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Muñoz, V., Takhistov, V., Witte, S. J., & Fuller, G. M. (2021). Exploring the origin of supermassive black holes with coherent neutrino scattering. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 020–16pp.
Abstract: Collapsing supermassive stars (M greater than or similar to 3 x 10(4) M-circle dot) at high redshifts can naturally provide seeds and explain the origin of the supermassive black holes observed in the centers of nearly all galaxies. During the collapse of supermassive stars, a burst of non-thermal neutrinos is generated with a luminosity that could greatly exceed that of a conventional core collapse supernova explosion. In this work, we investigate the extent to which the neutrinos produced in these explosions can be observed via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS). Large scale direct dark matter detection experiments provide particularly favorable targets. We find that upcoming O(100) tonne-scale experiments will be sensitive to the collapse of individual supermassive stars at distances as large as O(10) Mpc.
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Muñoz, E., Ros, A., Borja-Lloret, M., Barrio, J., Dendooven, P., Oliver, J. F., et al. (2021). Proton range verification with MACACO II Compton camera enhanced by a neural network for event selection. Sci Rep, 11(1), 9325–12pp.
Abstract: The applicability extent of hadron therapy for tumor treatment is currently limited by the lack of reliable online monitoring techniques. An active topic of investigation is the research of monitoring systems based on the detection of secondary radiation produced during treatment. MACACO, a multi-layer Compton camera based on LaBr3 scintillator crystals and SiPMs, is being developed at IFIC-Valencia for this purpose. This work reports the results obtained from measurements of a 150 MeV proton beam impinging on a PMMA target. A neural network trained on Monte Carlo simulations is used for event selection, increasing the signal to background ratio before image reconstruction. Images of the measured prompt gamma distributions are reconstructed by means of a spectral reconstruction code, through which the 4.439 MeV spectral line is resolved. Images of the emission distribution at this energy are reconstructed, allowing calculation of the distal fall-off and identification of target displacements of 3 mm.
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Muñoz, E., Barrio, J., Etxebeste, A., Ortega, P. G., Lacasta, C., Oliver, J. F., et al. (2017). Performance evaluation of MACACO: a multilayer Compton camera. Phys. Med. Biol., 62(18), 7321–7341.
Abstract: Compton imaging devices have been proposed and studied for a wide range of applications. We have developed a Compton camera prototype which can be operated with two or three detector layers based on monolithic lanthanum bromide (LaBr3) crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), to be used for proton range verification in hadron therapy. In this work, we present the results obtained with our prototype in laboratory tests with radioactive sources and in simulation studies. Images of a Na-22 and an Y-88 radioactive sources have been successfully reconstructed. The full width half maximum of the reconstructed images is below 4 mm for a Na-22 source at a distance of 5 cm.
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Muñoz, E., Barrio, J., Bernabeu, J., Etxebeste, A., Lacasta, C., Llosa, G., et al. (2018). Study and comparison of different sensitivity models for a two-plane Compton camera. Phys. Med. Biol., 63(13), 135004–19pp.
Abstract: Given the strong variations in the sensitivity of Compton cameras for the detection of events originating from different points in the field of view (FoV), sensitivity correction is often necessary in Compton image reconstruction. Several approaches for the calculation of the sensitivity matrix have been proposed in the literature. While most of these models are easily implemented and can be useful in many cases, they usually assume high angular coverage over the scattered photon, which is not the case for our prototype. In this work, we have derived an analytical model that allows us to calculate a detailed sensitivity matrix, which has been compared to other sensitivity models in the literature. Specifically, the proposed model describes the probability of measuring a useful event in a two-plane Compton camera, including the most relevant physical processes involved. The model has been used to obtain an expression for the system and sensitivity matrices for iterative image reconstruction. These matrices have been validated taking Monte Carlo simulations as a reference. In order to study the impact of the sensitivity, images reconstructed with our sensitivity model and with other models have been compared. Images have been reconstructed from several simulated sources, including point-like sources and extended distributions of activity, and also from experimental data measured with Na-22 sources. Results show that our sensitivity model is the best suited for our prototype. Although other models in the literature perform successfully in many scenarios, they are not applicable in all the geometrical configurations of interest for our system. In general, our model allows to effectively recover the intensity of point-like sources at different positions in the FoV and to reconstruct regions of homogeneous activity with minimal variance. Moreover, it can be employed for all Compton camera configurations, including those with low angular coverage over the scatterer.
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Muñoz, E., Barrio, J., Bemmerer, D., Etxebeste, A., Fiedler, F., Hueso-Gonzalez, F., et al. (2018). Tests of MACACO Compton telescope with 4.44 MeV gamma rays. J. Instrum., 13, P05007–13pp.
Abstract: Hadron therapy offers the possibility of delivering a large amount of radiation dose to tumors with minimal absorption by the surrounding healthy tissue. In order to fully exploit the advantages of this technique, the use of real-time beam monitoring devices becomes mandatory. Compton imaging devices can be employed to map the distribution of prompt gamma emission during the treatment and thus assess its correct delivery. The Compton telescope prototype developed at IFIC-Valencia for this purpose is made of three layers of LaBr3 crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers. The system has been tested in a 4.44 MeV gamma field at the 3 MV Tandetron accelerator at HZDR, Dresden. Images of the target with the system in three different positions separated by 10 mm were successfully reconstructed. This indicates the ability of MACACO for imaging the prompt gamma rays emitted at such energies.
