Abstract: Proton therapy is a cancer treatment technique currently in growth since it offers advantages with respect to conventional X-ray and gamma-ray radiotherapy. In particular, better control of the dose deposition allowing to reach higher conformity in the treatments causing less secondary effects. However, in order to take full advantage of its potential, improvements in treatment planning and dose verification are required. A new prototype of proton computed tomography scanner is proposed to design more accurate and precise treatment plans for proton therapy. Our prototype is formed by double-sided silicon strip detectors and scintillators of LaBr3(Ce) with high energy resolution and fast response. Here, the results obtained from an experiment performed using a 100-MeV proton beam are presented. Proton radiographs of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) samples of 50-mm thickness with spatial patterns in aluminum were taken. Their properties were studied, including reproduction of the dimensions, spatial resolution, and sensitivity to different materials. Structures of up to 2 mm are well resolved and the sensitivity of the system was enough to distinguish the thicknesses of 10 mm of aluminum or PMMA. The spatial resolution of the images was 0.3 line pairs per mm (MTF-10%). This constitutes the first step to validate the device as a proton radiography scanner.

Abstract: The main aim of this work is to present a simple method, based on analytical expressions, for obtaining the temperature increase due to the Joule effect inside the metallic walls of an RF accelerating component. This technique relies on solving the 1-D heat-transfer equation for a thick wall, considering that the heat sources inside the wall are the ohmic losses produced by the RF electromagnetic fields penetrating the metal with finite electrical conductivity. Furthermore, it is discussed how the theoretical expressions of this method can be applied to obtain an approximation to the temperature increase in realistic 3-D RF accelerating structures, taking as an example the cavity of an RF electron photoinjector and a traveling wave linac cavity. These theoretical results have been benchmarked with numerical simulations carried out with commercial finite-element method (FEM) software, finding good agreement among them. Besides, the advantage of the analytical method with respect to the numerical simulations is evidenced. In particular, the model could be very useful during the design and optimization phase of RF accelerating structures, where many different combinations of parameters must be analyzed in order to obtain the proper working point of the device, allowing to save time and speed up the process. However, it must be mentioned that the method described in this article is intended to provide a quick approximation to the temperature increase in the device, which of course is not as accurate as the proper 3-D numerical simulations of the component.

Abstract: First evidence of a structure in the J/psi Lambda invariant mass distribution is obtained from an amplitude analysis of Xi(-)(b) -> J/psi Lambda K- decays. The observed structure is consistent with being due to a charmonium pentaquark with strangeness with a significance of 3.1r including systematic uncertainties and lookelsewhere effect. Its mass and width are determined to be 4458.8 +/- 2.9(-1.1)(+4.7) MeV and 17.3 +/- 6.5(-5.7)(+8.0) MeV, respectively, where the quoted uncertainties are statistical and systematic. The structure is also consistent with being due to two resonances. In addition, the narrow excited Xi(-) states, Xi(-)(1690) and Xi(-)(1820)(-), are seen for the first time in a Xi(-)(b) decay, and their masses and widths are measured with improved precision. The analysis is performed using pp collision data corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 9 fb(-1), collected with the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV.

Abstract: A search for the doubly charmed baryon.+ cc is performed through its decay to the.+ c K- p+ final state, using proton-proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV. The data correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 9 fb-1. No significant signal is observed in the mass range from 3.4 to 3.8 GeV/c2. Upper limits are set at 95% credibility level on the ratio of the.+ cc production cross-section times the branching fraction to that of.+ c and.++ cc baryons. The limits are determined as functions of the.+ cc mass for di fferent lifetime hypotheses, in the rapidity range from 2.0 to 4.5 and the transverse momentum range from 4 to 15 GeV/c.

Abstract: The ordering of the neutrino masses is a crucial input for a deep understanding of flavor physics, and its determination may provide the key to establish the relationship among the lepton masses and mixings and their analogous properties in the quark sector. The extraction of the neutrino mass ordering is a data-driven field expected to evolve very rapidly in the next decade. In this review, we both analyse the present status and describe the physics of subsequent prospects. Firstly, the different current available tools to measure the neutrino mass ordering are described. Namely, reactor, long-baseline (accelerator and atmospheric) neutrino beams, laboratory searches for beta and neutrinoless double beta decays and observations of the cosmic background radiation and the large scale structure of the universe are carefully reviewed. Secondly, the results from an up-to-date comprehensive global fit are reported: the Bayesian analysis to the 2018 publicly available oscillation and cosmological data sets provides strong evidence for the normal neutrino mass ordering vs. the inverted scenario, with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations. This preference for the normal neutrino mass ordering is mostly due to neutrino oscillation measurements. Finally, we shall also emphasize the future perspectives for unveiling the neutrinomass ordering. In this regard, apart from describing the expectations from the aforementioned probes, we also focus on those arising from alternative and novel methods, as 21 cm cosmology, core-collapse supernova neutrinos and the direct detection of relic neutrinos.