NEXT Collaboration(Alvarez, V. et al), Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., Gil, A., et al. (2013). Ionization and scintillation response of high-pressure xenon gas to alpha particles. J. Instrum., 8, P05025–35pp.
Abstract: High-pressure xenon gas is an attractive detection medium for a variety of applications in fundamental and applied physics. In this paper we study the ionization and scintillation detection properties of xenon gas at 10 bar pressure. For this purpose, we use a source of alpha particles in the NEXT-DEMO time projection chamber, the large scale prototype of the NEXT-100 neutrinoless double beta decay experiment, in three different drift electric field configurations. We measure the ionization electron drift velocity and longitudinal diffusion, and compare our results to expectations based on available electron scattering cross sections on pure xenon. In addition, two types of measurements addressing the connection between the ionization and scintillation yields are performed. On the one hand we observe, for the first time in xenon gas, large event-by-event correlated fluctuations between the ionization and scintillation signals, similar to that already observed in liquid xenon. On the other hand, we study the field dependence of the average scintillation and ionization yields. Both types of measurements may shed light on the mechanism of electron-ion recombination in xenon gas for highly-ionizing particles. Finally, by comparing the response of alpha particles and electrons in NEXT-DEMO, we find no evidence for quenching of the primary scintillation light produced by alpha particles in the xenon gas.
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Mendoza, S., & Olmo, G. J. (2015). Astrophysical constraints and insights on extended relativistic gravity. Astrophys. Space Sci., 357(2), 133–6pp.
Abstract: We give precise details to support that observations of gravitational lensing at scales of individual, groups and clusters of galaxies can be understood in terms of nonNewtonian gravitational interactions with a relativistic structure compatible with the Einstein Equivalence Principle. This result is derived on very general grounds without knowing the underlying structure of the gravitational field equations. As such, any developed gravitational theory built to deal with these astrophysical scales needs to reproduce the obtained results of this article.
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NEXT Collaboration(Renner, J. et al), Alvarez, V., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., et al. (2015). Ionization and scintillation of nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 793, 62–74.
Abstract: Ionization and scintillation produced by nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon at approximately 14 bar have been simultaneously observed in an electroluminescent time projection chamber. Neutrons from radioisotope a-Be neutron sources were used to induce xenon nuclear recoils, and the observed recoil spectra were compared to a detailed Monte Carlo employing estimated ionization and scintillation yields for nuclear recoils. The ability to discriminate between electronic and nuclear recoils using the ratio of ionization to primary scintillation is demonstrated. These results encourage further investigation on the use of xenon in the gas phase as a detector medium in dark matter direct detection experiments.
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NEXT Collaboration(Serra, L. et al), Sorel, M., Alvarez, V., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., et al. (2015). An improved measurement of electron-ion recombination in high-pressure xenon gas. J. Instrum., 10, P03025–21pp.
Abstract: We report on results obtained with the NEXT-DEMO prototype of the NEXT-100 high-pressure xenon gas time projection chamber (TPC), filled with pure xenon gas at 10 bar pressure and exposed to an alpha decay calibration source. Compared to our previous measurements with alpha particles, an upgraded detector and improved analysis techniques have been used. We measure event-by-event correlated fluctuations between ionization and scintillation due to electronion recombination in the gas, with correlation coefficients between -0.80 and -0.56 depending on the drift field conditions. By combining the two signals, we obtain a 2.8% FWHM energy resolution for 5.49 MeV alpha particles and a measurement of the optical gain of the electroluminescent TPC. The improved energy resolution also allows us to measure the specific activity of the radon in the gas due to natural impurities. Finally, we measure the average ratio of excited to ionized atoms produced in the xenon gas by alpha particles to be 0.561 +/- 0.045, translating into an average energy to produce a primary scintillation photon of W-ex = (39.2 +/- 3.2) eV.
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Valle, J. W. F. (2015). Status and implications of neutrino masses: a brief panorama. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 30(13), 1530034–13pp.
Abstract: With the historic discovery of the Higgs boson our picutre of particle physics would have been complete were it nor for the neutrino sector and cosmology. I briefly discuss the role of neutrino masses and mixing upon gauge coupling unification, electroweak breaking and the flavor sector. Time is ripe for new discoveries such as leptonic CP violation, charged lepton flavor violation and neutrinoless double beta decay. Neutrinos could also play a role is elucidating the nature of dark matter and cosmic inflation.
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NEXT Collaboration(Cebrian, S. et al), Alvarez, V., Carcel, S., Cervera-Villanueva, A., Diaz, J., Ferrario, P., et al. (2015). Accurate gamma and MeV-electron track reconstruction with an ultra-low diffusion Xenon/TMA TPC at 10 atm. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 804, 8–24.
