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Granero, D., Candela-Juan, C., Vijande, J., Ballester, F., Perez-Calatayud, J., Jacob, D., et al. (2016). Technical Note: Dosimetry of Leipzig and Valencia applicators without the plastic cap. Med. Phys., 43(5), 2087–4pp.
Abstract: Purpose: High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy for treatment of small skin lesions using the Leipzig and Valencia applicators is a widely used technique. These applicators are equipped with an attachable plastic cap to be placed during fraction delivery to ensure electronic equilibrium and to prevent secondary electrons from reaching the skin surface. The purpose of this study is to report on the dosimetric impact of the cap being absent during HDR fraction delivery, which has not been explored previously in the literature. Methods: GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations (version 10.0) have been performed for the Leipzig and Valencia applicators with and without the plastic cap. In order to validate the Monte Carlo simulations, experimental measurements using radiochromic films have been done. Results: Dose absorbed within 1 mm of the skin surface increases by a factor of 1500% for the Leipzig applicators and of 180% for the Valencia applicators. Deeper than 1 mm, the overdosage flattens up to a 10% increase. Conclusions: Differences of treating with or without the plastic cap are significant. Users must check always that the plastic cap is in place before any treatment in order to avoid overdosage of the skin. Prior to skin HDR fraction delivery, the timeout checklist should include verification of the cap placement. (C) 2016 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
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Vijande, J., Valcarce, A., Richard, J. M., & Sorba, P. (2016). Search for doubly-heavy dibaryons in a quark model. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 034038–6pp.
Abstract: We study the stability of hexaquark systems containing two heavy quarks and four light quarks within a simple quark model. No bound or metastable state is found. The reason stems from a delicate interplay between chromoelectric and chromomagnetic effects. Our calculation also provides information about anticharmed pentaquarks that are seemingly unbound in simple quark models.
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Carames, T. F., Fontoura, C. E., Krein, G., Tsushima, K., Vijande, J., & Valcarce, A. (2016). Hadronic molecules with a (D)over-bar meson in a medium. Phys. Rev. D, 94(3), 034009–10pp.
Abstract: We study the effect of a hot and dense medium on the binding energy of hadronic molecules with open-charm mesons. We focus on a recent chiral quark-model-based prediction of a molecular state in the N (D) over bar system. We analyze how the two-body thresholds and the hadron-hadron interactions are modified when quark and meson masses and quark-meson couplings change in a function of the temperature and baryon density according to predictions of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. We find that in some cases the molecular binding is enhanced in medium as compared to their free-space binding. We discuss the consequences of our findings for the search for exotic hadrons in high-energy heavy-ion collisions as well as in the forthcoming facilities FAIR or J-PARC.
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Garcilazo, H., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2016). Maximal isospin few-body systems of nucleons and Xi hyperons. Phys. Rev. C, 94(2), 024002–3pp.
Abstract: By using local central Yukawa-type interactions that reproduce the low-energy parameters of the latest updates of the Nijmegen ESC08c potentials, we show that the N Xi, NN Xi, N Xi Xi, and NN Xi Xi systems with maximal isospin are bound. Since in these states the strong decay N Xi -> Lambda Lambda is forbidden by isospin conservation, these strange few-body systems will be stable under the strong interaction. These results may suggest that other states with different number of Ns and Xi s in the maximal isospin channel could also be bound.
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Garcilazo, H., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2016). Doubly heavy baryon spectra guided by lattice QCD. Phys. Rev. D, 94(7), 074003–8pp.
Abstract: This paper provides results for the ground state and excited spectra of three-flavored doubly heavy baryons, bcn and bcs. We take advantage of the spin-independent interaction recently obtained to reconcile the lattice SU(3) QCD static potential and the results of nonperturbative lattice QCD for the triply heavy baryon spectra. We show that the spin-dependent potential might be constrained on the basis of nonperturbative lattice QCD results for the spin splittings of three-flavored doubly heavy baryons. Our results may also represent a challenge for future lattice QCD work, because a smaller lattice error could help in distinguishing between different prescriptions for the spin-dependent part of the interaction. Thus, by comparing with the reported baryon spectra obtained with parameters estimated from lattice QCD, one can challenge the precision of lattice calculations. The present work supports a coherent description of singly, doubly and triply heavy baryons with the same Cornell-like interacting potential. The possible experimental measurement of these states at LHCb is an incentive for this study.
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