|
LHCb Collaboration(Aaij, R. et al), Garcia Martin, L. M., Henry, L., Martinez-Vidal, F., Oyanguren, A., Remon Alepuz, C., et al. (2018). Measurement of Antiproton Production in p-He Collisions at root S-NN=110 GeV. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121(22), 222001–10pp.
Abstract: The cross section for prompt antiproton production in collisions of protons with an energy of 6.5 TeV incident on helium nuclei at rest is measured with the LHCb experiment from a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.5 nb(-1). The target is provided by injecting helium gas into the LHC beam line at the LHCb interaction point. The reported results, covering antiproton momenta between 12 and 110 GeV/c, represent the first direct determination of the antiproton production cross section in p-He collisions, and impact the interpretation of recent results on antiproton cosmic rays from space-borne experiments.
|
|
|
BABAR and Belle Collaborations(Adachi, I. et al), Martinez-Vidal, F., & Oyanguren, A. (2018). First Evidence for cos 2 beta > 0 and Resolution of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa Quark-Mixing Unitarity Triangle Ambiguity. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121(26), 261801–11pp.
Abstract: We present first evidence that the cosine of the CP-violating weak phase 2 beta is positive, and hence exclude trigonometric multifold solutions of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) Unitarity Triangle using a time-dependent Dalitz plot analysis of B-0 -> D-(*) h(0) with D -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) decays, where h(0) is an element of {pi(0), eta, omega} denotes a light unflavored and neutral hadron. The measurement is performed combining the final data sets of the BABAR and Belle experiments collected at the (sic)(4S) resonance at the asymmetric-energy B factories PEP-II at SLAC and KEKB at KEK, respectively. The data samples contain (471 +/- 3) x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs recorded by the BABAR detector and (772 +/- 11) x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs recorded by the Belle detector. The results of the measurement are sin 2 beta = 0.80 +/- 0.14 (stat) +/- 0.06 (syst) +/- 0.03 (model) and cos 2 beta = 0.91 +/- 0.22(stat) +/- 0.09 (syst) +/- 0.07(model). The result for the direct measurement of the angle beta of the CKM Unitarity Triangle is beta = [22.5 +/- 4.4 (stat) +/- 1.2 (syst) +/- 0.6(model)]degrees. The measurement assumes no direct CP violation in B-0 -> D-(*) h(0) decays. The quoted model uncertainties are due to the composition of the D-0 -> K-S(0)pi(+)pi(-) decay amplitude model, which is newly established by performing a Dalitz plot amplitude analysis using a high-statistics e(+)e(-) -> c (c) over bar data sample. CP violation is observed in B-0 -> D-(*) h(0) decays at the level of 5.1 standard deviations. The significance for cos 2 beta > 0 is 3.7 standard deviations. The trigonometric multifold solution pi/2 – beta = (68.1 +/- 0.7)degrees is excluded at the level of 7.3 standard deviations. The measurement resolves an ambiguity in the determination of the apex of the CKM Unitarity Triangle.
|
|
|
NEXT Collaboration(McDonald, A. D. et al), Alvarez, V., Benlloch-Rodriguez, J. M., Botas, A., Carcel, S., Carrion, J. V., et al. (2018). Demonstration of Single-Barium-Ion Sensitivity for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Using Single-Molecule Fluorescence Imaging. Phys. Rev. Lett., 120(13), 132504–6pp.
Abstract: A new method to tag the barium daughter in the double-beta decay of Xe-136 is reported. Using the technique of single molecule fluorescent imaging (SMFI), individual barium dication (Ba++) resolution at a transparent scanning surface is demonstrated. A single-step photobleach confirms the single ion interpretation. Individual ions are localized with superresolution (similar to 2 nm), and detected with a statistical significance of 12.9 sigma over backgrounds. This lays the foundation for a new and potentially background-free neutrinoless double-beta decay technology, based on SMFI coupled to high pressure xenon gas time projection chambers.
|
|
|
Davesne, D., Pastore, A., & Navarro, J. (2021). Linear response theory with finite-range interactions. Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys., 120, 103870–55pp.
