408 research outputs found
PILOT: a balloon-borne experiment to measure the polarized FIR emission of dust grains in the interstellar medium
Future cosmology space missions will concentrate on measuring the
polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, which potentially carries
invaluable information about the earliest phases of the evolution of our
universe. Such ambitious projects will ultimately be limited by the sensitivity
of the instrument and by the accuracy at which polarized foreground emission
from our own Galaxy can be subtracted out. We present the PILOT balloon project
which will aim at characterizing one of these foreground sources, the
polarization of the dust continuum emission in the diffuse interstellar medium.
The PILOT experiment will also constitute a test-bed for using multiplexed
bolometer arrays for polarization measurements. We present the results of
ground tests obtained just before the first flight of the instrument.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures. Presented at SPIE, Millimeter, Submillimeter,
and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VII. To be
published in Proc. SPIE volume 915
A VLT VIMOS study of the anomalous BCD Mrk 996: mapping the ionised gas kinematics and abundances
A study of the blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy Mrk 996 based on high
resolution optical VLT VIMOS integral field unit spectroscopy is presented. Mrk
996 displays multi-component line emission, with most line profiles consisting
of a narrow, central Gaussian with an underlying broad component. The broad HI
Balmer component splits into two separate broad components inside a 1".5 radius
from the nucleus; these are attributed to a two-armed mini-spiral. The rotation
curve of Mrk 996 derived from the H\alpha narrow component yields a total mass
of 5x10^8 Msol within a radius of 3 kpc.
The high excitation energy, high critical density [O III] 4363 and [N II]
5755 lines are only detected from the inner region and exist purely in broad
component form, implying unusual excitation conditions. Surface brightness,
radial velocity, and FWHM maps for several emission components are presented. A
separate physical analysis of the broad and narrow emission line regions is
undertaken. We derive an upper limit of 10,000 K for the electron temperature
of the narrow line gas, together with an electron density of 170 cm^-3, typical
of normal H II regions. For the broad line component, we estimate a temperature
of 11,000 K and an electron density of 10^7 cm^-3. The broad line emission
regions show a N/H enrichment factor of ~20 relative to the narrow line
regions, but no He/H, O/H, S/H, or Ar/H enrichment is inferred. The dominant
line excitation mechanism is photoionisation by the ~3000 WR stars and ~150,000
O-type stars estimated to be present in the core. This is indeed a peculiar
BCD, with extremely dense zones of gas in the core, through which stellar
outflows and possible shock fronts permeate contributing to the excitation of
the broad line emission. [Abridged]Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS main journal. Minor corrections
made and additional discussion. 23 pages, 23 figure
RPC-based Muon Identification System for the neutrino detector of the SHiP experiment
The SHiP experiment has been proposed at CERN to shed light on phenomena still unexplained in the framework of the Standard Model, such as the nature of dark matter, the baryonic asymmetry of the Universe and the neutrino oscillations, searching for hints of New Physics. A section of the detector will be dedicated to the study of neutrino physics with special emphasis on tau neutrino properties, still very poorly measured. A system to identify the muons produced in neutrino interactions, based on RPC technology, has been proposed and it is presented in detail in this paper
TP53 status and taxane-platinum versus platinum-based therapy in ovarian cancer patients: A non-randomized retrospective study
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Taxane-platinum therapy (TP) has replaced platinum-based therapy (PC or PAC, DNA damaging chemotherapy) in the postoperative treatment of ovarian cancer patients; however, it is not always effective. TP53 protein plays a differential role in response to DNA-damaging agents and taxanes. We sought to define profiles of patients who benefit the most from TP and also of those who can be treated with PC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We compared the effectiveness of PC/PAC (n = 253) and TP (n = 199) with respect to tumor TP53 accumulation in ovarian cancer patients with FIGO stage IIB-IV disease; this was a non-randomized retrospective study. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed on 452 archival tumors; univariate and multivariate analysis by the Cox's and logistic regression models was performed in all patients and in subgroups with [TP53(+)] and without TP53 accumulation [TP53(-)].</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The advantage of taxane-platinum therapy over platinum-based therapy was seen in the TP53(+), and not in the TP53(-) group. In the TP53(+) group taxane-platinum therapy enhanced the probability of complete remission (p = .018), platinum sensitivity (p = .014), platinum highly sensitive response (p = .038) and longer survival (OS, p = .008). Poor tumor differentiation diminished the advantage from taxane-platinum therapy in the TP53(+) group. In the TP53(-) group PC/PAC was at least equally efficient as taxane-platinum therapy and it enhanced the chance of platinum highly sensitive response (p = .010). However, in the TP53(-) group taxane-platinum therapy possibly diminished the risk of death in patients over 53 yrs (p = .077). Among factors that positively interacted with taxane-platinum therapy in some analyses were endometrioid and clear cell type, FIGO III stage, bulky residual tumor, more advanced age of patient and moderate tumor differentiation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that taxane-platinum therapy is particularly justified in patients with TP53(+) tumors or older than 53 years. In the group of patients ≤53 yrs and with TP53(-) tumors platinum-based therapy is possibly equally efficient. We provide hints for planning randomized trials to verify these observations.</p
