227 research outputs found
What should a quantitative model of masking look like and why would we want it?
Quantitative models of backward masking appeared almost as soon as computing
technology was available to simulate them; and continued interest in masking has
lead to the development of new models. Despite this long history, the impact of
the models on the field has been limited because they have fundamental
shortcomings. This paper discusses these shortcomings and outlines what future
quantitative models should look like. It also discusses several issues about
modeling and how a model could be used by researchers to better explore masking
and other aspects of cognition
Delivery status of the ELI-NP gamma beam system
International audienceThe ELI-NP GBS is a high intensity and monochromatic gamma source under construction in Magurele (Romania). The design and construction of the Gamma Beam System complex as well as the integration of the technical plants and the commissioning of the overall facility, was awarded to the Eurogammas Consortium in March 2014. The delivery of the facility has been planned in for 4 stages and the first one was fulfilled in October 31st 2015. The engineering aspects related to the delivery stage 1 are presented
Focusing of high-brightness electron beams with active-plasma lenses
Plasma-based technology promises a tremendous reduction in size of accelerators used for research, medical, and industrial applications, making it possible to develop tabletop machines accessible for a broader scientific community. By overcoming current limits of conventional accelerators and pushing particles to larger and larger energies, the availability of strong and tunable focusing optics is mandatory also because plasma-accelerated beams usually have large angular divergences. In this regard, active-plasma lenses represent a compact and affordable tool to generate radially symmetric magnetic fields several orders of magnitude larger than conventional quadrupoles and solenoids. However, it has been recently proved that the focusing can be highly nonlinear and induce a dramatic emittance growth. Here, we present experimental results showing how these nonlinearities can be minimized and lensing improved. These achievements represent a major breakthrough toward the miniaturization of next-generation focusing devices
TEX (TEst stand for X-band) at LNF
TEX facility if commissioned for high power testing to characterize
accelerating structures and validate them for the operation on future particle
accelerators for medical, industrial and research applications. At this aim,
TEX is directly involved in the LNF leading project EuPRAXIA@SPARC_Lab. The
brief description of the facility and its status and prospective will be
provided.Comment: Talk presented at the International Workshop on Future Linear
Colliders (LCWS 2023), 15-19 May 2023. C23-05-15.
Multi-GeV Electron Spectrometer
The advance in laser plasma acceleration techniques pushes the regime of the
resulting accelerated particles to higher energies and intensities. In
particular the upcoming experiments with the FLAME laser at LNF will enter the
GeV regime with almost 1pC of electrons. From the current status of
understanding of the acceleration mechanism, relatively large angular and
energy spreads are expected. There is therefore the need to develop a device
capable to measure the energy of electrons over three orders of magnitude (few
MeV to few GeV) under still unknown angular divergences. Within the PlasmonX
experiment at LNF a spectrometer is being constructed to perform these
measurements. It is made of an electro-magnet and a screen made of
scintillating fibers for the measurement of the trajectories of the particles.
The large range of operation, the huge number of particles and the need to
focus the divergence present unprecedented challenges in the design and
construction of such a device. We will present the design considerations for
this spectrometer and the first results from a prototype.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to NIM
Recent results at SPARC_LAB
The current activity of the SPARC_LAB test-facility is focused on the
realization of plasma-based acceleration experiments with the aim to provide
accelerating field of the order of several GV/m while maintaining the overall
quality (in terms of energy spread and emittance) of the accelerated electron
bunch. In the following, the current status of such an activity is presented.
We also show results related to the usability of plasmas as focusing lenses in
view of a complete plasma-based focusing and accelerating system
Exogenous spatial precuing reliably modulates object processing but not object substitution masking
Object substitution masking (OSM) is used in behavioral and imaging studies to investigate processes associated with the formation of a conscious percept. Reportedly, OSM occurs only when visual attention is diffusely spread over a search display or focused away from the target location. Indeed, the presumed role of spatial attention is central to theoretical accounts of OSM and of visual processing more generally (Di Lollo, Enns, & Rensink, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 129:481–507, 2000). We report a series of five experiments in which valid spatial precuing is shown to enhance the ability of participants to accurately report a target but, in most cases, without affecting OSM. In only one experiment (Experiment 5) was a significant effect of precuing observed on masking. This is in contrast to the reliable effect shown across all five experiments in which precuing improved overall performance. The results are convergent with recent findings from Argyropoulos, Gellatly, and Pilling (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 39:646–661, 2013), which show that OSM is independent of the number of distractor items in a display. Our results demonstrate that OSM can operate independently of focal attention. Previous claims of the strong interrelationship between OSM and spatial attention are likely to have arisen from ceiling or floor artifacts that restricted measurable performance
Design, optimization and experimental characterization of RF injectors for high brightness electron beams and plasma acceleration
In this article, we share our experience related to the new photo-injector
commissioning at the SPARC\_LAB test facility. The new photo-injector was
installed into an existing machine and our goal was not only to improve the
final beam parameters themselves but to improve the machine handling in
day-to-day operations as well. Thus, besides the pure beam characterization,
this article contains information about the improvements, that were introduced
into the new photo-injector design from the machine maintenance point of view,
and the benefits, that we gained by using the new technique to assemble the gun
itself
Energy spread minimization in a beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerator
Next-generation plasma-based accelerators can push electron bunches to
gigaelectronvolt energies within centimetre distances. The plasma, excited by a
driver pulse, generates large electric fields that can efficiently accelerate a
trailing witness bunch making possible the realization of laboratory-scale
applications ranging from high-energy colliders to ultra-bright light sources.
So far several experiments have demonstrated a significant acceleration but the
resulting beam quality, especially the energy spread, is still far from state
of the art conventional accelerators. Here we show the results of a beam-driven
plasma acceleration experiment where we used an electron bunch as a driver
followed by an ultra-short witness. The experiment demonstrates, for the first
time, an innovative method to achieve an ultra-low energy spread of the
accelerated witness of about 0.1%. This is an order of magnitude smaller than
what has been obtained so far. The result can lead to a major breakthrough
toward the optimization of the plasma acceleration process and its
implementation in forthcoming compact machines for user-oriented applications
First emittance measurement of the beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerated electron beam
Next-generation plasma-based accelerators can push electron beams to GeV
energies within centimetre distances. The plasma, excited by a driver pulse, is
indeed able to sustain huge electric fields that can efficiently accelerate a
trailing witness bunch, which was experimentally demonstrated on multiple
occasions. Thus, the main focus of the current research is being shifted
towards achieving a high quality of the beam after the plasma acceleration. In
this letter we present beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration experiment,
where initially preformed high-quality witness beam was accelerated inside the
plasma and characterized. In this experiment the witness beam quality after the
acceleration was maintained on high level, with final energy spread and
resulting normalized transverse emittance after the acceleration.
In this article, for the first time to our knowledge, the emittance of the PWFA
beam was directly measured
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