|
Gimenez-Alventosa, V., Gimenez, V., Ballester, F., Vijande, J., & Andreo, P. (2018). Correction factors for ionization chamber measurements with the 'Valencia' and 'large field Valencia' brachytherapy applicators. Phys. Med. Biol., 63(12), 125004–10pp.
Abstract: Treatment of small skin lesions using HDR brachytherapy applicators is a widely used technique. The shielded applicators currently available in clinical practice are based on a tungsten-alloy cup that collimates the source-emitted radiation into a small region, hence protecting nearby tissues. The goal of this manuscript is to evaluate the correction factors required for dose measurements with a plane-parallel ionization chamber typically used in clinical brachytherapy for the 'Valencia' and 'large field Valencia' shielded applicators. Monte Carlo simulations have been performed using the PENELOPE-2014 system to determine the absorbed dose deposited in a water phantom and in the chamber active volume with a Type A uncertainty of the order of 0.1%. The average energies of the photon spectra arriving at the surface of the water phantom differ by approximately 10%, being 384 keV for the 'Valencia' and 343 keV for the 'large field Valencia'. The ionization chamber correction factors have been obtained for both applicators using three methods, their values depending on the applicator being considered. Using a depth-independent global chamber perturbation correction factor and no shift of the effective point of measurement yields depth-dose differences of up to 1% for the 'Valencia' applicator. Calculations using a depth-dependent global perturbation factor, or a shift of the effective point of measurement combined with a constant partial perturbation factor, result in differences of about 0.1% for both applicators. The results emphasize the relevance of carrying out detailed Monte Carlo studies for each shielded brachytherapy applicator and ionization chamber.
|
|
|
Jeong, Y. S., Palomares-Ruiz, S., Reno, M. H., & Sarcevic, I. (2018). Probing secret interactions of eV-scale sterile neutrinos with the diffuse supernova neutrino background. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 019–43pp.
Abstract: Sterile neutrinos with mass in the eV-scale and large mixings of order theta(0) similar or equal to 0.1 could explain some anomalies found in short-baseline neutrino oscillation data. Here, we revisit a neutrino portal scenario in which eV-scale sterile neutrinos have self-interactions via a new gauge vector boson phi. Their production in the early Universe via mixing with active neutrinos can be suppressed by the induced effective potential in the sterile sector. We study how different cosmological observations can constrain this model, in terms of the mass of the new gauge boson, M-phi, and its coupling to sterile neutrinos, g(s). Then, we explore how to probe part of the allowed parameter space of this particular model with future observations of the diffuse supernova neutrino background by the Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE detectors. For M-phi similar to 5 – 10 keV and g(s) similar to 10-(4) – 10(-2), as allowed by cosmological constraints, we find that interactions of diffuse supernova neutrinos with relic sterile neutrinos on their way to the Earth would result in significant dips in the neutrino spectrum which would produce unique features in the event spectra observed in these detectors.
|
|
|
Helo, J. C., Hirsch, M., & Ota, T. (2018). Proton decay and light sterile neutrinos. J. High Energy Phys., 06(6), 047–15pp.
Abstract: Within the standard model, non-renormalizable operators at dimension six (d = 6) violate baryon and lepton number by one unit and thus lead to proton decay. Here, we point out that the proton decay mode with a charged pion and missing energy can be a characteristic signature of d = 6 operators containing a light sterile neutrino, if it is not accompanied by the standard pi(0)e(+) final state. We discuss this effect first at the level of effective operators and then provide a concrete model with new physics at the TeV scale, in which the lightness of the active neutrinos and the stability of the proton are related.
|
|
|
Arrighi, P., Di Molfetta, G., Marquez-Martin, I., & Perez, A. (2018). Dirac equation as a quantum walk over the honeycomb and triangular lattices. Phys. Rev. A, 97(6), 062111–5pp.
Abstract: A discrete-time quantum walk (QW) is essentially an operator driving the evolution of a single particle on the lattice, through local unitaries. Some QWs admit a continuum limit, leading to well-known physics partial differential equations, such as the Dirac equation. We show that these simulation results need not rely on the grid: the Dirac equation in (2 + 1) dimensions can also be simulated, through local unitaries, on the honeycomb or the triangular lattice, both of interest in the study of quantum propagation on the nonrectangular grids, as in graphene-like materials. The latter, in particular, we argue, opens the door for a generalization of the Dirac equation to arbitrary discrete surfaces.
|
|
|
Di Molfetta, G., Soares-Pinto, D. O., & Duarte Queiros, S. M. (2018). Elephant quantum walk. Phys. Rev. A, 97(6), 062112–6pp.
