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Perez-Perez, J., Amare, J. C., Bandac, I. C., Bayo, A., Borjabad-Sanchez, S., Calvo-Mozota, J. M., et al. (2022). Radon Mitigation Applications at the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (LSC). Universe, 8(2), 112–20pp.
Abstract: The Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC) is the Spanish national hub for low radioactivity techniques and the associated scientific and technological applications. The concentration of the airborne radon is a major component of the radioactive budget in the neighborhood of the detectors. The LSC hosts a Radon Abatement System, which delivers a radon suppressed air with 1.1 & PLUSMN;0.2 mBq/m(3) of Rn-222. The radon content in the air is continuously monitored with an Electrostatic Radon Monitor. Measurements with the double beta decay demonstrators NEXT-NEW and CROSS and the gamma HPGe detectors show the important reduction of the radioactive background due to the purified air in the vicinity of the detectors. We also discuss the use of this facility in the LSC current program which includes NEXT-100, low background biology experiments and radiopure copper electroformation equipment placed in the radon-free clean room.
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NEXT Collaboration(Woodruff, K. et al), Alvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Diaz, J., et al. (2020). Radio frequency and DC high voltage breakdown of high pressure helium, argon, and xenon. J. Instrum., 15(4), P04022–15pp.
Abstract: Motivated by the possibility of guiding daughter ions from double beta decay events to single-ion sensors for barium tagging, the NEXT collaboration is developing a program of R&D to test radio frequency (RF) carpets for ion transport in high pressure xenon gas. This would require carpet functionality in regimes at higher pressures than have been previously reported, implying correspondingly larger electrode voltages than in existing systems. This mode of operation appears plausible for contemporary RF-carpet geometries due to the higher predicted breakdown strength of high pressure xenon relative to low pressure helium, the working medium in most existing RF carpet devices. In this paper we present the first measurements of the high voltage dielectric strength of xenon gas at high pressure and at the relevant RF frequencies for ion transport (in the 10MHz range), as well as new DC and RF measurements of the dielectric strengths of high pressure argon and helium gases at small gap sizes. We find breakdown voltages that are compatible with stable RF carpet operation given the gas, pressure, voltage, materials and geometry of interest.
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NEXT Collaboration(McDonald, A. D. et al), Alvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., Diaz, J., et al. (2019). Electron drift and longitudinal diffusion in high pressure xenon-helium gas mixtures. J. Instrum., 14, P08009–19pp.
Abstract: We report new measurements of the drift velocity and longitudinal diffusion coefficients of electrons in pure xenon gas and in xenon-helium gas mixtures at 1-9 bar and electric field strengths of 50-300 V/cm. In pure xenon we find excellent agreement with world data at all E/P, for both drift velocity and diffusion coefficients. However, a larger value of the longitudinal diffusion coefficient than theoretical predictions is found at low E/P in pure xenon, below the range of reduced fields usually probed by TPC experiments. A similar effect is observed in xenon-helium gas mixtures at somewhat larger E/P. Drift velocities in xenon-helium mixtures are found to be theoretically well predicted. Although longitudinal diffusion in xenon-helium mixtures is found to be larger than anticipated, extrapolation based on the measured longitudinal diffusion coefficients suggest that the use of helium additives to reduce transverse diffusion in xenon gas remains a promising prospect.
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Hernandez, P., Jones-Perez, J., & Suarez-Navarro, O. (2019). Majorana vs pseudo-Dirac neutrinos at the ILC. Eur. Phys. J. C, 79(3), 220–11pp.
Abstract: Neutrino masses could originate in seesaw models testable at colliders, with light mediators and an approximate lepton number symmetry. The minimal model of this type contains two quasi-degenerate Majorana fermions forming a pseudo-Dirac pair. An important question is to what extent future colliders will have sensitivity to the splitting between the Majorana components, since this quantity signals the breaking of lepton number and is connected to the light neutrino masses. We consider the production of these neutral heavy leptons at the ILC, where their displaced decays provide a golden signal: a forward-backward charge asymmetry, which depends crucially on the mass splitting between the two Majorana components. We show that this observable can constrain the mass splitting to values much lower than current bounds from neutrinoless double beta decay and natural loop corrections.
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Blankenburg, G., & Jones Perez, J. (2013). RGE behavior of SUSY with a U(2)(3) symmetry. Eur. Phys. J. C, 73(2), 2289–15pp.
Abstract: The first LHC results seem to disfavor, from the point of view of naturalness, any constrained MSSM realization with universal conditions at the SUSY-breaking scale. A more motivated scenario is given by split-family SUSY, in which the first two generations of squarks are heavy, compatible with a U(2)(3) flavor symmetry. We consider this flavor symmetry to be broken at a very high scale and study the consequences at low energies through its RGE evolution. Initial conditions compatible with a split scenario are found, and the preservation of correlations from minimal U(2)(3) breaking are checked. The various chiral operators in Delta F = 2 processes are analyzed, and we show that, due to LHC gluino bounds, the (LL)(RR) operators cannot always be neglected. Finally, we also study a possible extension of the U(2)(3) model compatible with the lepton sector.