Keywords: Compton imaging; Instrumentation for hadron therapy; Gamma detectors (scintillators, CZT, HPG, HgI etc); Photon detectors for UV, visible and IR photons (solid state) (PIN diodes, APDs, Si PMTs, G APDs, CCDs, EBCCDs, EMCCDs etc)
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Muñoz, E., Barrientos, L., Bernabeu, J., Borja-Lloret, M., Llosa, G., Ros, A., et al. (2020). A spectral reconstruction algorithm for two-plane Compton cameras. Phys. Med. Biol., 65(2), 025011–17pp.
Abstract: One factor limiting the current applicability extent of hadron therapy is the lack of a reliable method for real time treatment monitoring. The use of Compton imaging systems as monitors requires the correct reconstruction of the distribution of prompt gamma productions during patient irradiation. In order to extract the maximum information from all the measurable events, we implemented a spectral reconstruction method that assigns to all events a probability of being either partial or total energy depositions. The method, implemented in a list-mode maximum likelihood expectation maximization algorithm, generates a four dimensional image in the joint spatial-spectral domain, in which the voxels containing the emission positions and energies are obtained. The analytical model used for the system response function is also employed to derive an analytical expression for the sensitivity, which is calculated via Monte Carlo integration. The performance of the method is evaluated through reconstruction of various experimental and simulated sources with different spatial and energy distributions. The results show that the proposed method can recover the spectral and spatial information simultaneously, but only under the assumption of ideal measurements. The analysis of the Monte Carlo simulations has led to the identification of two important degradation sources: the mispositioning of the gamma interaction point and the missing energy recorded in the interaction. Both factors are related to the high energy transferred to the recoil electrons, which can travel far from the interaction point and even escape the detector. These effects prevent the direct application of the current method in more realistic scenarios. Nevertheless, experimental point-like sources have been accurately reconstructed and the spatial distributions and spectral emission of complex simulated phantoms can be identified.
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Motohashi, H., & Starobinsky, A. A. (2017). Constant-roll inflation: Confrontation with recent observational data. EPL, 117(3), 39001–3pp.
Abstract: The previously proposed class of phenomenological inflationary models in which the assumption of inflaton slow-roll is replaced by the more general, constant-roll condition is compared with the most recent cosmological observational data, mainly the Planck ones. Models in this two-parametric class which remain viable appear to be close to the slow-roll ones, and their inflaton potentials are close to (but still different from) that of the natural inflation model. The permitted regions for the two model parameters are presented.
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Motohashi, H., & Starobinsky, A. A. (2017). f (R) constant-roll inflation. Eur. Phys. J. C, 77(8), 538–8pp.
Abstract: The previously introduced class of two-parametric phenomenological inflationary models in general relativity in which the slow-roll assumption is replaced by the more general, constant-roll condition is generalized to the case of f (R) gravity. A simple constant-roll condition is defined in the original Jordan frame, and exact expressions for a scalaron potential in the Einstein frame, for a function f (R) (in the parametric form) and for inflationary dynamics are obtained. The region of the model parameters permitted by the latest observational constraints on the scalar spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio of primordial metric perturbations generated during inflation is determined.
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Motohashi, H., & Hu, W. (2017). Generalized slow roll in the unified effective field theory of inflation. Phys. Rev. D, 96(2), 023502–17pp.
Abstract: We provide a compact and unified treatment of power spectrum observables for the effective field theory (EFT) of inflation with the complete set of operators that lead to second-order equations of motion in metric perturbations in both space and time derivatives, including Horndeski and Gleyzes-Langlois-Piazza-Vernizzi theories. We relate the EFT operators in ADM form to the four additional free functions of time in the scalar and tensor equations. Using the generalized slow-roll formalism, we show that each power spectrum can be described by an integral over a single source that is a function of its respective sound horizon. With this correspondence, existing model independent constraints on the source function can be simply reinterpreted in the more general inflationary context. By expanding these sources around an optimized freeze-out epoch, we also provide characterizations of these spectra in terms of five slow-roll hierarchies whose leading-order forms are compact and accurate as long as EFT coefficients vary only on time scales greater than an e-fold. We also clarify the relationship between the unitary gauge observables employed in the EFT and the comoving gauge observables of the postinflationary universe.
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Motohashi, H., & Hu, W. (2017). Primordial black holes and slow-roll violation. Phys. Rev. D, 96(6), 063503–9pp.
Abstract: For primordial black holes (PBH) to be the dark matter in single-field inflation, the slow-roll approximation must be violated by at least O(1) in order to enhance the curvature power spectrum within the required number of e-folds between cosmic microwave background scales and PBH mass scales. Power spectrum predictions which rely on the inflaton remaining on the slow-roll attractor can fail dramatically leading to qualitatively incorrect conclusions in models like an inflection potential and misestimate the mass scale in a running mass model. We show that an optimized temporal evaluation of the Hubble slow-roll parameters to second order remains a good description for a wide range of PBH formation models where up to a 10(7) amplification of power occurs in 10 e-folds or more.
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