|
|
Pierre Auger Collaboration(Abraham, J. et al), & Pastor, S. (2010). Measurement of the Depth of Maximum of Extensive Air Showers above 10(18) eV. Phys. Rev. Lett., 104(9), 091101–7pp.
Abstract: We describe the measurement of the depth of maximum, X-max, of the longitudinal development of air showers induced by cosmic rays. Almost 4000 events above 10(18) eV observed by the fluorescence detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory in coincidence with at least one surface detector station are selected for the analysis. The average shower maximum was found to evolve with energy at a rate of (106 +/- 35-21) g/cm(2)/decade below 10(18.24) +/- (0.05) eV, and d24 +/- 3 g/cm(2)/ecade above this energy. The measured shower-to-shower fluctuations decrease from about 55 to 26 g/cm(2). The interpretation of these results in terms of the cosmic ray mass composition is briefly discussed.
|
|
|
|
BABAR Collaboration(Aubert, B. et al), Azzolini, V., Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., Milanes, D. A., & Oyanguren, A. (2010). Measurement of vertical bar V-cb vertical bar and the Form-Factor Slope in (B)over-bar -> Dl(-) (nu)over-bar(l) Decays in Events Tagged by a Fully Reconstructed B Meson. Phys. Rev. Lett., 104(1), 011802–7pp.
Abstract: We present a measurement of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element vertical bar V-cb vertical bar and the form-factor slope rho(2) in (B) over bar -> Dl(-) (nu) over bar (l) decays based on 460 X 10(6) B (B) over bar events recorded at the Gamma(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector. (B) over bar -> Dl(-) (nu) over bar (l) decays are selected in events in which a hadronic decay of the second B meson is fully reconstructed. We measure B(B- -> D(0)l(-) (nu) over bar (l))/B(B- -> Xl(-) (nu) over bar (l)) = (0.255 +/- 0.009 +/- 0.009) and B((B) over bar (0) -> D(+)l(-) (nu) over bar (l))/B((B) over bar (0) -> Xl(-) (nu) over bar (l)) = (0.230 +/- 0.011 +/- 0.011), along with the differential decay distribution in (B) over bar -> Dl(-) (nu) over bar (l) decays. We then determine G(1)vertical bar V-cb vertical bar = 42.3 +/- 1.9 +/- 1.4) X 10(-3) and rho(2) = 1.20 +/- 0.09 +/- 0.04, where G(1) is the hadronic form factor at the point of zero recoil.
|
|
|
|
BABAR Collaboration(Aubert, B. et al), Azzolini, V., Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., Milanes, D. A., & Oyanguren, A. (2010). Searches for Lepton Flavor Violation in the Decays tau(+/-) -> e(+/-)gamma and tau(+/-) -> mu(+/-)gamma. Phys. Rev. Lett., 104(2), 021802–7pp.
Abstract: Searches for lepton-flavor-violating decays of a tau lepton to a lighter mass lepton and a photon have been performed with the entire data set of (963 +/- 7) x 10(6) tau decays collected by the BABAR detector near the Y(4S), Y(3S) and Y(2S) resonances. The searches yield no evidence of signals and we set upper limits on the branching fractions of B(tau(+/-) -> e(+/-)gamma) < 3.3 X 10(-8) and B(tau(+/-) -> mu(+/-)gamma) < 4.4 X 10(-8) at 90% confidence level.
|
|
|
|
Llosa, G., Barrio, J., Lacasta, C., Bisogni, M. G., Del Guerra, A., Marcatili, S., et al. (2010). Characterization of a PET detector head based on continuous LYSO crystals and monolithic, 64-pixel silicon photomultiplier matrices. Phys. Med. Biol., 55(23), 7299–7315.
Abstract: The characterization of a PET detector head based on continuous LYSO crystals and silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) arrays as photodetectors has been carried out for its use in the development of a small animal PET prototype. The detector heads are composed of a continuous crystal and a SiPM matrix with 64 pixels in a common substrate, fabricated specifically for this project. Three crystals of 12 mm x 12 mm x 5 mm size with different types of painting have been tested: white, black and black on the sides but white on the back of the crystal. The best energy resolution, obtained with the white crystal, is 16% FWHM. The detector response is linear up to 1275 keV. Tests with different position determination algorithms have been carried out with the three crystals. The spatial resolution obtained with the center of gravity algorithm is around 0.9 mm FWHM for the three crystals. As expected, the use of this algorithm results in the displacement of the reconstructed position toward the center of the crystal, more pronounced in the case of the white crystal. A maximum likelihood algorithm has been tested that can reconstruct correctly the interaction position of the photons also in the case of the white crystal.
|
|
|
|
Oliver, J. F., & Rafecas, M. (2010). Improving the singles rate method for modeling accidental coincidences in high-resolution PET. Phys. Med. Biol., 55(22), 6951–6971.
Abstract: Random coincidences ('randoms') are one of the main sources of image degradation in PET imaging. In order to correct for this effect, an accurate method to estimate the contribution of random events is necessary. This aspect becomes especially relevant for high-resolution PET scanners where the highest image quality is sought and accurate quantitative analysis is undertaken. One common approach to estimate randoms is the so-called singles rate method (SR) widely used because of its good statistical properties. SR is based on the measurement of the singles rate in each detector element. However, recent studies suggest that SR systematically overestimates the correct random rate. This overestimation can be particularly marked for low energy thresholds, below 250 keV used in some applications and could entail a significant image degradation. In this work, we investigate the performance of SR as a function of the activity, geometry of the source and energy acceptance window used. We also investigate the performance of an alternative method, which we call 'singles trues' (ST) that improves SR by properly modeling the presence of true coincidences in the sample. Nevertheless, in any real data acquisition the knowledge of which singles are members of a true coincidence is lost. Therefore, we propose an iterative method, STi, that provides an estimation based on ST but which only requires the knowledge of measurable quantities: prompts and singles. Due to inter-crystal scatter, for wide energy windows ST only partially corrects SR overestimations. While SR deviations are in the range 86-300% (depending on the source geometry), the ST deviations are systematically smaller and contained in the range 4-60%. STi fails to reproduce the ST results, although for not too high activities the deviation with respect to ST is only a few percent. For conventional energy windows, i.e. those without inter-crystal scatter, the ST method corrects the SR overestimations, and deviations from the true random rate are of the order of 1% or less. In addition, in the case of conventional energy window STi results reproduce ST results and therefore the former can be used to obtain the true random rate.
|
|
