 1/2, spin S = 0, 1, 2 and with masses 2500 +/- 67, 2523 +/- 60, and 2439 +/- 119 MeV, respectively. The last state can be associated with D-2*(2460) ( spin 2) listed by the Particle Data Group, while one of the first two might be related to D* (2640), with unknown spin parity. In the case of I = 3/2 we also find evidences of three states with spin 0, 1, and 2, respectively, with masses 2467 +/- 82, 2420 +/- 128, and 2550 +/- 56 MeV. The results for the sector I = 1/2 and S 0, 1, 2, are intriguingly similar to a previous study of the D* rho system based on effective field theories, supporting in this way a molecular picture for the resonances D* (2640) and D-2* (2460), while the results for I = 3/2 hint towards the existence of exotic mesons since a multiquark configuration is required to get the quantum numbers of the states found.
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Martinez Torres, A., Khemchandani, K. P., Jido, D., Kanada-En'yo, Y., & Oset, E. (2013). Three-body hadron systems with strangeness. Nucl. Phys. A, 914, 280–288.
Abstract: Recently, many efforts are being put in studying three-hadron systems made of mesons and baryons and interesting results are being found. In this talk, we summarize the main features of the formalism used to study such three hadron systems with strangeness S = -1, 0 within a framework built on the basis of unitary chiral theories and solution of the Faddeev equations. In particular, we present the results obtained for the pi(K) over barN, K (K) over barN and KK (K) over bar systems and their respective coupled channels. In the first case, we find four Sigma's and two A's with spin-parity J(P) = 1/2(+), in the 1500-1800 MeV region, as two meson-one baryon s-wave resonances. In the second case, a 1/2(+) N* around 1900 MeV is found. For the last one a kaon close to 1420 MeV is formed, which can be identified with K(1460).
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Vandone, V. et al, Gadea, A., & Huyuk, T. (2013). Global properties of K hindrance probed by the gamma decay of the warm rotating W-174 nucleus. Phys. Rev. C, 88(3), 034312–9pp.
Abstract: The K hindrance to the gamma decay is studied in the warm rotating W-174 nucleus, focusing on the weakening of the selection rules of the K quantum number with increasing excitation energy. W-174 was populated by the fusion reaction of Ti-50 (at 217 MeV) on a Te-128 target, and its gamma decay was detected by the AGATA Demonstrator array coupled to a BaF2 multiplicity filter at Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of INFN. A fluctuation analysis of gamma coincidence matrices gives a similar number of low-K and high-K discrete excited bands. The results are compared to simulations of the gamma-decay flow based on a microscopic cranked shell model at finite temperature in which the K mixing is governed by the interplay of Coriolis force with the residual interaction. Agreement between simulations and experiment is obtained only by hindering the E1 decay between low-K and high-K bands by an amount compatible with that determined by spectroscopic studies of K isomers in the same mass region, with a similar trend with excitation energy. The work indicates that K mixing due to temperature effects may play a leading role for the entire body of discrete excited bands, which probes the onset region of K weakening.
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Verdu-Andres, S., Amaldi, U., & Faus-Golfe, A. (2013). CABOTO, a high-gradient linac for hadrontherapy. J. Radiat. Res., 54, 155–161.
Abstract: The field of hadrontherapy has grown rapidly in recent years. At present the therapeutic beam is provided by a cyclotron or a synchrotron, but neither cyclotrons nor synchrotrons present the best performances for hadrontherapy. The new generation of accelerators for hadrontherapy should allow fast active energy modulation and have a high repetition rate, so that moving organs can be appropriately treated in a reasonable time. In addition, a reduction of the dimensions and cost of the accelerators for hadrontherapy would make the acquisition and operation of a hadrontherapy facility more affordable, which would translate into great benefits for the potential hadrontherapy patients. The 'cyclinac', an accelerator concept that combines a cyclotron with a high-frequency linear accelerator (linac), is a fast-cycling machine specifically conceived to allow for fast active energy modulation. The present paper focuses on CABOTO (CArbon BOoster for Therapy in Oncology), a compact, efficient high-frequency linac that can accelerate C6+ ions and H-2 molecules from 150-410 MeV/u in similar to 24 m. The paper presents the latest design of CABOTO and discusses its performances.
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Vijande, J., Granero, D., Perez-Calatayud, J., & Ballester, F. (2013). Monte Carlo dosimetric study of the medium dose rate CSM40 source. Appl. Radiat. Isot., 82, 283–288.
Abstract: The Cs-137 medium dose rate (MDR) CSM40 source model (Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG, Germany) is in clinical use but no dosimetric dataset has been published. This study aims to obtain dosimetric data for the CSM40 source for its use in clinical practice as required by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) and the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO). Penelope2008 and Geant4 Monte Carlo codes were used to characterize this source dosimetrically. It was located in an unbounded water phantom with composition and mass density as recommended by AAPM and ESTRO. Due to the low photon energies of Cs-137, absorbed dose was approximated by collisional kerma. Additional simulations were performed to obtain the air-kerma strength, sic. Mass-energy absorption coefficients in water and air were consistently derived and used to calculate collisional kerma. Results performed with both radiation transport codes showed agreement typically within 0.05%. Dose rate constant, radial dose function and anisotropy function are provided for the CSM40 and compared with published data for other commercially available Cs-137 sources. An uncertainty analysis has been performed. The data provided by this study can be used as input data and verification in the treatment planning systems. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Vijande, J., Valcarce, A., & Richard, J. M. (2013). Adiabaticity and color mixing in tetraquark spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. D, 87(3), 034040–5pp.
Abstract: We revisit the role of color mixing in the quark model calculation of tetraquark states, and compare simple pairwise potentials to more elaborate string models with three-and four-body forces. We attempt to disentangle the improved dynamics of confinement from the approximations made in the treatment of the internal color degrees of freedom.
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Vijande, J., Valcarce, A., Carames, T. F., & Garcilazo, H. (2013). Heavy hadron spectroscopy: A quark model perspective. Nucl. Phys. A, 914, 472–481.
Abstract: We present recent results of hadron spectroscopy and hadron-hadron interaction from the perspective of constituent quark models. We pay special attention to the role played by higher order Fock space components in the hadron spectra and the connection of this extension with the hadron-hadron interaction. The main goal of our description is to obtain a coherent understanding of the low-energy hadron phenomenology without enforcing any particular model, to constrain its characteristics and learn about low-energy realization of the theory.
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Vincent, A. C., Scott, P., & Trampedach, R. (2013). Light bosons in the photosphere and the solar abundance problem. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 432(4), 3332–3339.
Abstract: Spectroscopy is used to measure the elemental abundances in the outer layers of the Sun, whereas helioseismology probes the interior. It is well known that current spectroscopic determinations of the chemical composition are starkly at odds with the metallicity implied by helioseismology. We investigate whether the discrepancy may be due to conversion of photons to a new light boson in the solar photosphere. We examine the impact of particles with axion-like interactions with the photon on the inferred photospheric abundances, showing that resonant axion-photon conversion is not possible in the region of the solar atmosphere in which line formation occurs. Although non-resonant conversion in the line-forming regions can in principle impact derived abundances, constraints from axion-photon conversion experiments rule out the couplings necessary for these effects to be detectable. We show that this extends to hidden photons and chameleons (which would exhibit similar phenomenological behaviour), ruling out known theories of new light bosons as photospheric solutions to the solar abundance problem.
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