Abstract: We introduce an analytically treatable discrete time quantum walk in a one-dimensional lattice which combines non-Markovianity and hyperballistic diffusion associated with a Gaussian whose variance sigma(2)(t) grows cubicly with time sigma alpha t(3). These properties have have been numerically found in several systems, namely, tight-binding lattice models. For its rules, our model can be understood as the quantum version of the classical non-Markovian “elephant random walk” process for which the quantum coin operator only changes the value of the diffusion constant although, contrarily, to the classical coin.
|
|
|
ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2018). Measurement of the inclusive and fiducial t(t)over-bar production cross-sections in the lepton plus jets channel in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 78(6), 487–31pp.
Abstract: The inclusive and fiducial t (t) over bar production cross sections are measured in the lepton+jets channel using 20.2 fb(-1) of proton proton collision data at a centre-of mass energy of 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Major systematic uncertainties due to the modelling of the jet energy scale and b-tagging efficiency are constrained by separating selected events into three disjoint regions. In order to reduce systematic uncertainties in the most important background, the W+jets process is modelled using Z+jets events in a data-driven approach. The inclusive t (t) over bar cross-section is measured with a precision of 5.7% to be (sigma(inc) (t (t) over bar) = 248.3 +/- 0.7 (stat.) +/- 13.4 (syst.) +/- 4.7 (lumi.) pb, assuming a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV. The result is in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. The cross-section is also measured in a phase space close to that of the selected data. The fiducial cross-section is sigma(fid) (t (t) over bar) = 48.8 +/- 0.1 (stat.) +/- 2.0 (syst.) +/- 0.9 (lumi.) pb with a precision of 4.5%.
|
|
|
Ferreiro, A., & Navarro-Salas, J. (2018). Pair creation in electric fields, anomalies, and renormalization of the electric current. Phys. Rev. D, 97(12), 125012–13pp.
Abstract: We investigate the Schwinger pair production phenomena in spatially homogeneous strong electric fields. We first consider scalar QED in four-dimensions and discuss the potential ambiguity in the adiabatic order assignment for the electromagnetic potential required to fix the renormalization subtractions. We argue that this ambiguity can be solved by invoking the conformal anomaly when both electric and gravitational backgrounds are present. We also extend the adiabatic regularization method for spinor QED in two-dimensions and find consistency with the chiral anomaly. We focus on the issue of the renormalization of the electric current < j(mu)> generated by the created pairs. We illustrate how to implement the renormalization of the electric current for the Sauter pulse.
|
|
|
Reig, M., Restrepo, D., Valle, J. W. F., & Zapata, O. (2018). Bound-state dark matter and Dirac neutrino masses. Phys. Rev. D, 97(11), 115032–5pp.
Abstract: We propose a simple theory for the idea that cosmological dark matter (DM) may be present today mainly in the form of stable neutral hadronic thermal relics. In our model, neutrino masses arise radiatively from the exchange of colored DM constituents, giving a common origin for both dark matter and neutrino mass. The exact conservation of B – L symmetry ensures dark matter stability and the Dirac nature of neutrinos. The theory can be falsified by dark matter nuclear recoil direct detection experiments, leading also to possible signals at a next generation hadron collider.
|
|
|
de Medeiros Varzielas, I., Neder, T., & Zhou, Y. L. (2018). Effective alignments as building blocks of flavor models. Phys. Rev. D, 97(11), 115033–21pp.
Abstract: Flavor models typically rely on flavons-scalars that break the family symmetry by acquiring vacuum expectation values in specific directions. We develop the idea of effective alignments, i.e., cases where the contractions of multiple flavons give rise to directions that are hard or impossible to obtain directly by breaking the family symmetry. Focusing on the example where the symmetry is S-4, we list the effective alignments that can be obtained from flavons vacuum expectation values that arise naturally from S-4. Using those effective alignments as building blocks, it is possible to construct flavor models, for example by using the effective alignments in constrained sequential dominance models. We illustrate how to obtain several of the mixing schemes in the literature, and explicitly construct renormalizable models for three viable cases, two of which lead to trimaximal mixing scenarios.
|
|
|
Liang, W. H., Dias, J. M., Debastiani, V. R., & Oset, E. (2018). Molecular Omega(b) states. Nucl. Phys. B, 930, 524–532.
Abstract: Motivated by the recent finding of five Omega(c) states by the LHCb collaboration, and the successful reproduction of three of them in a recent approach searching for molecular states of meson-baryon with the quantum numbers of Omega(c), we extend these ideas and make predictions for the interaction of meson-baryon in the beauty sector, searching for poles in the scattering matrix that correspond to physical states. We find several Omega(b) states: two states with masses 6405 MeV and 6465 MeV for J(P) = 1/2(-) ; two more states with masses 6427 MeV and 6665 MeV for 3/4(-) ; and three states between 6500 and 6820 MeV, degenerate with J(P) = 1/2(-), 3/4(-), stemming from the interaction of vector-baryon in the beauty sector.
|
|