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NEXT Collaboration(Renner, J. et al), Benlloch-Rodriguez, J., Botas, A., Ferrario, P., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Alvarez, V., et al. (2017). Background rejection in NEXT using deep neural networks. J. Instrum., 12, T01004–21pp.
Abstract: We investigate the potential of using deep learning techniques to reject background events in searches for neutrinoless double beta decay with high pressure xenon time projection chambers capable of detailed track reconstruction. The differences in the topological signatures of background and signal events can be learned by deep neural networks via training over many thousands of events. These networks can then be used to classify further events as signal or background, providing an additional background rejection factor at an acceptable loss of efficiency. The networks trained in this study performed better than previous methods developed based on the use of the same topological signatures by a factor of 1.2 to 1.6, and there is potential for further improvement.
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Elor, G., Escudero, M., & Nelson, A. E. (2019). Baryogenesis and dark matter from B mesons. Phys. Rev. D, 99(3), 035031–18pp.
Abstract: We present a new mechanism of baryogenesis and dark matter production in which both the dark matter relic abundance and the baryon asymmetry arise from neutral B meson oscillations and subsequent decays. This setup is testable at hadron colliders and B factories. In the early universe, decays of a long lived particle produce B mesons and antimesons out of thermal equilibrium. These mesons/antimesons then undergo CP violating oscillations before quickly decaying into visible and dark sector particles. Dark matter will be charged under the baryon number so that the visible sector baryon asymmetry is produced without violating the total baryon number of the Universe. The produced baryon asymmetry will be directly related to the leptonic charge asymmetry in neutral B decays: an experimental observable. Dark matter is stabilized by an unbroken discrete symmetry, and proton decay is simply evaded by kinematics. We will illustrate this mechanism with a model that is unconstrained by dinucleon decay, does not require a high reheat temperature, and would have unique experimental signals-a positive leptonic asymmetry in B meson decays, a new decay of B mesons into a baryon and missing energy, and a new decay of b-flavored baryons into mesons and missing energy. These three observables are testable at current and upcoming collider experiments, allowing for a distinct probe of this mechanism.
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Easa, H., Gregoire, T., Stolarski, D., & Cosme, C. (2024). Baryogenesis and dark matter in multiple hidden sectors. Phys. Rev. D, 109(7), 075003–29pp.
Abstract: We explore a mechanism for producing the baryon asymmetry and dark matter in models with multiple hidden sectors that are Standard -Model -like but with varying Higgs mass parameters. If the field responsible for reheating the Standard Model and the exotic sectors carries an asymmetry, it can be converted into a baryon asymmetry using the standard sphaleron process. A hidden sector with positive Higgs mass squared can accommodate dark matter with its baryon asymmetry, and the larger abundance of dark matter relative to baryons is due to dark sphalerons being active all the way down the hidden sector QCD scale. This scenario predicts that dark matter is clustered in large dark nuclei and gives a lower bound on the effective relativistic degrees of freedom, Delta N eff greater than or similar to 0 .05 , which may be observable in the nextgeneration cosmic microwave background experiment CMB-S4.
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Aitken, K., McKeen, D., Neder, T., & Nelson, A. E. (2017). Baryogenesis from oscillations of charmed or beautiful baryons. Phys. Rev. D, 96(7), 075009–15pp.
Abstract: We propose a model for CP-violating oscillations of neutral, heavy-flavor baryons into antibaryons at rates which are within a few orders of magnitude of their lifetimes. The flavor structure of the baryon violation suppresses neutron oscillations and baryon-number-violating nuclear decays to experimentally allowed rates. We also propose a scenario for producing such baryons in the early Universe via the out-of-equilibrium decays of a neutral particle, after hadronization but before nucleosynthesis. We find parameters where CP-violating baryon oscillations at a temperature of a few MeV could result in the observed asymmetry between baryons and antibaryons. Furthermore, part of the relevant parameter space for baryogenesis is potentially testable at Belle II via decays of heavy-flavor baryons into an exotic neutral fermion. The model introduces four new particles: three light Majorana fermions and a colored scalar. The lightest of these fermions is typically long lived on collider time scales and may be produced in decays of bottom and possibly charmed hadrons.
