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Wurm, M. et al, & Mena, O. (2012). The next-generation liquid-scintillator neutrino observatory LENA. Astropart Phys., 35(11), 685–732.
Abstract: As part of the European LAGUNA design study on a next-generation neutrino detector, we propose the liquid-scintillator detector LENA (Low Energy Neutrino Astronomy) as a multipurpose neutrino observatory. The outstanding successes of the Borexino and KamLAND experiments demonstrate the large potential of liquid-scintillator detectors in low-energy neutrino physics. Low energy threshold, good energy resolution and efficient background discrimination are inherent to the liquid-scintillator technique. A target mass of 50 kt will offer a substantial increase in detection sensitivity. At low energies, the variety of detection channels available in liquid scintillator will allow for an energy and flavor-resolved analysis of the neutrino burst emitted by a galactic Supernova. Due to target mass and background conditions, LENA will also be sensitive to the faint signal of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background. Solar metallicity, time-variation in the solar neutrino flux and deviations from MSW-LMA survival probabilities can be investigated based on unprecedented statistics. Low background conditions allow to search for dark matter by observing rare annihilation neutrinos. The large number of events expected for geoneutrinos will give valuable information on the abundances of Uranium and Thorium and their relative ratio in the Earth's crust and mantle. Reactor neutrinos enable a high-precision measurement of solar mixing parameters. A strong radioactive or pion decay-at-rest neutrino source can be placed close to the detector to investigate neutrino oscillations for short distances and sub-MeV to MeV energies. At high energies, LENA will provide a new lifetime limit for the SUSY-favored proton decay mode into kaon and antineutrino, surpassing current experimental limits by about one order of magnitude. Recent studies have demonstrated that a reconstruction of momentum and energy of GeV particles is well feasible in liquid scintillator. Monte Carlo studies on the reconstruction of the complex event topologies found for neutrino interactions at multi-GeV energies have shown promising results. If this is confirmed. LENA might serve as far detector in a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment currently investigated in LAGUNA-LBNO.
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Valderrama, M., Crepon, B., Botella-Soler, V., Martinerie, J., Hasboun, D., Alvarado-Rojas, C., et al. (2012). Human Gamma Oscillations during Slow Wave Sleep. PLoS One, 7(4), e33477–14pp.
Abstract: Neocortical local field potentials have shown that gamma oscillations occur spontaneously during slow-wave sleep (SWS). At the macroscopic EEG level in the human brain, no evidences were reported so far. In this study, by using simultaneous scalp and intracranial EEG recordings in 20 epileptic subjects, we examined gamma oscillations in cerebral cortex during SWS. We report that gamma oscillations in low (30-50 Hz) and high (60-120 Hz) frequency bands recurrently emerged in all investigated regions and their amplitudes coincided with specific phases of the cortical slow wave. In most of the cases, multiple oscillatory bursts in different frequency bands from 30 to 120 Hz were correlated with positive peaks of scalp slow waves (“IN-phase'' pattern), confirming previous animal findings. In addition, we report another gamma pattern that appears preferentially during the negative phase of the slow wave (”ANTI-phase'' pattern). This new pattern presented dominant peaks in the high gamma range and was preferentially expressed in the temporal cortex. Finally, we found that the spatial coherence between cortical sites exhibiting gamma activities was local and fell off quickly when computed between distant sites. Overall, these results provide the first human evidences that gamma oscillations can be observed in macroscopic EEG recordings during sleep. They support the concept that these high-frequency activities might be associated with phasic increases of neural activity during slow oscillations. Such patterned activity in the sleeping brain could play a role in off-line processing of cortical networks.
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Recchia, F. et al, & Gadea, A. (2012). Spectroscopy of odd-mass cobalt isotopes toward the N=40 subshell closure and shell-model description of spherical and deformed states. Phys. Rev. C, 85(6), 064305–10pp.
Abstract: The neutron-rich cobalt isotopes up to A = 67 have been studied through multinucleon transfer reactions by bombarding a U-238 target with a 460-MeV Zn-70 beam. Unambiguous identification of prompt gamma rays belonging to each nucleus has been achieved using coincidence relationships with the ions detected in a high-acceptance magnetic spectrometer. The new data are discussed in terms of the systematics of the cobalt isotopes and interpreted with large-scale shell-model calculations in the fpgd model space. In particular, very different shapes can be described in Co-67, at the edge of the island of inversion at N = 40, where a low-lying highly deformed band coexists with a spherical structure.
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Li, X. Q., Li, Y. M., Lu, G. R., & Su, F. (2012). B-s(0)-(B)over-bar(s)(0) mixing in a family non-universal Z ' model revisited. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 049–27pp.
Abstract: Motivated by the very recent measurements performed at the LHCb and the Tevatron of the B-s(0) – (B) over bar (0)(s) mixing, in this paper we revisit it in a family non-universal Z' model, to check if a simultaneous explanation for all the mixing observables, especially for the like-sign dimuon charge asymmetry observed by the D0 collaboration, could be made in such a specific model. In the first scenario where the Z' boson contributes only to the off-diagonal element M-12(s), it is found that, once the combined constraints from Delta M-s, phi(s) and Delta Gamma(s) are imposed, the model could not explain the measured flavour-specific CP asymmetry a(fs)(s), at least within its 1 sigma ranges. In the second scenario where the NP contributes also to the absorptive part Gamma(s)(12) via tree-level Z'-induced b -> c (c) over bars operators, we find that, with the constraints from Delta M-s, phi(s) and the indirect CP asymmetry in (B) over bar (d) -> J/psi K-S taken into account, the present measured 1 sigma experimental ranges for a(fs)(s) could not be reproduced too. Thus, such a specific Z' model with our specific assumptions could not simultaneously reconcile all the present data on B-s(0) – B-s(0) mixing. Future improved measurements from the LHCb and the proposed superB experiments, especially of the flavour-specific CP asymmetries, are expected to shed light on the issue.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Amoros, G., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., et al. (2012). Measurement of the cross section for top-quark pair production in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector using final states with two high-p(T) leptons. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 059–35pp.
Abstract: A measurement is reported of the production cross section of top-quark pairs (t (t) over bar) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Candidate events have a signature consistent with containing two isolated leptons, large missing transverse momentum, and at least two jets. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.70 fb(-1), a t (t) over bar production cross section sigma(t (t) over bar) = 176 +/- 5(stat.)(-11)(+14)(syst.) +/- 8(lum.) pb is measured for an assumed top-quark mass of m(t) = 172.5 GeV. This measurement is in good agreement with Standard Model predictions.
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