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D'Auria, G. et al, Gonzalez-Iglesias, D., Gimeno, B., & Pereira, D. E. (2024). The CompactLight Design Study. Eur. Phys. J.-Spec. Top., , 1–208.
Abstract: CompactLight is a Design Study funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation funding programme, with Grant Agreement No. 777431. CompactLight was conducted by an International Collaboration of 23 international laboratories and academic institutions, three private companies, and five third parties. The project, which started in January 2018 with a duration of 48 months, aimed to design an innovative, compact, and cost-effective hard X-ray FEL facility complemented by a soft X-ray source to pave the road for future compact accelerator-based facilities. The result is an accelerator that can be operated at up to 1 kHz pulse repetition rate, beyond today's state of the art, using the latest concepts for high brightness electron photoinjectors, very high gradient accelerating structures in X-band, and novel short-period undulators. In this report, we summarize the main deliverable of the project: the CompactLight Conceptual Design Report, which overviews the current status of the design and addresses the main technological challenges.
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Penas, J., Alejo, A., Bembibre, A., Apiñaniz, J. I., Garcia-Garcia, E., Guerrero, C., et al. (2024). Production of carbon-11 for PET preclinical imaging using a high-repetition rate laser-driven proton source. Sci Rep, 14(1), 11448–12pp.
Abstract: Most advanced medical imaging techniques, such as positron-emission tomography (PET), require tracers that are produced in conventional particle accelerators. This paper focuses on the evaluation of a potential alternative technology based on laser-driven ion acceleration for the production of radioisotopes for PET imaging. We report for the first time the use of a high-repetition rate, ultra-intense laser system for the production of carbon-11 in multi-shot operation. Proton bunches with energies up to 10-14 MeV were systematically accelerated in long series at pulse rates between 0.1 and 1 Hz using a PW-class laser. These protons were used to activate a boron target via the 11 \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$<^>{11}$$\end{document} B(p,n) 11 \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$<^>{11}$$\end{document} C nuclear reaction. A peak activity of 234 kBq was obtained in multi-shot operation with laser pulses with an energy of 25 J. Significant carbon-11 production was also achieved for lower pulse energies. The experimental carbon-11 activities measured in this work are comparable to the levels required for preclinical PET, which would be feasible by operating at the repetition rate of current state-of-the-art technology (10 Hz). The scalability of next-generation laser-driven accelerators in terms of this parameter for sustained operation over time could increase these overall levels into the clinical PET range.
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Araújo, M. C., Furtado, J., & Maluf, R. V. (2024). Casimir effect in a Lorentz-violating tensor extension of a scalar field theory. Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 139(2), 165–12pp.
Abstract: This paper investigates the Casimir energy modifications due to the Lorentz-violating CPT-even contribution in an extension of the scalar QED. We have considered the complex scalar field satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions between two parallel plates separated by a small distance. An appropriate tensor parametrization allowed us to study the Casimir effect in three different configurations: isotropic, anisotropic parity-odd, and anisotropic parity-even. We have shown that the Lorentz-violating contributions can promote either an increase or a decrease in the Casimir energy evaluated in the isotropic configuration, depending on whether the violation parameters are taking as positive or negative values. On the other hand, for the anisotropic parity-even case the Casimir energy only decreases, while for the anisotropic parity-odd cases it only increases. Therefore, from these last two results it seems that the Casimir energy is sensitive to the parity of Lorentz-violating coefficients.
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Mostajeran, M., Sorolla, E., Rakova, E., & Gimeno, B. (2024). Space charge and two-sheet model in multipactor. Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 139(3), 256–13pp.
Abstract: The electron cloud populated by a multipactor within two emissive parallel plates was modeled by two thin sheets of charge, and for the first time the equations of the particle motion for this two-sheet system were derived taking into account space charge effects. The electron population growth in multipacting process was then simulated with the code developed on the base of these equations. It was found that the mutual repulsion between the sheets, i.e., space charge effects, results in the increasing of charge in one of the sheets and the loss of charge in the other due to the different growth rates. This process eventually comes to the saturation of one sheet and the dissappearence of the other.
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Nacher, E., Briz, J. A., Nerio, A. N., Perea, A., Tavora, V. G., Tengblad, O., et al. (2024). Characterization of a novel proton-CT scanner based on Silicon and LaBr3(Ce) detectors. Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 139(5), 404–9pp.
Abstract: Treatment planning systems at proton-therapy centres entirely use X-ray computed tomography (CT) as primary imaging technique to infer the proton treatment doses to tumour and healthy tissues. However, proton stopping powers in the body, as derived from X-ray images, suffer from important proton-range uncertainties. In order to reduce this uncertainty in range, one could use proton-CT images instead. The main goal of this work is to test the capabilities of a newly-developed proton-CT scanner, based on the use of a set of tracking detectors and a high energy resolution scintillator for the residual energy of the protons. Different custom-made phantoms were positioned at the field of view of the scanner and were irradiated with protons at the CCB proton-therapy center in Krakow. We measured with the phantoms at different angles and produced sinograms that were used to obtain reconstructed images by Filtered Back-Projection. The obtained images were used to determine the capabilities of our scanner in terms of spatial resolution and proton Relative Stopping Power (RSP) mapping and validate its use as proton-CT scanner. The results show that the scanner can produce medium-high quality images, with spatial resolution better than 2 mm in radiography, below 3 mm in tomography and resolving power in the RSP comparable to other state-of-the-art pCT scanners.
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