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n_TOF Collaboration(Damone, L. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., Tain, J. L., & Tarifeño-Saldivia, A. (2018). Be-7 (n,p)Li-7 Reaction and the Cosmological Lithium Problem: Measurement of the Cross Section in a Wide Energy Range at n_TOF at CERN. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121(4), 042701–7pp.
Abstract: We report on the measurement of the Be-7(n,p)Li-7 cross section from thermal to approximately 325 keV neutron energy, performed in the high-flux experimental area (EAR2) of the n_TOF facility at CERN. This reaction plays a key role in the lithium yield of the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) for standard cosmology. The only two previous time-of-flight measurements performed on this reaction did not cover the energy window of interest for BBN, and they showed a large discrepancy between each other. The measurement was performed with a Si telescope and a high-purity sample produced by implantation of a Be-7 ion beam at the ISOLDE facility at CERN. While a significantly higher cross section is found at low energy, relative to current evaluations, in the region of BBN interest, the present results are consistent with the values inferred from the time-reversal Li-7(p,n)Be-7 reaction, thus yielding only a relatively minor improvement on the so-called cosmological lithium problem. The relevance of these results on the near-threshold neutron production in the p + Li-7 reaction is also discussed.
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n_TOF Collaboration(Barbagallo, M. et al), Domingo-Pardo, C., Tain, J. L., & Tarifeño-Saldivia, A. (2016). Be-7(n,alpha)He-4 Reaction and the Cosmological Lithium Problem: Measurement of the Cross Section in a Wide Energy Range at n_TOF at CERN. Phys. Rev. Lett., 117(15), 152701–7pp.
Abstract: The energy-dependent cross section of the (7)Bed(n,alpha)He-4 reaction, of interest for the so-called cosmological lithium problem in big bang nucleosynthesis, has been measured for the first time from 10 meV to 10 keV neutron energy. The challenges posed by the short half-life of Be-7 and by the low reaction cross section have been overcome at nTOF thanks to an unprecedented combination of the extremely high luminosity and good resolution of the neutron beam in the new experimental area (EAR2) of the nTOF facility at CERN, the availability of a sufficient amount of chemically pure Be-7, and a specifically designed experimental setup. Coincidences between the two alpha particles have been recorded in two Si-Be-7-Si arrays placed directly in the neutron beam. The present results are consistent, at thermal neutron energy, with the only previous measurement performed in the 1960s at a nuclear reactor. The energy dependence reported here clearly indicates the inadequacy of the cross section estimates currently used in BBN calculations. Although new measurements at higher neutron energy may still be needed, the n_TOF results hint at a minor role of this reaction in BBN, leaving the long-standing cosmological lithium problem unsolved.
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Fuster-Martinez, N., Assmann, R. W., Bruce, R., Giovannozzi, M., Hermes, P., Mereghetti, A., et al. (2022). Beam-based aperture measurements with movable collimator jaws as performance booster of the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Eur. Phys. J. Plus, 137(3), 305–20pp.
Abstract: The beam aperture of a particle accelerator defines the clearance available for the circulating beams and is a parameter of paramount importance for the accelerator performance. At the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the knowledge and control of the available aperture is crucial because the nominal proton beams carry an energy of 362 MJ stored in a superconducting environment. Even a tiny fraction of beam losses could quench the superconducting magnets or cause severe material damage. Furthermore, in a circular collider, the performance in terms of peak luminosity depends to a large extent on the aperture of the inner triplet quadrupoles, which are used to focus the beams at the interaction points. In the LHC, this aperture represents the smallest aperture at top-energy with squeezed beams and determines the maximum potential reach of the peak luminosity. Beam-based aperture measurements in these conditions are difficult and challenging. In this paper, we present different methods that have been developed over the years for precise beam-based aperture measurements in the LHC, highlighting applications and results that contributed to boost the operational LHC performance in Run 1 (2010-2013) and Run 2 (2015-2018)
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Senes, E., Argyropoulos, T., Tecker, F., & Wuensch, W. (2018). Beam-loading effect on breakdown rate in high-gradient accelerating cavities: An experiment at the Compact Linear Collider Test Facility at CERN. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams, 21(10), 102001–8pp.
