Abstract: In this paper, we report the development and performance of a detector module envisaging a tritium-in-water real-time activity monitor. The monitor is based on modular detection units whose number can be chosen according to the required sensitivity. The full system is being designed to achieve a Minimum Detectable Activity (MDA) of 100 Bq/L of tritium-in-water activity which is the limit established by the E.U. Council Directive 2013/51/Euratom for water intended for human consumption. The same system can be used as a real-time pre-alert system for nuclear power plant regarding tritium-in water environmental surveillance. The first detector module was characterized, commissioned and installed immediately after the discharge channel of the Arrocampo dam (Almaraz nuclear power plant, Spain) on the Tagus river. Due to the high sensitivity of the single detection modules, the system requires radioactive background mitigation techniques through the use of active and passive shielding. We have extrapolated a MDA of 3.6 kBq/L for a single module being this value limited by the cosmic background. The obtained value for a single module is already compatible with a real-time environmental surveillance and pre-alert system. Further optimization of the single-module sensitivity will imply the reduction of the number of modules and the cost of the detector system.

Abstract: In this work we present simulation results for a modular tritium in-water real-time monitor. The system allows for scalability in order to achieve the required sensitivity. The modules are composed by 340 uncladed scintillating fibers immersed in water and 2 photosensors in coincidence for light readout. Light yield and Birks' coefficient uncertainties for low energy beta particles is discussed. A study of the detection efficiency according to the fiber length is presented. Discussion on the system requirements and background mitigation for a device with sensitivity of 100 Bq/L, required to comply with the European directive 2013/51/Euratom, is presented. Due to the low energetic beta emission from tritium a detection efficiency close to 3.3% was calculated for a single 2 mm round fiber.

Abstract: We use the latest constraints on the population of stellar origin binary black holes (SOBBH) from LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) observations, to estimate the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) they generate in the frequency band of LISA. In order to account for the faint and distant binaries, which contribute the most to the SGWB, we extend the merger rate at high redshift assuming that it tracks the star formation rate. We adopt different methods to compute the SGWB signal: we perform an analytical evaluation, we use Monte Carlo sums over the SOBBH population realisations, and we account for the role of the detector by simulating LISA data and iteratively removing the resolvable signals until only the confusion noise is left. The last method allows the extraction of both the expected SGWB and the number of resolvable SOBBHs. Since the latter are few for signal-to-noise ratio thresholds larger than five, we confirm that the spectral shape of the SGWB in the LISA band agrees with the analytical prediction of a single power law. We infer the probability distribution of the SGWB amplitude from the LVK GWTC-3 posterior of the binary population model: at the reference frequency of 0.003 Hz it has an interquartile range of h2ΩGW(f = 3 × 10-3 Hz) ∈ [5.65, 11.5] × 10-13, in agreement with most previous estimates. We then perform a MC analysis to assess LISA's capability to detect and characterise this signal. Accounting for both the instrumental noise and the galactic binaries foreground, with four years of data, LISA will be able to detect the SOBBH SGWB with percent accuracy, narrowing down the uncertainty on the amplitude by one order of magnitude with respect to the range of possible amplitudes inferred from the population model. A measurement of this signal by LISA will help to break the degeneracy among some of the population parameters, and provide interesting constraints, in particular on the redshift evolution of the SOBBH merger rate.

Abstract: We report on the first search for electron-muon lepton flavor violation (LFV) in the decay of a b quark and b antiquark bound state. We look for the LFV decay Upsilon(3S) -> e(+/-) mu(-/+) in a sample of 118 million gamma(3S) mesons from 27 fb(-1) of data collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II e(+) e(-) collider operating with a 10.36 GeV center-of-mass energy. No evidence for a signal is found, and we set a limit on the branching fraction B[Upsilon(3S) -> e(+/-) mu(-/+)] < 3.6 x 10(-7) at 90% C. L. This result can be interpreted as a limit Lambda(NP)/g(NP)(2) > 80 TeV on the energy scale Lambda(NT) divided by the coupling-squared g(NP)(2) of relevant new physics (NP).

Abstract: We study the processes e(+)e(-) -> 2(pi(+)pi(-))pi(0)pi(0)pi(0)gamma and 2(pi(+)pi(-))pi(0)pi(0)eta gamma in which an energetic photon is radiated from the initial state. The data were collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. About 14 000 and 4700 events, respectively, are selected from a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 469 fb(-1). The invariant mass of the hadronic final state defines the effective e(+)e(-) center-of-mass energy. The center-of-mass energies range from threshold to 4.5 GeV. From the mass spectra, the first ever measurements of the e(+)e(-) -> 2(pi(+)pi(-))pi(0)pi(0)pi(0) and the e(+)e(-) -> 2(pi(+)pi(-))pi(0)pi(0)eta cross sections are performed. The contributions from omega pi(+)pi(-)pi(0)pi(0), eta 2(pi(+)pi(-)), and other intermediate states are presented. We observe the J/psi and psi(2S) in most of these final states and measure the corresponding branching fractions, many of them for the first time.