Babiano, V., Caballero, L., Calvo, D., Ladarescu, I., Olleros, P., & Domingo-Pardo, C. (2019). gamma-Ray position reconstruction in large monolithic LaCl3(Ce) crystals with SiPM readout. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 931, 1–22.
Abstract: We report on the spatial response characterization of large LaCl3(Ce) monolithic crystals optically coupled to 8 x 8 pixel silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) sensors. A systematic study has been carried out for 511 keV gamma-rays using three different crystal thicknesses of 10 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm, all of them with planar geometry and a base size of 50 x 50 mm(2). In this work we investigate and compare two different approaches for the determination of the main gamma-ray hit location. On one hand, methods based on the fit of an analytical model for the scintillation light distribution provide the best results in terms of linearity and field of view, with spatial resolutions close to similar to 1 mm FWHM. On the other hand, position reconstruction techniques based on neural networks provide similar linearity and field-of-view, becoming the attainable spatial resolution similar to 3 mm FWHM. For the third space coordinate z or depth-of-interaction we have implemented an inverse linear calibration approach based on the cross-section of the measured scintillation-light distribution at a certain height. The detectors characterized in this work are intended for the development of so-called Total Energy Detectors with Compton imaging capability (i-TED), aimed at enhanced sensitivity and selectivity measurements of neutron capture cross sections via the time-of-flight (TOF) technique.
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Babiano-Suarez, V. et al, Lerendegui-Marco, J., Balibrea-Correa, J., Caballero, L., Calvo, D., Ladarescu, I., et al. (2021). Imaging neutron capture cross sections: i-TED proof-of-concept and future prospects based on Machine-Learning techniques. Eur. Phys. J. A, 57(6), 197–17pp.
Abstract: i-TED is an innovative detection system which exploits Compton imaging techniques to achieve a superior signal-to-background ratio in (n, gamma) cross-section measurements using time-of-flight technique. This work presents the first experimental validation of the i-TED apparatus for high-resolution time-of-flight experiments and demonstrates for the first time the concept proposed for background rejection. To this aim, the Au-197(n, gamma) and Fe-56(n, gamma) reactions were studied at CERN n_TOF using an i-TED demonstrator based on three position-sensitive detectors. Two C6D6 detectors were also used to benchmark the performance of i-TED. The i-TED prototype built for this study shows a factor of similar to 3 higher detection sensitivity than state-of-the-art C6D6 detectors in the 10 keV neutron-energy region of astrophysical interest. This paper explores also the perspectives of further enhancement in performance attainable with the final i-TED array consisting of twenty position-sensitive detectors and newanalysis methodologies based on Machine-Learning techniques.
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Bach, E. et al, Bernabeu, J., Lacasta, C., Solaz, C., & Soldevila, U. (2024). Analysis of the quality assurance results from the initial part of production of the ATLAS18 ITK strip sensors. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 1064, 169435–8pp.
Abstract: The production of strip sensors for the ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) started in 2021. Since then, a Quality Assurance (QA) program has been carried out continuously, by using specific test structures, in parallel to the Quality Control (QC) inspection of the sensors. The QA program consists of monitoring sensor-specific characteristics and the technological process variability, before and after the irradiation with gammas, neutrons, and protons. After two years, half of the full production volume has been reached and we present an analysis of the parameters measured as part of the QA process. The main devices used for QA purposes are miniature strip sensors, monitor diodes, and the ATLAS test chip, which contains several test structures. Such devices are tested by several sites across the collaboration depending on the type of samples (non-irradiated components or irradiated with protons, neutrons, or gammas). The parameters extracted from the tests are then uploaded to a database and analyzed by Python scripts. These parameters are mainly examined through histograms and timeevolution plots to obtain parameter distributions, production trends, and meaningful parameter-to-parameter correlations. The purpose of this analysis is to identify possible deviations in the fabrication or the sensor quality, changes in the behavior of the test equipment at different test sites, or possible variability in the irradiation processes. The conclusions extracted from the QA program have allowed test optimization, establishment of control limits for the parameters, and a better understanding of device properties and fabrication trends. In addition, any abnormal results prompt immediate feedback to a vendor.
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Baeza-Ballesteros, J., Bijnens, J., Husek, T., Romero-Lopez, F., Sharpe, S. R., & Sjo, M. (2024). The three-pion K-matrix at NLO in ChPT. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 048–43pp.
Abstract: The three-particle K-matrix, K-df,K-3, is a scheme-dependent quantity that parametrizes short-range three-particle interactions in the relativistic-field-theory three-particle finite-volume formalism. In this work, we compute its value for systems of three pions in all isospin channels through next-to-leading order in Chiral Perturbation Theory, generalizing previous work done at maximum isospin. We obtain analytic expressions through quadratic order (or cubic order, in the case of zero isospin) in the expansion about the three-pion threshold.
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Baeza-Ballesteros, J., Bijnens, J., Husek, T., Romero-Lopez, F., Sharpe, S. R., & Sjo, M. (2023). The isospin-3 three-particle K-matrix at NLO in ChPT. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 187–56pp.
Abstract: The three-particle K-matrix, K-df,K-3, is a scheme-dependent quantity that parametrizes short-range three-particle interactions in the relativistic-field-theory three particle finite-volume formalism. In this work, we compute its value for systems of three pions at maximal isospin through next-to-leading order (NLO) in Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT). We compare the values to existing lattice QCD results and find that the agreement between lattice QCD data and ChPT in the first two coefficients of the threshold expansion of K-df,K-3 is significantly improved with respect to leading order once NLO effects are incorporated.