Observation of the Decay Λ0b→Λ+cτ−¯ν
The first observation of the semileptonic b-baryon decay Λb0→Λc+τ-ν¯τ, with a significance of 6.1σ, is reported using a data sample corresponding to 3 fb-1 of integrated luminosity, collected by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV at the LHC. The τ- lepton is reconstructed in the hadronic decay to three charged pions. The ratio K=B(Λb0→Λc+τ-ν¯τ)/B(Λb0→Λc+π-π+π-) is measured to be 2.46±0.27±0.40, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The branching fraction B(Λb0→Λc+τ-ν¯τ)=(1.50±0.16±0.25±0.23)% is obtained, where the third uncertainty is from the external branching fraction of the normalization channel Λb0→Λc+π-π+π-. The ratio of semileptonic branching fractions R(Λc+)B(Λb0→Λc+τ-ν¯τ)/B(Λb0→Λc+μ-ν¯μ) is derived to be 0.242±0.026±0.040±0.059, where the external branching fraction uncertainty from the channel Λb0→Λc+μ-ν¯μ contributes to the last term. This result is in agreement with the standard model prediction
Studies of and production in and Pb collisions
The production of and mesons is studied in proton-proton and
proton-lead collisions collected with the LHCb detector. Proton-proton
collisions are studied at center-of-mass energies of and ,
and proton-lead collisions are studied at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon
of . The studies are performed in center-of-mass rapidity
regions (forward rapidity) and
(backward rapidity) defined relative to the proton beam direction. The
and production cross sections are measured differentially as a function
of transverse momentum for and , respectively. The differential cross sections are used to
calculate nuclear modification factors. The nuclear modification factors for
and mesons agree at both forward and backward rapidity, showing
no significant evidence of mass dependence. The differential cross sections of
mesons are also used to calculate cross section ratios,
which show evidence of a deviation from the world average. These studies offer
new constraints on mass-dependent nuclear effects in heavy-ion collisions, as
well as and meson fragmentation.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any
supplementary material and additional information, are available at
https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2023-030.html (LHCb
public pages
Measurement of the photon polarization in decays
The photon polarization in transitions is measured for the
first time in radiative b-baryon decays exploiting the unique spin structure of
decays. A data sample corresponding to an
integrated luminosity of collected by the LHCb experiment in
collisions at a center-of-mass energy of is used. The photon
polarization is measured to be , where the first uncertainty is
statistical and the second systematic. This result is in agreement with the
Standard Model prediction and previous measurements in b-meson decays.
Charge-parity breaking effects are studied for the first time in this
observable and found to be consistent with symmetry.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any
supplementary material and additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2021-030.html (LHCb
public pages
Fraction of decays in prompt production measured in pPb collisions at TeV
The fraction of and decays in the prompt
yield, , is measured by
the LHCb detector in pPb collisions at TeV. The study
covers the forward () and backward () rapidity
regions, where is the rapidity in the nucleon-nucleon
center-of-mass system. Forward and backward rapidity samples correspond to
integrated luminosities of 13.6 0.3 nb and 20.8 0.5
nb, respectively. The result is presented as a function of the
transverse momentum in the range 1 GeV/.
The fraction at forward rapidity is compatible with the LHCb
measurement performed in collisions at TeV, whereas the
result at backward rapidity is 2.4 larger than in the forward region
for GeV/. The increase of at low at backward rapidity is compatible with the suppression of the
(2S) contribution to the prompt yield. The lack of in-medium
dissociation of states observed in this study sets an upper limit of
180 MeV on the free energy available in these pPb collisions to dissociate or
inhibit charmonium state formation.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any
supplementary material and additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2023-028.html (LHCb
public pages
Search for violation in the phase space of decays with the energy test
A search for violation in and decays is reported.
The search is performed using an unbinned model-independent method known as the
energy test that probes local violation in the phase space of the
decays. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of
fb collected in proton-proton collisions by the LHCb experiment at
a centre-of-mass energy of ~TeV, amounting to approximately 950000
and 620000 signal candidates for the and modes, respectively. The
method is validated using
and decays, where
-violating effects are expected to be negligible, and using
background-enhanced regions of the signal decays. The results are consistent
with symmetry in both the and the decays, with
-values for the hypothesis of no violation of 70% and 66%,
respectively.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and
additional information, are available at
https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2023-019.html (LHCb
public pages
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