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SciBooNE and MiniBooNE collaborations(Cheng, G. et al), Catala-Perez, J., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., & Sorel, M. (2012). Dual baseline search for muon antineutrino disappearance at 0.1 eV(2) < Delta m(2) < 100 eV(2). Phys. Rev. D, 86(5), 052009–14pp.
Abstract: The MiniBooNE and SciBooNE collaborations report the results of a joint search for short baseline disappearance of (nu) over bar (mu) at Fermilab's Booster Neutrino Beamline. The MiniBooNE Cherenkov detector and the SciBooNE tracking detector observe antineutrinos from the same beam, therefore the combined analysis of their data sets serves to partially constrain some of the flux and cross section uncertainties. Uncertainties in the nu(mu) background were constrained by neutrino flux and cross section measurements performed in both detectors. A likelihood ratio method was used to set a 90% confidence level upper limit on (nu) over bar (mu) disappearance that dramatically improves upon prior limits in the Delta m(2) = 0.1-100 eV(2) region.
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NEXT Collaboration(Alvarez, V. et al), Agramunt, J., Ball, M., Bayarri, J., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., et al. (2012). SiPMs coated with TPB: coating protocol and characterization for NEXT. J. Instrum., 7, P02010.
Abstract: Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) are the photon detectors chosen for the tracking read-out in NEXT, a neutrinoless beta beta decay experiment which uses a high pressure gaseous xenon time projection chamber (TPC). The reconstruction of event track and topology in this gaseous detector is a key handle for background rejection. Among the commercially available sensors that can be used for tracking, SiPMs offer important advantages, mainly high gain, ruggedness, cost-effectiveness and radio-purity. Their main drawback, however, is their non sensitivity in the emission spectrum of the xenon scintillation (peak at 175 nm). This is overcome by coating these sensors with the organic wavelength shifter tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB). In this paper we describe the protocol developed for coating the SiPMs with TPB and the measurements performed for characterizing the coatings as well as the performance of the coated sensors in the UV-VUV range.
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Bustamante, M., Gago, A. M., & Jones Perez, J. (2011). SUSY renormalization group effects in ultra high energy neutrinos. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 133–26pp.
Abstract: We have explored the question of whether the renormalization group running of the neutrino mixing parameters in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is detectable with ultra-high energy neutrinos from active galactic nuclei (AGN). We use as observables the ratios of neutrino fluxes produced at the AGN, focusing on four different neutrino production models: (Phi(0)(v epsilon+(v) over bar epsilon) : Phi(0)(v mu+(v) over bar mu) : Phi(0)(v tau+(v) over bar tau)) = (1 : 2 : 0), (0 : 1 : 0), (1 : 0 : 0), and (1 : 1 : 0). The prospects for observing deviations experimentally are taken into consideration, and we find out that it is necessary to impose a cut-off on the transferred momentum of Q(2) >= 10(7) GeV(2). However, this condition, together with the expected low value of the diffuse AGN neutrino flux, yields a negligible event rate at a km-scale. Cerenkov detector such as IceCube.
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SciBooNE Collaboration(Nakajima, Y. et al), Catala-Perez, J., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., & Sorel, M. (2011). Measurement of inclusive charged current interactions on carbon in a few-GeV neutrino beam. Phys. Rev. D, 83(1), 012005–21pp.
Abstract: We report a measurement of inclusive charged current interactions of muon neutrinos on carbon with an average energy of 0.8 GeV using the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam. We compare our measurement with two neutrino interaction simulations: NEUT and NUANCE. The charged current interaction rates (product of flux and cross section) are extracted by fitting the muon kinematics, with a precision of 6%-15% for the energy dependent and 3% for the energy integrated analyses. We also extract charged current inclusive interaction cross sections from the observed rates, with a precision of 10%-30% for the energy dependent and 8% for the energy integrated analyses. This is the first measurement of the charged current inclusive cross section on carbon around 1 GeV. These results can be used to convert previous SciBooNE cross-section ratio measurements to absolute cross-section values.
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NEXT Collaboration(Renner, J. et al), Martinez-Lema, G., Alvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Botas, A., Carcel, S., et al. (2018). Initial results on energy resolution of the NEXT-White detector. J. Instrum., 13, P10020–14pp.
Abstract: One of the major goals of the NEXT-White (NEW) detector is to demonstrate the energy resolution that an electroluminescent high pressure xenon TPC can achieve for high energy tracks. For this purpose, energy calibrations with Cs-137 and Th-232 sources have been carried out as a part of the long run taken with the detector during most of 2017. This paper describes the initial results obtained with those calibrations, showing excellent linearity and an energy resolution that extrapolates to approximately 1% FWHM at Q(beta beta).
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