|
|
Orce, J. N. et al, & Rubio, B. (2016). Search for two-phonon octupole excitations in Gd-146. Eur. Phys. J. A, 52(6), 166–7pp.
Abstract: The low-spin structure of the nearly spherical nucleus Gd-146 was studied using the Sm-144(He-4, 2n) fusion-evaporation reaction. High-statistics gamma-gamma coincidence measurements were performed at iThemba LABS with 7x10(9) gamma-gamma coincidence events recorded. Gated gamma-ray energy spectra show evidence for the 6(2)(+) -> 3(1)(-) -> 0(1)(+) cascade of E3 transitions in agreement with recent findings by Caballero and co-workers, but with a smaller branching ratio of I-gamma = 4.7(10) for the 6(2)(+) -> 3(1)(-) 1905.1 keV gamma ray. Although these findings may support octupole vibrations in spherical nuclei, sophisticated beyond mean-field calculations including angular-momentum projection are required to interpret in an appropriate way the available data due to the failure of the rotational model assumptions in this nucleus.
|
|
|
|
Solevi, P., Muñoz, E., Solaz, C., Trovato, M., Dendooven, P., Gillam, J. E., et al. (2016). Performance of MACACO Compton telescope for ion-beam therapy monitoring: first test with proton beams. Phys. Med. Biol., 61(14), 5149–5165.
Abstract: In order to exploit the advantages of ion-beam therapy in a clinical setting, delivery verification techniques are necessary to detect deviations from the planned treatment. Efforts are currently oriented towards the development of devices for real-time range monitoring. Among the different detector concepts proposed, Compton cameras are employed to detect prompt gammas and represent a valid candidate for real-time range verification. We present the first on-beam test of MACACO, a Compton telescope (multi-layer Compton camera) based on lanthanum bromide crystals and silicon photo-multipliers. The Compton telescope was first characterized through measurements and Monte Carlo simulations. The detector linearity was measured employing Na-22 and Am-Be sources, obtaining about 10% deviation from linearity at 3.44 MeV. A spectral image reconstruction algorithm was tested on synthetic data. Point-like sources emitting gamma rays with energy between 2 and 7 MeV were reconstructed with 3-5 mm resolution. The two-layer Compton telescope was employed to measure radiation emitted from a beam of 150 MeV protons impinging on a cylindrical PMMA target. Bragg-peak shifts were achieved via adjustment of the PMMA target location and the resulting measurements used during image reconstruction. Reconstructed Bragg peak profiles proved sufficient to observe peak-location differences within 10 mm demonstrating the potential of the MACACO Compton Telescope as a monitoring device for ion-beam therapy.
|
|
|
|
Granero, D., Candela-Juan, C., Vijande, J., Ballester, F., Perez-Calatayud, J., Jacob, D., et al. (2016). Technical Note: Dosimetry of Leipzig and Valencia applicators without the plastic cap. Med. Phys., 43(5), 2087–4pp.
Abstract: Purpose: High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy for treatment of small skin lesions using the Leipzig and Valencia applicators is a widely used technique. These applicators are equipped with an attachable plastic cap to be placed during fraction delivery to ensure electronic equilibrium and to prevent secondary electrons from reaching the skin surface. The purpose of this study is to report on the dosimetric impact of the cap being absent during HDR fraction delivery, which has not been explored previously in the literature. Methods: GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations (version 10.0) have been performed for the Leipzig and Valencia applicators with and without the plastic cap. In order to validate the Monte Carlo simulations, experimental measurements using radiochromic films have been done. Results: Dose absorbed within 1 mm of the skin surface increases by a factor of 1500% for the Leipzig applicators and of 180% for the Valencia applicators. Deeper than 1 mm, the overdosage flattens up to a 10% increase. Conclusions: Differences of treating with or without the plastic cap are significant. Users must check always that the plastic cap is in place before any treatment in order to avoid overdosage of the skin. Prior to skin HDR fraction delivery, the timeout checklist should include verification of the cap placement. (C) 2016 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
|
|
|
|
Gonzalez-Alonso, M., Pich, A., & Rodriguez-Sanchez, A. (2016). Updated determination of chiral couplings and vacuum condensates from hadronic tau decay data. Phys. Rev. D, 94(1), 014017–14pp.
Abstract: We analyze the lowest spectral moments of the left-right two-point correlation function, using all known short-distance constraints and the recently updated ALEPH V – A spectral function from tau decays. This information is used to determine the low-energy couplings L-10 and C-87 of chiral perturbation theory and the lowest-dimensional contributions to the operator product expansion of the left-right correlator. A detailed statistical analysis is implemented to assess the theoretical uncertainties, including violations of quark-hadron duality.
|
|
|
|
ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2016). Identification of high transverse momentum top quarks in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 093–81pp.
Abstract: This paper presents studies of the performance of several jet-substructure techniques, which are used to identify hadronically decaying top quarks with high transverse momentum contained in large-radius jets. The efficiency of identifying top quarks is measured using a sample of top-quark pairs and the rate of wrongly identifying jets from other quarks or gluons as top quarks is measured using multijet events collected with the ATLAS experiment in 20.3 fb(-1) of 8TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Predictions from Monte Carlo simulations are found to provide an accurate description of the performance. The techniques are compared in terms of signal efficiency and background rejection using simulations, covering a larger range in jet transverse momenta than accessible in the dataset. Additionally, a novel technique is developed that is optimized to reconstruct top quarks in events with many jets.
|
|