Abstract: This review focuses on the calculation of infinite nuclear matter response functions using phenomenological finite-range interactions, equipped or not with tensor terms. These include Gogny and Nakada families, which are commonly used in the literature. Because of the finite-range, the main technical difficulty stems from the exchange terms of the particle-hole interaction. We first present results based on the so-called Landau and Landau-like approximations of the particle-hole interaction. Then, we review two methods which in principle provide numerically exact response functions. The first one is based on a multipolar expansion of both the particle-hole interaction and the particle-hole propagator and the second one consists in a continued fraction expansion of the response function. The numerical precision can be pushed to any degree of accuracy, but it is actually shown that two or three terms suffice to get converged results. Finally, we apply the formalism to the determination of possible finite-size instabilities induced by a finite-range interaction.
|
|
|
Carrasco-Ribelles, L. A., Pardo-Mas, J. R., Tortajada, S., Saez, C., Valdivieso, B., & Garcia-Gomez, J. M. (2021). Predicting morbidity by local similarities in multi-scale patient trajectories. J. Biomed. Inform., 120, 103837–9pp.
Abstract: Patient Trajectories (PTs) are a method of representing the temporal evolution of patients. They can include information from different sources and be used in socio-medical or clinical domains. PTs have generally been used to generate and study the most common trajectories in, for instance, the development of a disease. On the other hand, healthcare predictive models generally rely on static snapshots of patient information. Only a few works about prediction in healthcare have been found that use PTs, and therefore benefit from their temporal dimension. All of them, however, have used PTs created from single-source information. Therefore, the use of longitudinal multi-scale data to build PTs and use them to obtain predictions about health conditions is yet to be explored. Our hypothesis is that local similarities on small chunks of PTs can identify similar patients concerning their future morbidities. The objectives of this work are (1) to develop a methodology to identify local similarities between PTs before the occurrence of morbidities to predict these on new query individuals; and (2) to validate this methodology on risk prediction of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) occurrence in patients with diabetes. We have proposed a novel formal definition of PTs based on sequences of longitudinal multi-scale data. Moreover, a dynamic programming methodology to identify local alignments on PTs for predicting future morbidities is proposed. Both the proposed methodology for PT definition and the alignment algorithm are generic to be applied on any clinical domain. We validated this solution for predicting CVD in patients with diabetes and we achieved a precision of 0.33, a recall of 0.72 and a specificity of 0.38. Therefore, the proposed solution in the diabetes use case can result of utmost utility to secondary screening.
|
|
|
MoEDAL Collaboration(Acharya, B. et al), Bernabeu, J., Garcia, C., Mamuzic, J., Mitsou, V. A., Ruiz de Austri, R., et al. (2017). Search for Magnetic Monopoles with the MoEDAL Forward Trapping Detector in 13 TeV Proton-Proton Collisions at the LHC. Phys. Rev. Lett., 118(6), 061801–6pp.
Abstract: MoEDAL is designed to identify new physics in the form of long-lived highly ionizing particles produced in high-energy LHC collisions. Its arrays of plastic nuclear-track detectors and aluminium trapping volumes provide two independent passive detection techniques. We present here the results of a first search for magnetic monopole production in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions using the trapping technique, extending a previous publication with 8 TeV data during LHC Run 1. A total of 222 kg of MoEDAL trapping detector samples was exposed in the forward region and analyzed by searching for induced persistent currents after passage through a superconducting magnetometer. Magnetic charges exceeding half the Dirac charge are excluded in all samples and limits are placed for the first time on the production of magnetic monopoles in 13 TeV pp collisions. The search probes mass ranges previously inaccessible to collider experiments for up to five times the Dirac charge.
|
|
|
Baran, J. et al, & Brzezinski, K. (2024). Feasibility of the J-PET to monitor the range of therapeutic proton beams. Phys. Medica, 118, 103301–9pp.