Abstract: Radio frequency breakdown rate is a crucial performance parameter that ensures that the design luminosity is achieved in the CLIC linear collider. The required low breakdown rate for CLIC, of the order of 10(-7) breakdown pulse(-1) m(-1), has been demonstrated in a number of 12 GHz CLIC prototype structures at gradients in excess of the design 100 MV/m accelerating gradient, however without the presence of the accelerated beam and associated beam loading. The beam loading induced by the approximately 1 A CLIC main beam significantly modifies the field distribution inside the structures, and the effect on breakdown rate is potentially significant so needs to be determined. A dedicated experiment has been carried out in the CLIC Test Facility CTF3 to measure this effect, and the results are presented.
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Aarrestad, T. et al, Mamuzic, J., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2022). Benchmark data and model independent event classification for the large hadron collider. SciPost Phys., 12(1), 043–57pp.
Abstract: We describe the outcome of a data challenge conducted as part of the Dark Machines (https://www.darkmachines.org) initiative and the Les Houches 2019 workshop on Physics at TeV colliders. The challenged aims to detect signals of new physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) using unsupervised machine learning algorithms. First, we propose how an anomaly score could be implemented to define model-independent signal regions in LHC searches. We define and describe a large benchmark dataset, consisting of > 1 billion simulated LHC events corresponding to 10 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. We then review a wide range of anomaly detection and density estimation algorithms, developed in the context of the data challenge, and we measure their performance in a set of realistic analysis environments. We draw a number of useful conclusions that will aid the development of unsupervised new physics searches during the third run of the LHC, and provide our benchmark dataset for future studies at https://www.phenoMLdata.org. Code to reproduce the analysis is provided at https://github.com/bostdiek/DarkMachines-UnsupervisedChallenge.
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Oliver, S., Gimenez-Alventosa, V., Berumen, F., Gimenez, V., Beaulieu, L., Ballester, F., et al. (2023). Benchmark of the PenRed Monte Carlo framework for HDR brachytherapy. Z. Med. Phys., 33(4), 511–528.
Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study is to validate the PenRed Monte Carlo framework for clinical applications in brachytherapy. PenRed is a C++ version of Penelope Monte Carlo code with additional tallies and utilities. Methods and materials: Six benchmarking scenarios are explored to validate the use of PenRed and its improved bachytherapy-oriented capabilities for HDR brachytherapy. A new tally allowing the evaluation of collisional kerma for any material using the track length kerma estimator and the possibility to obtain the seed positions, weights and directions processing directly the DICOM file are now implemented in the PenRed distribution. The four non-clinical test cases developed by the Joint AAPM-ESTRO-ABG-ABS WG-DCAB were evaluated by comparing local and global absorbed dose differences with respect to established reference datasets. A prostate and a palliative lung cases, were also studied. For them, absorbed dose ratios, global absorbed dose differences, and cumulative dose-volume histograms were obtained and discussed. Results: The air-kerma strength and the dose rate constant corresponding to the two sources agree with the reference datatests within 0.3% (Sk) and 0.1% (K). With respect to the first three WG-DCAB test cases, more than 99.8% of the voxels present local (global) differences within +/- 1%(+/- 0.1%) of the reference datasets. For test Case 4 reference dataset, more than 94.9%(97.5%) of voxels show an agreement within +/- 1%(+/- 0.1%), better than similar benchmarking calculations in the literature. The track length kerma estimator scorer implemented increases the numerical efficiency of brachytherapy calculations two orders of magnitude, while the specific brachytherapy source allows the user to avoid the use of error-prone intermediate steps to translate the DICOM information into the simulation. In both clinical cases, only minor absorbed dose differences arise in the low-dose isodoses. 99.8% and 100% of the voxels have a global absorbed dose difference ratio within +/- 0.2%for the prostate and lung cases, respectively. The role played by the different segmentation and composition material in the bone structures was discussed, obtaining negligible absorbed dose differ-ences. Dose-volume histograms were in agreement with the reference data.Conclusions: PenRed incorporates new tallies and utilities and has been validated for its use for detailed and precise high-dose-rate brachytherapy simulations.
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