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Baeza-Ballesteros, J., Donini, A., Molina-Terriza, G., Monrabal, F., & Simon, A. (2024). Towards a realistic setup for a dynamical measurement of deviations from Newton's 1/r2 law: the impact of air viscosity. Eur. Phys. J. C, 84(6), 596–20pp.
Abstract: A novel experimental setup to measure deviations from the 1/r(2) distance dependence of Newtonian gravity was proposed in Donini and Marimon (Eur Phys J C 76:696, 2016). The underlying theoretical idea was to study the orbits of a microscopically-sized planetary system composed of a “Satellite”, with mass m(S) similar to O(10-9) g, and a “Planet”, with mass M-P similar to O(10-5) g at an initial distance of hundreds of microns. The detection of precession of the orbit in this system would be an unambiguous indication of a central potential with terms that scale with the distance differently from 1/r. This is a huge advantage with respect to the measurement of the absolute strength of the attraction between two bodies, as most electrically-induced background potentials do indeed scale as 1/r. Detection of orbit precession is unaffected by these effects, allowing for better sensitivities. In Baeza-Ballesteros et al. (Eur Phys J C 82:154, 2022), the impact of other subleading backgrounds that may induce orbit precession, such as, e.g., the electrical Casimir force or general relativity, was studied in detail. It was found that the proposed setup could test Yukawa-like corrections, alpha x exp(-r/lambda), to the 1/r potential with couplings as low as alpha similar to 10(-2) for distances as small as lambda similar to 10 μm, improving by roughly an order of magnitude present bounds. In this paper, we start to move from a theoretical study of the proposal to a more realistic implementation of the experimental setup. As a first step, we study the impact of air viscosity on the proposed setup and see how the setup should be modified in order to preserve the theoretical sensitivity achieved in Donini and Marimon (2016) and Baeza-Ballesteros et al. (2022).
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Baeza-Ballesteros, J., Donini, A., & Nadal-Gisbert, S. (2022). Dynamical measurements of deviations from Newton's 1/r(2) law. Eur. Phys. J. C, 82(2), 154–30pp.
Abstract: In Ref. Donini and Marimon (Eur Phys J C 76:696, arXiv:1609.05654, 2016), an experimental setup aiming at the measurement of deviations from the Newtonian 1/r(2) distance dependence of gravitational interactions was proposed. The theoretical idea behind this setup was to study the trajectories of a “Satellite” with a mass m(S) similar to O(10(-9)) g around a “Planet” with mass m(P) is an element of [10(-7), 10(-5)] g, looking for precession of the orbit. The observation of such feature induced by gravitational interactions would be an unambiguous indication of a gravitational potential with terms different from 1/r and, thus, a powerful tool to detect deviations from Newton's 1/r(2) law. In this paper we optimize the proposed setup in order to achieve maximal sensitivity to look for such Beyond-Newtonian corrections. We then study in detail possible background sources that could induce precession and quantify their impact on the achievable sensitivity. We finally conclude that a dynamical measurement of deviations from newtonianity can test Yukawa-like corrections to the 1/r potential with strength as low as alpha similar to 10(-2) for distances as small as lambda similar to 10 μm.
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Baeza-Ballesteros, J., Hernandez, P., & Romero-Lopez, F. (2022). A lattice study of pi pi scattering at large N-c. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 049–39pp.
Abstract: We present the first lattice study of pion-pion scattering with varying number of colors, N-c. We use lattice simulations with four degenerate quark flavors, N-f = 4, and N-c= 3 – 6. We focus on two scattering channels that do not involve vacuum diagrams. These correspond to two irreducible representations of the SU(4) flavor group: the fully symmetric one, SS, and the fully antisymmetric one, AA. The former is a repulsive channel equivalent to the isospin-2 channel of SU(2). By contrast, the latter is attractive and only exists for N-f >= 4. A representative state is (vertical bar D-s(+) pi(+)> – vertical bar D+ K+ >) /root 2. Using Lfischer's formalism, we extract the near-threshold scattering amplitude and we match our results to Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) at large N-c. For this, we compute the analytical U(N-f) ChPT prediction for two-pion scattering, and use the lattice results to constrain the N-c scaling of the relevant low-energy couplings.
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Baglio, J., Campanario, F., Glaus, S., Mühlleitner, M., Ronca, J., & Spira, M. (2023). Full NLO QCD predictions for Higgs-pair production in the 2-Higgs-doublet model. Eur. Phys. J. C, 83(9), 826–14pp.
Abstract: After the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the study of its properties still leaves room for an extended Higgs sector with more than one Higgs boson. 2-Higgs doublet models (2HDMs) are well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model (SM) with five physical Higgs bosons: two CP-even states h and H, one CP-odd state A, and two charged states H-+/-. In this letter, we present the calculation of the full next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to hH and AA production at the LHC in the 2HDM at small values of the ratio of the vacuum expectation values, tan beta, including the exact top-mass dependence everywhere in the calculation. Using techniques applied in the NLO QCD SM Higgs pair production calculation, we present results for the total cross section as well as for the Higgs-pair-mass distribution at the LHC. We also provide the top-quark scale and scheme uncertainties which are found to be sizeable.
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Baglio, J., Campanario, F., Glaus, S., Muhlleitner, M., Ronca, J., & Spira, M. (2021). gg -> HH: Combined uncertainties. Phys. Rev. D, 103(5), 056002–5pp.
Abstract: In this paper we discuss the combination of the usual renormalization and factorization scale uncertainties of Higgs-pair production via gluon fusion with the novel uncertainties originating from the scheme and scale choice of the virtual top mass. Moreover, we address the uncertainties related to the top-mass definition for different values of the trilinear Higgs coupling and their combination with the other uncertainties.
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