Abstract: The neutron sensitivity of a cylindrical circle minus 1.5 in x 1.5 in LaBr3:Ce scintillation detector was measured using quasi-monoenergetic neutron beams in the energy range from 40 keV to 2.5 MeV. In this energy range the detector is sensitive to gamma-rays generated in neutron inelastic and capture processes. The experimental energy response was compared with Monte Carlo simulations performed with the Geant4 simulation toolkit using the so-called High Precision Neutron Models. These models rely on relevant information stored in evaluated nuclear data libraries. The performance of the Geant4 Neutron Data Library as well as several standard nuclear data libraries was investigated. In the latter case this was made possible by the use of a conversion tool that allowed the direct use of the data from other libraries in Geant4. Overall it was found that there was good agreement with experiment for some of the neutron data bases like ENDF/B-VII.0 or JENDL-3.3 but not with the others such as ENDF/B-VI.8 or JEFF-3.1.

Abstract: We study the collisional aspects of jet quenching in a high-energy nuclear collision, especially in the final state pion gas. The jet has a large energy, and acquires momentum transverse to its axis more effectively by multiple soft collisions than by few hard scatterings (as known from analogous systems such as J/psi production at Hera). Such regime of large E and small momentum transfer corresponds to Regge kinematics and is characteristically dominated by the pomeron. From this insight we estimate the jet quenching parameter in the hadron medium (largely a pion gas) at the end of the collision, which is naturally small and increases with temperature in line with the gas density and compare it to the jet quenching parameter obtained within the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) phase in widely known perturbative approximations. The physics in the quark-gluon plasma/liquid phase is less obvious, and here we revisit a couple of simple estimates that suggest indeed that the pomeron-mediated interactions are very relevant and should be included in analysis of the jet quenching parameter. Finally, since the occasional hard collisions produce features characteristic of a Levy flight in the q(perpendicular to)(2) plane perpendicular to the jet axis, we suggest one- and two-particle q perpendicular to correlations as interesting experimental probes sensitive to the nature (softness versus hardness) of the interactions of a jet inside the QGP.

Abstract: We present a non-minimal renormalizable SUSY SU(5) model, with extended Higgs sector and right-handed neutrinos, where the flavor sector exhibits a Q(6) flavor symmetry. We analyzed the simplest version of this model, in which R-parity is conserved and the right-handed neutrino masses in the flavor doublet are considered with and without degeneracy. We find the generic form of the mass matrices both in the quark and lepton sectors. We reproduce, according to current data, the mixing in the CKM matrix. In the leptonic sector, in the general case where the right-handed neutrino masses are not degenerate, we find that the values for the solar, atmospheric, and reactor mixing angles are in very good agreement with the experimental data, both for a normal and an inverted hierarchy. In the particular casewhere the right-handed neutrinos masses are degenerate, the model predicts a strong inverted hierarchy spectrum and a sum rule among the neutrino masses. In this case the atmospheric and solar angles are in very good agreement with experimental data, and the reactor one is different from zero, albeit too small (theta(lth)(13) similar to 3.38.). This value constitutes a lower bound for.13 in the general case. We also find the range of the values for the neutrino masses in each case.