Abstract: The next core-collapse supernova in the Milky Way or its satellites will represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity to obtain detailed information about the explosion of a star and provide significant scientific insight for a variety of fields because of the extreme conditions found within. Supernovae in our galaxy are not only rare on a human timescale but also happen at unscheduled times, so it is crucial to be ready and use all available instruments to capture all possible information from the event. The first indication of a potential stellar explosion will be the arrival of a bright burst of neutrinos. Its observation by multiple detectors worldwide can provide an early warning for the subsequent electromagnetic fireworks, as well as signal to other detectors with significant backgrounds so they can store their recent data. The supernova early warning system (SNEWS) has been operating as a simple coincidence between neutrino experiments in automated mode since 2005. In the current era of multi-messenger astronomy there are new opportunities for SNEWS to optimize sensitivity to science from the next galactic supernova beyond the simple early alert. This document is the product of a workshop in June 2019 towards design of SNEWS 2.0, an upgraded SNEWS with enhanced capabilities exploiting the unique advantages of prompt neutrino detection to maximize the science gained from such a valuable event.

Abstract: Spectroscopy is used to measure the elemental abundances in the outer layers of the Sun, whereas helioseismology probes the interior. It is well known that current spectroscopic determinations of the chemical composition are starkly at odds with the metallicity implied by helioseismology. We investigate whether the discrepancy may be due to conversion of photons to a new light boson in the solar photosphere. We examine the impact of particles with axion-like interactions with the photon on the inferred photospheric abundances, showing that resonant axion-photon conversion is not possible in the region of the solar atmosphere in which line formation occurs. Although non-resonant conversion in the line-forming regions can in principle impact derived abundances, constraints from axion-photon conversion experiments rule out the couplings necessary for these effects to be detectable. We show that this extends to hidden photons and chameleons (which would exhibit similar phenomenological behaviour), ruling out known theories of new light bosons as photospheric solutions to the solar abundance problem.

Abstract: In the past decade, a new class of bright transient radio sources with millisecond duration has been discovered. The origin of these so-called fast radio bursts (FRBs) is still a mystery, despite the growing observational efforts made by various multiwavelength and multimessenger facilities. To date, many models have been proposed to explain FRBs, but neither the progenitors nor the radiative and the particle acceleration processes at work have been clearly identified. In this paper, we assess whether hadronic processes may occur in the vicinity of the FRB source. If they do, FRBs may contribute to the high-energy cosmic-ray and neutrino fluxes. A search for these hadronic signatures was carried out using the ANTARES neutrino telescope. The analysis consists in looking for high-energy neutrinos, in the TeV-PeV regime, that are spatially and temporally coincident with the detected FRBs. Most of the FRBs discovered in the period 2013-2017 were in the field of view of the ANTARES detector, which is sensitive mostly to events originating from the Southern hemisphere. From this period, 12 FRBs were selected and no coincident neutrino candidate was observed. Upper limits on the per-burst neutrino fluence were derived using a power-law spectrum, dN/DE nu proportional to E-nu(-gamma), for the incoming neutrino flux, assuming spectral indexes gamma = 1.0, 2.0, 2.5. Finally, the neutrino energy was constrained by computing the total energy radiated in neutrinos, assuming different distances for the FRBs. Constraints on the neutrino fluence and on the energy released were derived from the associated null results.

Abstract: Around one-third of the point-like sources in the Fermi-LAT catalogues remain as unidentified sources (unIDs) today. Indeed, these unIDs lack a clear, univocal association with a known astrophysical source. If dark matter (DM) is composed of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), there is the exciting possibility that some of these unIDs may actually be DM sources, emitting gamma-rays from WIMPs annihilation. We propose a new approach to solve the standard, machine learning (ML) binary classification problem of disentangling prospective DM sources (simulated data) from astrophysical sources (observed data) among the unIDs of the 4FGL Fermi-LAT catalogue. We artificially build two systematic features for the DM data which are originally inherent to observed data: the detection significance and the uncertainty on the spectral curvature. We do it by sampling from the observed population of unIDs, assuming that the DM distributions would, if any, follow the latter. We consider different ML models: Logistic Regression, Neural Network (NN), Naive Bayes, and Gaussian Process, out of which the best, in terms of classification accuracy, is the NN, achieving around 93 . 3 per cent +/- 0 . 7 per cent performance. Other ML evaluation parameters, such as the True Ne gativ e and True Positive rates, are discussed in our work. Applying the NN to the unIDs sample, we find that the de generac y between some astrophysical and DM sources can be partially solved within this methodology. None the less, we conclude that there are no DM source candidates among the pool of 4FGL Fermi-LAT unIDs.

Abstract: Purpose Monte Carlo (MC) simulation studies, aimed at evaluating the magnitude of tissue heterogeneity in I-125 prostate permanent seed implant brachytherapy (BT), customarily use clinical post-implant CT images to generate a virtual representation of a realistic patient model (virtual patient model). Metallic artifact reduction (MAR) techniques and tissue assignment schemes (TAS) are implemented on the post-implant CT images to mollify metallic artifacts due to BT seeds and to assign tissue types to the voxels corresponding to the bright seed spots and streaking artifacts, respectively. The objective of this study is to assess the combined influence of MAR and TAS on MC absorbed dose calculations in post-implant CT-based phantoms. The virtual patient models used for I-125 prostate implant MC absorbed dose calculations in this study are derived from the CT images of an external radiotherapy prostate patient without BT seeds and prostatic calcifications, thus averting the need to implement MAR and TAS. Methods The geometry of the IsoSeed I25.S17plus source is validated by comparing the MC calculated results of the TG-43 parameters for the line source approximation with the TG-43U1S2 consensus data. Four MC absorbed dose calculations are performed in two virtual patient models using the egs_brachy MC code: (1) TG-43-based D-w,w-TG(43), (2) D-w,D-w-MBDC that accounts for interseed scattering and attenuation (ISA), (3) D-m,D-m that examines ISA and tissue heterogeneity by scoring absorbed dose in tissue, and (4) D-w,D-m that unlike D-m,D-m scores absorbed dose in water. The MC absorbed doses (1) and (2) are simulated in a TG-43 patient phantom derived by assigning the densities of every voxel to 1.00 g cm(-3) (water), whereas MC absorbed doses (3) and (4) are scored in the TG-186 patient phantom generated by mapping the mass density of each voxel to tissue according to a CT calibration curve. The MC absorbed doses calculated in this study are compared with VariSeed v8.0 calculated absorbed doses. To evaluate the dosimetric effect of MAR and TAS, the MC absorbed doses of this work (independent of MAR and TAS) are compared to the MC absorbed doses of different I-125 source models from previous studies that were calculated with different MC codes using post-implant CT-based phantoms generated by implementing MAR and TAS on post-implant CT images. Results The very good agreement of TG-43 parameters of this study and the published consensus data within 3% validates the geometry of the IsoSeed I25.S17plus source. For the clinical studies, the TG-43-based calculations show a D-90 overestimation of more than 4% compared to the more realistic MC methods due to ISA and tissue composition. The results of this work generally show few discrepancies with the post-implant CT-based dosimetry studies with respect to the D-90 absorbed dose metric parameter. These discrepancies are mainly Type B uncertainties due to the different I-125 source models and MC codes. Conclusions The implementation of MAR and TAS on post-implant CT images have no dosimetric effect on the I-125 prostate MC absorbed dose calculation in post-implant CT-based phantoms.