T2K Collaboration(Abe, K. et al), Cervera-Villanueva, A., Escudero, L., Gomez-Cadenas, J. J., Hansen, C., Monfregola, L., et al. (2011). The T2K experiment. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 659(1), 106–135.
Abstract: The T2K experiment is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Its main goal is to measure the last unknown lepton sector mixing angle theta(13) by observing nu(e) appearance in a nu(mu) beam. It also aims to make a precision measurement of the known oscillation parameters, Delta m(23)(2) and sin(2)2 theta(23), via nu(mu) disappearance studies. Other goals of the experiment include various neutrino cross-section measurements and sterile neutrino searches. The experiment uses an intense proton beam generated by the J-PARC accelerator in Tokai, Japan, and is composed of a neutrino beamline, a near detector complex (ND280), and a far detector (Super-Kamiokande) located 295 km away from J-PARC. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the instrumentation aspect of the T2K experiment and a summary of the vital information for each subsystem.
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Affolder, A. et al, Garcia, C., Lacasta, C., Marco, R., Marti-Garcia, S., Miñano, M., et al. (2011). Silicon detectors for the sLHC. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 658(1), 11–16.
Abstract: In current particle physics experiments, silicon strip detectors are widely used as part of the inner tracking layers. A foreseeable large-scale application for such detectors consists of the luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the super-LHC or sLHC, where silicon detectors with extreme radiation hardness are required. The mission statement of the CERN RD50 Collaboration is the development of radiation-hard semiconductor devices for very high luminosity colliders. As a consequence, the aim of the R&D programme presented in this article is to develop silicon particle detectors able to operate at sLHC conditions. Research has progressed in different areas, such as defect characterisation, defect engineering and full detector systems. Recent results from these areas will be presented. This includes in particular an improved understanding of the macroscopic changes of the effective doping concentration based on identification of the individual microscopic defects, results from irradiation with a mix of different particle types as expected for the sLHC, and the observation of charge multiplication effects in heavily irradiated detectors at very high bias voltages.
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Carles, M., Lerche, C. W., Sanchez, F., Mora, F., & Benlloch, J. M. (2011). Position correction with depth of interaction information for a small animal PET system. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 648, S176–S180.
Abstract: In this work we study the effects on the spatial resolution when depth of interaction (001) information is included in the parameterization of the line of response (LOR) for a small animal positron emission tomography (PET) system. One of the most important degrading factors for PET is the parallax error introduced in systems that do not provide DOI information of the recorded gamma-rays. Our group has designed a simple and inexpensive method for DOI determination in continuous scintillation crystals. This method is based, on one hand, in the correlation between the scintillation light distribution width in monolithic crystals and the DOI, and, on the other hand, on a small modification of the widely applied charge dividing circuits (CDR). In this work we present a new system calibration that includes the DOI information, and also the development of the correction equations that relates the LOR without and with DOI information. We report the results obtained for different measurements along the transaxial field of view (FOV) and the image quality enhancement achieved specially at the edge of the FOV.
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Llosa, G., Barrio, J., Lacasta, C., Callier, S., Raux, L., & de La Taille, C. (2011). First tests in the application of silicon photomultiplier arrays to dose monitoring in hadron therapy. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 648, S96–S99.
Abstract: A detector head composed of a continuous LaBr3 crystal coupled to a silicon photomultiplier array has been mounted and tested, for its use in a Compton telescope for dose monitoring in hadron therapy. The LaBr3 crystal has 16 mm x 18 mm x 5 mm size, and it is surrounded with reflecting material in five faces. The SiPM array has 16 (4 x 4) elements of 3 mm x 3 mm size. The SPIROC1 ASIC has been employed as readout electronics. The detector shows a linear behavior up to 1275 keV. The energy resolution obtained at 511 keV is 7% FWHM, and it varies as one over the square root of the energy up to the energies tested. The variations among the detector channels are within 12%. A preliminary measurement of the timing resolution gives 7 ns FWHM. The spatial resolution obtained with the center of gravity method is 1.2 mm FWHM. The tests performed confirm the correct functioning of the detector.
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Soriano, A., Gonzalez, A., Orero, A., Moliner, L., Carles, M., Sanchez, F., et al. (2011). Attenuation correction without transmission scan for the MAMMI breast PET. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 648, S75–S78.
Abstract: Whole-body Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners are required in order to span large Fields of View (FOV). Therefore, reaching the sensitivity and spatial resolution required for early stage breast tumor detection is not straightforward. MAMMI is a dedicated breast PET scanner with a ring geometry designed to provide PET images with a spatial resolution as high as 1.5 mm, being able to detect small breast tumors ( < 1 cm). The patient lays down in prone position during the scan, thus making possible to image the whole breast, up to regions close to the base of the pectoral without the requirement of breast compression. Attenuation correction (AC) for PET data improves the image quality and the quantitative accuracy of radioactivity distribution determination. In dedicated, high resolution breast cancer scanners, this correction would enhance the proper diagnosis in early disease stages. In whole-body PET scanners, AC is usually taken into account with the use of transmission scans, either by external radioactive rod sources or by Computed Tomography (CT). This considerably increases the radiation dose administered to the patient and time needed for the exploration. In this work we propose a method for breast shape identification by means of PET image segmentation. The breast shape identification will be used for the determination of the AC. For the case of a specific breast PET scanner the procedure we propose should provide AC similar to that obtained by transmission scans as we take advantage of the breast anatomical simplicity. Experimental validation of the proposed approach with a dedicated breast PET prototype is also presented. The main advantage of this method is an important dose reduction since the transmission scan is not required.
