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Granero, D., Perez-Calatayud, J., Vijande, J., Ballester, F., & Rivard, M. J. (2014). Limitations of the TG-43 formalism for skin high-dose-rate brachytherapy dose calculations. Med. Phys., 41(2), 021703–8pp.
Abstract: Purpose: In skin high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy, sources are located outside, in contact with, or implanted at some depth below the skin surface. Most treatment planning systems use the TG-43 formalism, which is based on single-source dose superposition within an infinite water medium without accounting for the true geometry in which conditions for scattered radiation are altered by the presence of air. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the dosimetric limitations of the TG-43 formalism in HDR skin brachytherapy and the potential clinical impact. Methods: Dose rate distributions of typical configurations used in skin brachytherapy were obtained: a 5 cm x 5 cm superficial mould; a source inside a catheter located at the skin surface with and without backscatter bolus; and a typical interstitial implant consisting of an HDR source in a catheter located at a depth of 0.5 cm. Commercially available HDR Co-60 and Ir-192 sources and a hypothetical Yb-169 source were considered. The Geant4Monte Carlo radiation transport code was used to estimate dose rate distributions for the configurations considered. These results were then compared to those obtained with the TG-43 dose calculation formalism. In particular, the influence of adding bolus material over the implant was studied. Results: For a 5 cm x 5 cm Ir-192 superficial mould and 0.5 cm prescription depth, dose differences in comparison to the TG-43 method were about -3%. When the source was positioned at the skin surface, dose differences were smaller than -1% for Co-60 and Ir-192, yet -3% for Yb-169. For the interstitial implant, dose differences at the skin surface were -7% for Co-60, -0.6% for Ir-192, and -2.5% for Yb-169. Conclusions: This study indicates the following: (i) for the superficial mould, no bolus is needed; (ii) when the source is in contact with the skin surface, no bolus is needed for either Co-60 and Ir-192. For lower energy radionuclides like Yb-169, bolus may be needed; and (iii) for the interstitial case, at least a 0.1 cm bolus is advised for Co-60 to avoid underdosing superficial target layers. For Ir-192 and Yb-169, no bolus is needed. For those cases where no bolus is needed, its use might be detrimental as the lack of radiation scatter may be beneficial to the patient, although the 2% tolerance for dose calculation accuracy recommended in the AAPM TG-56 report is not fulfilled.
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Garcilazo, H., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2016). Maximal isospin few-body systems of nucleons and Xi hyperons. Phys. Rev. C, 94(2), 024002–3pp.
Abstract: By using local central Yukawa-type interactions that reproduce the low-energy parameters of the latest updates of the Nijmegen ESC08c potentials, we show that the N Xi, NN Xi, N Xi Xi, and NN Xi Xi systems with maximal isospin are bound. Since in these states the strong decay N Xi -> Lambda Lambda is forbidden by isospin conservation, these strange few-body systems will be stable under the strong interaction. These results may suggest that other states with different number of Ns and Xi s in the maximal isospin channel could also be bound.
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Garcilazo, H., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2020). Xi(-)t quasibound state instead of Lambda Lambda nn bound state. Chin. Phys. C, 44(2), 024102–7pp.
Abstract: The coupled Lambda Lambda nn – Xi-pnn system was studied to investigate whether the inclusion of channel coupling is able to bind the Lambda Lambda nn system. We use a separable potential three-body model of the coupled Lambda Lambda nn – Xi-pnn system and a variational four-body calculation with realistic interactions. Our results exclude the possibility of a bound state by a large margin. Instead, we found a Xi(-)t quasibound state above the Lambda Lambda nn threshold.
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Carames, T. F., Fontoura, C. E., Krein, G., Tsushima, K., Vijande, J., & Valcarce, A. (2016). Hadronic molecules with a (D)over-bar meson in a medium. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 034009–10pp.
Abstract: We study the effect of a hot and dense medium on the binding energy of hadronic molecules with open-charm mesons. We focus on a recent chiral quark-model-based prediction of a molecular state in the N (D) over bar system. We analyze how the two-body thresholds and the hadron-hadron interactions are modified when quark and meson masses and quark-meson couplings change in a function of the temperature and baryon density according to predictions of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. We find that in some cases the molecular binding is enhanced in medium as compared to their free-space binding. We discuss the consequences of our findings for the search for exotic hadrons in high-energy heavy-ion collisions as well as in the forthcoming facilities FAIR or J-PARC.
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Vijande, J., Valcarce, A., Richard, J. M., & Sorba, P. (2016). Search for doubly-heavy dibaryons in a quark model. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 034038–6pp.
Abstract: We study the stability of hexaquark systems containing two heavy quarks and four light quarks within a simple quark model. No bound or metastable state is found. The reason stems from a delicate interplay between chromoelectric and chromomagnetic effects. Our calculation also provides information about anticharmed pentaquarks that are seemingly unbound in simple quark models.
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