Prompt J/psi production at the LHC

Models with essential non-perturbative QCD dynamics for the production of charmonium are extrapolated to give predictions of prompt J/psi production at the LHC. Differences of up to an order of magnitude occurs, although the different models all describe the Tevatron data on high-pT charmonium. An important point is here the treatment of higher order perturbative QCD effects. We also discuss the large rate of prompt J/psi from these models as a background to CP violation studies.Comment: 8 pages, 8 eps figure

Measurement of CP violation effects in Bd0 → J/ψ Ks0 in ATLAS

Direct measurements of the angles of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) unitarity triangle will be possible at the B-factories now being commissioned. The physics potential of the ATLAS experiment which will be a general purpose experiment at LHC to determine CP violation parameters from measurement of neutral B-meson decays is discussed. An estimation of the error in sin2 beta is presented for three years of running (corresponding to 30fb/sup -1/) based on reconstruction of the decay channel B/sub d//sup 0/ to J/ psi K/sub S //sup 0/ using two tagging methods. To determine the asymmetry that is due to CP violation, the asymmetry due to different production probabilities of B/sub d//sup 0/ and B/sub d//sup 0/ in pp collisions has to be subtracted from the measured asymmetry. The accuracy with which this production asymmetry can be measured has been estimated using the two control channels B/sub d//sup 0/ to J/ psi K/sup 0/* and B/sub d//sup 0/ to J/ psi K/sup +/. (7 refs)

Use of portable gamma spectrometers for triage monitoring following the intake of conventional and novel radionuclides

Current internal dosimetry monitoring programmes generally feature periodic measurements that are defined for the most commonly-encountered radionuclides. These programmes are not directly applicable to research centres that produce novel and short-lived radionuclides which are then used for the manufacture of radiopharmaceuticals, such as the CERN-MEDICIS facility hosted at CERN. This work presents an in vivo internal dosimetry programme based on the concept of triage monitoring. The programme allows to comply with the annual committed effective dose limit of E50=1 mSv by performing rapid gamma-spectroscopy screening measurements. Two portable spectrometers (HPGe- and NaI-based) were characterised using two different phantoms: a simplified model of the human torso and an anthropomorphic phantom allowing for customised source-filling geometries. The efficiencies of the spectrometers were determined using both phantoms and the minimum detectable activities were computed as a function of the measuring time for a selection of 21 among novel and conventional radionuclides. The minimum detectable activity was then used to calculate the minimum committed effective dose associated to each measurement for a realistic intake scenario. For a single screening measurement of 30 s performed at the end of the working day, the minimum detectable committed effective dose resulting from a radionuclide inhalation ranged between few uSv and hundreds of uSv for the majority of the considered radionuclides. The suggested approach allows to set up pragmatic in vivo measurements to monitor the workers’ internal contamination in research centres and industries where unsealed conventional and/or novel radionuclides may be handled

Impact of the phantom geometry on the evaluation of the minimum detectable activity following a radionuclide intake: From physical to numerical phantoms

The establishment of an in vivo internal monitoring programme requires the use of phantoms to represent an activity distribution of an incorporated radionuclide within the body. The aim of this study was to quantify the impact of the phantom geometry on the minimum detectable activity (MDA) of an incorporated radionuclide. The MDA was assessed for two instruments: a conventional radiation protection instrument and a portable gamma spectrometer. Four phantoms were considered: two physical phantoms, a simplified torso phantom and a commercial whole body phantom, as well as two numerical phantoms, the reference adult male and female voxel phantoms published by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). The phantoms were loaded with activity at the level of the thorax and abdomen using reference sources of Co-57, Ba-133, Cs-137, Co-60 and Eu-152. The MDA for both instruments was experimentally assessed using the two physical phantoms. The experimental setup was modelled in GEANT4 and the simulated instrument responses were validated by the experimental data. The Monte Carlo model was then used to compute the instruments response and corresponding MDA when using the ICRP voxel phantoms. The simplified torso phantom provided one of the highest MDA estimates, up to a factor of 5 higher than the ones obtained with the voxel phantoms when considering a Co-57 source. Depending on the considered source distribution within the phantoms, physical phantoms may lead to an underestimation of the MDA when compared to more complex and anatomically accurate numerical phantoms. This work presents a quantitative comparison between the MDA obtained with different phantoms and radionuclide distributions