Abstract: Purpose: The aim of this work is to investigate the feasibility of the Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomography (J -PET) scanner for intra-treatment proton beam range monitoring. Methods: The Monte Carlo simulation studies with GATE and PET image reconstruction with CASToR were performed in order to compare six J -PET scanner geometries. We simulated proton irradiation of a PMMA phantom with a Single Pencil Beam (SPB) and Spread -Out Bragg Peak (SOBP) of various ranges. The sensitivity and precision of each scanner were calculated, and considering the setup's cost-effectiveness, we indicated potentially optimal geometries for the J -PET scanner prototype dedicated to the proton beam range assessment. Results: The investigations indicate that the double -layer cylindrical and triple -layer double -head configurations are the most promising for clinical application. We found that the scanner sensitivity is of the order of 10-5 coincidences per primary proton, while the precision of the range assessment for both SPB and SOBP irradiation plans was found below 1 mm. Among the scanners with the same number of detector modules, the best results are found for the triple -layer dual -head geometry. The results indicate that the double -layer cylindrical and triple -layer double -head configurations are the most promising for the clinical application, Conclusions: We performed simulation studies demonstrating that the feasibility of the J -PET detector for PET -based proton beam therapy range monitoring is possible with reasonable sensitivity and precision enabling its pre -clinical tests in the clinical proton therapy environment. Considering the sensitivity, precision and cost-effectiveness, the double -layer cylindrical and triple -layer dual -head J -PET geometry configurations seem promising for future clinical application.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Pich, A. (2021). Precision physics with inclusive QCD processes. Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys., 117, 103846–41pp.
Abstract: The inclusive production of hadrons through electroweak currents can be rigorously analysed with short-distance theoretical tools. The associated observables are insensitive to the involved infrared behaviour of the strong interaction, allowing for very precise tests of Quantum Chromodynamics. The theoretical predictions for sigma(e(+)e(-) -> hadrons) and the hadronic decay widths of the tau lepton and the Z, W and Higgs bosons have reached an impressive accuracy of O(alpha(4)(s)). Precise experimental measurements of the Z and tau hadronic widths have made possible the accurate determination of the strong coupling at two very different energy scales, providing a highly significant experimental verification of asymptotic freedom. A detailed discussion of the theoretical description of these processes and their current phenomenological status is presented. The most precise determinations of alpha(s) from other sources are also briefly reviewed and compared with the fully-inclusive results.
|
|
|
Barrientos, L., Borja-Lloret, M., Casaña, J. V., Dendooven, P., Garcia Lopez, J. G., Hueso-Gonzalez, F., et al. (2024). Gamma-ray sources imaging and test-beam results with MACACO III Compton camera. Phys. Medica, 117, 103199–10pp.
Abstract: Hadron therapy is a radiotherapy modality which offers a precise energy deposition to the tumors and a dose reduction to healthy tissue as compared to conventional methods. However, methods for real-time monitoring are required to ensure that the radiation dose is deposited on the target. The IRIS group of IFIC-Valencia developed a Compton camera prototype for this purpose, intending to image the Prompt Gammas emitted by the tissue during irradiation. The system detectors are composed of Lanthanum (III) bromide scintillator crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers. After an initial characterization in the laboratory, in order to assess the system capabilities for future experiments in proton therapy centers, different tests were carried out in two facilities: PARTREC (Groningen, The Netherlands) and the CNA cyclotron (Sevilla, Spain). Characterization studies performed at PARTREC indicated that the detectors linearity was improved with respect to the previous version and an energy resolution of 5.2 % FWHM at 511 keV was achieved. Moreover, the imaging capabilities of the system were evaluated with a line source of 68Ge and a point-like source of 241Am-9Be. Images at 4.439 MeV were obtained from irradiation of a graphite target with an 18 MeV proton beam at CNA, to perform a study of the system potential to detect shifts at different intensities. In this sense, the system was able to distinguish 1 mm variations in the target position at different beam current intensities for measurement times of 1800 and 600 s.
|
|