Abstract: We report the performance of a 10 atm Xenon/trimethylamine time projection chamber (TPC) for the detection of X-rays (30 keV) and gamma-rays (0.511-1.275 MeV) in conjunction with the accurate tracking of the associated electrons. When operated at such a high pressure and in similar to 1%-admixtures, trimethylamine (TMA) endows Xenon with an extremely low electron diffusion (1.3 +/- 0.13 mm-sigma (longitudinal), 0.95 +/- 0.20 mm-sigma (transverse) along 1 m drift) besides forming a convenient Penning-Fluorescent' mixture. The TPC, that houses 1.1 kg of gas in its fiducial volume, operated continuously for 100 live-days in charge amplification mode. The readout was performed through the recently introduced microbulk Micromegas technology and the AFTER chip, providing a 3D voxelization of 8 mm x 8 mm x 1.2 mm for approximately 10 cm/MeV-long electron tracks. Resolution in energy (epsilon) at full width half maximum (R) inside the fiducial volume ranged from R = 14.6% (30 keV) to R = 4.6% (1.275 MeV). This work was developed as part of the R&D program of the NEXT collaboration for future detector upgrades in the search of the neutrino-less double beta decay (beta beta 0 nu) in Xe-136, specifically those based on novel gas mixtures. Therefore we ultimately focus on the calorimetric and topological properties of the reconstructed MeV-electron tracks. In particular, the obtained energy resolution has been decomposed in its various contributions and improvements towards achieving the R =1.4%root MeV/epsilon levels obtained in small sensors are discussed.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2016). A search for an excited muon decaying to a muon and two jets in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. New J. Phys., 18, 073021–21pp.
Abstract: Anew search signature for excited leptons is explored. Excited muons are sought in the channel pp -> μmu* -> μμjet jet, assuming both the production and decay occur via a contact interaction. The analysis is based on 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV taken with the ATLAS detector at the large hadron collider. No evidence of excited muons is found, and limits are set at the 95% confidence level on the cross section times branching ratio as a function of the excited-muon mass m(mu)*. For m(mu)* between 1.3 and 3.0 TeV, the upper limit on sigma B(mu* -> μq (q) over bar) is between 0.6 and 1 fb. Limits on sB are converted to lower bounds on the compositeness scale Lambda. In the limiting case Lambda = m(mu)*, excited muons with a mass below 2.8 TeV are excluded. With the same model assumptions, these limits at larger mu* masses improve upon previous limits from traditional searches based on the gauge-mediated decay mu* -> μgamma.
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Kamiya, Y., Miyahara, K., Ohnishi, S., Ikeda, Y., Hyodo, T., Oset, E., et al. (2016). Antikaon-nucleon interaction and Lambda(1405) in chiral SU(3) dynamics. Nucl. Phys. A, 954, 41–57.
Abstract: The properties of the Lambda(1405) resonance are key ingredients for determining the antikaon-nucleon interaction in strangeness nuclear physics, and the novel internal structure of the Lambda(1405) is of great interest in hadron physics, as a prototype case of a baryon that does not fit into the simple three-quark picture. We show that a quantitative description of the antikaon-nucleon interaction with the Lambda(1405) is achieved in the framework of chiral SU(3) dynamics, with the help of recent experimental progress. Further constraints on the (K) over barN subthreshold interaction are provided by analyzing pi Sigma spectra in various processes, such as the K(-)d -> pi Sigma n reaction and the Lambda(c) -> pi pi Sigma decay. The structure of the Lambda(1405) is found to be dominated by an antikaon-nucleon molecular configuration, based on its wavefunction derived from a realistic (K) over barN potential and the compositeness criteria from a model-independent weak-binding relation.
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Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Ferrario, P., Monrabal, F., Rodriguez, J., & Toledo, J. F. (2016). Investigation of the coincidence resolving time performance of a PET scanner based on liquid xenon: a Monte Carlo study. J. Instrum., 11, P09011–18pp.
Abstract: The measurement of the time of flight of the two 511 keV gammas recorded in coincidence in a PET scanner provides an effective way of reducing the random background and therefore increases the scanner sensitivity, provided that the coincidence resolving time (CRT) of the gammas is sufficiently good. The best commercial PET-TOF system today (based in LYSO crystals and digital SiPMs), is the VEREOS of Philips, boasting a CRT of 316 ps (FWHM). In this paper we present a Monte Carlo investigation of the CRT performance of a PET scanner exploiting the scintillating properties of liquid xenon. We find that an excellent CRT of 70 ps (depending on the PDE of the sensor) can be obtained if the scanner is instrumented with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) sensitive to the ultraviolet light emitted by xenon. Alternatively, a CRT of 160 ps can be obtained instrumenting the scanner with (much cheaper) blue-sensitive SiPMs coated with a suitable wavelength shifter. These results show the excellent time of flight capabilities of a PET device based in liquid xenon.
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Bazeia, D., Losano, L., Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2017). Geodesically complete BTZ-type solutions of 2+1 Born-Infeld gravity. Class. Quantum Gravity, 34(4), 045006–21pp.
Abstract: We study Born-Infeld gravity coupled to a static, non-rotating electric field in 2 + 1 dimensions and find exact analytical solutions. Two families of such solutions represent geodesically complete, and hence nonsingular, spacetimes. Another family represents a point-like charge with a singularity at the center. Despite the absence of rotation, these solutions resemble the charged, rotating BTZ solution of general relativity but with a richer structure in terms of horizons. The nonsingular character of the first two families turn out to be attached to the emergence of a wormhole structure on their innermost region. This seems to be a generic prediction of extensions of general relativity formulated in metric-affine (or Palatini) spaces, where metric and connection are regarded as independent degrees of freedom.
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