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Studen, A., Chesi, E., Cindro, V., Clinthorne, N. H., Cochran, E., Grosicar, B., et al. (2011). A silicon PET probe. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 648, S255–S258.
Abstract: PET scanners with high spatial resolution offer a great potential in improving diagnosis, therapy monitoring and treatment validation for several severe diseases. One way to improve resolution of a PET scanner is to extend a conventional PET ring with a small probe with excellent spatial resolution. The probe is intended to be placed close to the area of interest. The coincidences of interactions within the probe and the external ring provide a subset of data which combined with data from external ring, greatly improve resolution in the area viewed by the probe. Our collaboration is developing a prototype of a PET probe, composed of high-resolution silicon pad detectors. The detectors are 1 mm thick, measuring 40 by 26 mm(2), and several such sensors are envisaged to either compensate for low stopping power of silicon or increase the area covered by the probe. The sensors are segmented into 1 mm(3) cubic voxels, giving 1040 readout pads per sensor. A module is composed of two sensors placed in a back-to-back configuration, allowing for stacking fraction of up to 70% within a module. The pads are coupled to a set of 16 ASICs (VaTaGP7.1 by IDEAS) per module and read out through a custom designed data acquisition board, allowing for trigger and data interfacing with the external ring. This paper presents an overview of probe requirements and expected performance parameters. It will focus on the characteristics of the silicon modules and their impact on overall probe performance, including spatial resolution, energy resolution and timing resolution. We will show that 1 mm(3) voxels will significantly extend the spatial resolution of conventional PET rings, and that broadening of timing resolution related to varying depth of photon interactions can be compensated to match the timing resolution of the external ring. The initial test results of the probe will also be presented.
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AGATA Collaboration, Doncel, M., Quintana, B., Gadea, A., Recchia, F., & Farnea, E. (2011). Background rejection capabilities of a Compton imaging telescope setup with a DSSD Ge planar detector and AGATA. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 648, S131–S134.
Abstract: In this work, we show the first Monte Carlo results about the performance of the Ge array which we propose for the DESPEC experiment at FAIR, when the background algorithm developed for AGATA is applied. The main objective of our study is to characterize the capabilities of the gamma-spectroscopy system, made up of AGATA detectors in a semi-spherical distribution covering a 1 pi solid angle and a set of planar Ge detectors in a daisy configuration, to discriminate between gamma sources placed at different locations.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Adragna, P. et al), Castelo, J., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cuenca, C., Ferrer, A., Fullana, E., et al. (2010). Measurement of pion and proton response and longitudinal shower profiles up to 20 nuclear interaction lengths with the ATLAS Tile calorimeter. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 615(2), 158–181.
Abstract: The response of pions and protons in the energy range of 20-180 GeV, produced at CERN's SPS H8 test-beam line in the ATLAS iron-scintillator Tile hadron calorimeter, has been measured. The test-beam configuration allowed the measurement of the longitudinal shower development for pions and protons up to 20 nuclear interaction lengths. It was found that pions penetrate deeper in the calorimeter than protons. However, protons induce showers that are wider laterally to the direction of the impinging particle. Including the measured total energy response, the pion-to-proton energy ratio and the resolution, all observations are consistent with a higher electromagnetic energy fraction in pion-induced showers. The data are compared with GEANT4 simulations using several hadronic physics lists. The measured longitudinal shower profiles are described by an analytical shower parametrization within an accuracy of 5-10%. The amount of energy leaking out behind the calorimeter is determined and parametrized as a function of the beam energy and the calorimeter depth. This allows for a leakage correction of test-beam results in the standard projective geometry.
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AGATA Collaboration, Doncel, M., Recchia, F., Quintana, B., Gadea, A., & Farnea, E. (2010). Experimental test of the background rejection, through imaging capability, of a highly segmented AGATA germanium detector. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 622(3), 614–618.
Abstract: The development of highly segmented germanium detectors as well as the algorithms to identify the position of the interaction within the crystal opens the possibility to locate the gamma-ray source using Compton imaging algorithms. While the Compton-suppression shield, coupled to the germanium detector in conventional arrays, works also as an active filter against the gamma rays originated outside the target, the new generation of position sensitive gamma-ray detector arrays has to fully rely on tracking capabilities for this purpose. In specific experimental conditions, as the ones foreseen at radioactive beam facilities, the ability to discriminate background radiation improves the sensitivity of the gamma spectrometer. In this work we present the results of a measurement performed at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL) aiming the evaluation of the AGATA detector capabilities to discriminate the origin of the gamma rays on an event-by-event basis. It will be shown that, exploiting the Compton scattering formula, it is possible to track back gamma rays coming from different positions, assigning them to specific emitting locations. These imaging capabilities are quantified for a single crystal AGATA detector.
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AGATA Collaboration, Farnea, E., Recchia, F., Bazzacco, D., Kroll, T., Podolyak, Z., et al. (2010). Conceptual design and Monte Carlo simulations of the AGATA array. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, 621(1-3), 331–343.
Abstract: The aim of the Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA) project is the construction of an array based on the novel concepts of pulse shape analysis and gamma-ray tracking with highly segmented Ge semiconductor detectors. The conceptual design of AGATA and its performance evaluation under different experimental conditions has required the development of a suitable Monte Carlo code. In this article, the description of the code as well as simulation results relevant for AGATA, are presented.
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