Abstract: Objective. Background events are one of the most relevant contributions to image degradation in Compton camera imaging for hadron therapy treatment monitoring. A study of the background and its contribution to image degradation is important to define future strategies to reduce the background in the system. Approach. In this simulation study, the percentage of different kinds of events and their contribution to the reconstructed image in a two-layer Compton camera have been evaluated. To this end, GATE v8.2 simulations of a proton beam impinging on a PMMA phantom have been carried out, for different proton beam energies and at different beam intensities. Main results. For a simulated Compton camera made of Lanthanum (III) Bromide monolithic crystals, coincidences caused by neutrons arriving from the phantom are the most common type of background produced by secondary radiations in the Compton camera, causing between 13% and 33% of the detected coincidences, depending on the beam energy. Results also show that random coincidences are a significant cause of image degradation at high beam intensities, and their influence in the reconstructed images is studied for values of the time coincidence windows from 500 ps to 100 ns. Significance. Results indicate the timing capabilities required to retrieve the fall-off position with good precision. Still, the noise observed in the image when no randoms are considered make us consider further background rejection methods.

Abstract: The production of prompt charged particles in proton-lead collisions and in proton-proton collisions at the nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy root s(NN) = 5 TeV is studied at LHCb as a function of pseudorapidity (eta) and transverse momentum (p(T) ) with respect to the proton beam direction. The nuclear modification factor for charged particles is determined as a function of eta between -4.8 < eta < -2.5 (backward region) and 2.0 < eta < 4.8 (forward region), and p(T) between 0.2 < p(T) < 8.0 GeV/c. The results show a suppression of charged particle production in proton-lead collisions relative to proton-proton collisions in the forward region and an enhancement in the backward region for p(T) larger than 1.5 GeV/c. This measurement constrains nuclear PDFs and saturation models at previously unexplored values of the parton momentum fraction down to 10(-6).

Abstract: A search for new phenomena is presented in final states with two leptons and one or no b-tagged jets. The event selection requires the two leptons to have opposite charge, the same flavor (electrons or muons), and a large invariant mass. The analysis is based on the full run-2 proton-proton collision dataset recorded at a center-of-mass energy off root S = 13 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). No significant deviation from the expected background is observed in the data. Inspired by the B-meson decay anomalies, a four-fermion contact interaction between two quarks (b, s) and two leptons (ee or μmu) is used as a benchmark signal model, which is characterized by the energy scale and coupling, Lambda and g(*), respectively. Contact interactions with Lambda/g(*) lower than 2.0 (2.4) TeV are excluded for electrons (muons) at the 95% confidence level, still far below the value that is favored by the B-meson decay anomalies. Model-independent limits are set as a function of the minimum dilepton invariant mass, which allow the results to be reinterpreted in various signal scenarios.