HADES Collaboration(Agakishiev, G. et al), Diaz, J., & Gil, A. (2013). Deep sub-threshold K*(892)(0) production in collisions of Ar + KCl at 1.76A GeV. Eur. Phys. J. A, 49(3), 34–7pp.
Abstract: Results on the deep sub-threshold production of the short-lived hadronic resonance K*(892)(0) are reported for collisions of Ar + KCl at 1.76 A GeV beam energy, studied with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at SIS18/GSI. The K*(892)(0) production probability per central collision of P-K*0 = (4.4 +/- 1.1 +/- 0.5) x 10(-4) and the K*(892)(0)/K-0 ratio of P-K*0/P-K0 = (1.9 +/- 0.5 +/- 0.3) x 10(-2) are determined at the lowest energy so far (i.e. deep below the threshold for the corresponding production in nucleon-nucleon collisions, root s(NN)-root s(thr) = -340MeV). The K*(0)/K-0 ratio is compared with results of other experiments and with the predictions of the UrQMD transport approach and of the statistical hadronization model. The experimental K*(0) yield and the K-*0/K-0 ratio are overestimated by the transport model by factors of about five and two, respectively. In a chemically equilibrated medium the ratio corresponds to a temperature of the thermalized system being systematically lower than the value determined by the yields of the stable and long-lived hadrons produced in Ar + KCl collisions. From the present measurement, we conclude that sub-threshold K* production either cannot be considered to proceed in a system being in thermal equilibrium or these short-lived resonances appear undersaturated, for example as a result of the rescattering of the decay particles in the ambient hadronic medium.
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NEXT Collaboration(Alvarez, V. et al), Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., Gil, A., et al. (2013). Initial results of NEXT-DEMO, a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 experiment. J. Instrum., 8, P04002–25pp.
Abstract: NEXT-DEMO is a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 detector, an electroluminescent time projection chamber that will search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136 using 100-150 kg of enriched xenon gas. NEXT-DEMO was built to prove the expected performance of NEXT-100, namely, energy resolution better than 1% FWHM at 2.5MeV and event topological reconstruction. In this paper we describe the prototype and its initial results. A resolution of 1.75% FWHM at 511 keV (which extrapolates to 0.8% FWHM at 2.5 MeV) was obtained at 10 bar pressure using a gamma-ray calibration source. Also, a basic study of the event topology along the longitudinal coordinate is presented, proving that it is possible to identify the distinct dE/dx of electron tracks in high-pressure xenon using an electroluminescence TPC.
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NEXT Collaboration(Alvarez, V. et al), Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., Gil, A., et al. (2013). Near-intrinsic energy resolution for 30-662 keV gamma rays in a high pressure xenon electroluminescent TPC. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 708, 101–114.
Abstract: We present the design, data and results from the NEXT prototype for Double Beta and Dark Matter (NEXT-DBDM) detector, a high-pressure gaseous natural xenon electroluminescent time projection chamber (TPC) that was built at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It is a prototype of the planned NEXT-100 Xe-136 neutrino-less double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) experiment with the main objectives of demonstrating near-intrinsic energy resolution at energies up to 662 keV and of optimizing the NEXT-100 detector design and operating parameters. Energy resolutions of similar to 1% FWHM for 662 keV gamma rays were obtained at 10 and 15 atm and similar to 5% FWHM for 30 keV fluorescence xenon X-rays. These results demonstrate that 0.5% FWHM resolutions for the 2459 keV hypothetical neutrino-less double beta decay peak are realizable. This energy resolution is a factor 7-20 better than that of the current leading 0 nu beta beta experiments using liquid xenon and thus represents a significant advancement. We present also first results from a track imaging system consisting of 64 silicon photo-multipliers recently installed in NEXT-DBDM that, along with the excellent energy resolution, demonstrates the key functionalities required for the NEXT-100 0 nu beta beta search.
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Gil, A., Blanco, A., Castro, E., Diaz, J., Garzon, J. A., Gonzalez-Diaz, D., et al. (2012). The slow control system of the HADES RPC wall. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 661, S118–S120.
Abstract: The control and monitoring system for the new HADES RPC time of flight wall installed at GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung GmbH (Darmstadt, Germany), is described. The slow control system controls/monitors about 6000 variables from different physical devices via a distributed architecture, which uses intensively the 1-wire (R) bus. The software implementation is based on the Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) software tool kit providing low cost, reliability and adaptability without requiring large hardware resources. The control and monitoring system attends five different subsystems: front-end electronics, low voltage, high voltage, gases, and detector. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Blanco, A., Belver, D., Cabanelas, P., Diaz, J., Fonte, P., Garzon, J. A., et al. (2012). RPC HADES-TOF wall cosmic ray test performance. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 661, S114–S117.
Abstract: In this work we present results concerning the cosmic ray test, prior to the final installation and commissioning of the new Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) Time of Flight (TOF) wall for the High-Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer (HADES) at GSI. The TOF wall is composed of six equal sectors, each one constituted by 186 individual 4-gaps glass-aluminium shielded RPC cells distributed in six columns and 31 rows in two partially overlapping layers, covering an area of 1.26 m(2). All sectors were tested with the final Front End Electronic (FEE) and Data AcQuisition system (DAQ) together with Low Voltage (LV) and High Voltage (HV) systems. Results confirm a very uniform average system time resolution of 77 ps sigma together with an average multi-hit time resolution of 83 ps. Crosstalk levels below 1% (in average), moderate timing tails along with an average longitudinal position resolution of 8.4 mm sigma are also confirmed.
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