4,588 research outputs found
The effects of matter density uncertainties on neutrino oscillations in the Earth
We compare three different methods to evaluate uncertainties in the Earth's
matter density profile, which are relevant to long baseline experiments, such
as neutrino factories.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Talk given at the NuFact'02 Workshop, London, 1-6
July, 200
Design of a high power production target for the Beam Dump Facility at CERN
The Beam Dump Facility (BDF) project is a proposed general-purpose facility
at CERN, dedicated to beam dump and fixed target experiments. In its initial
phase, the facility is foreseen to be exploited by the Search for Hidden
Particles (SHiP) experiment. Physics requirements call for a pulsed 400 GeV/c
proton beam as well as the highest possible number of protons on target (POT)
each year of operation, in order to search for feebly interacting particles.
The target/dump assembly lies at the heart of the facility, with the aim of
safely absorbing the full high intensity Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) beam,
while maximizing the production of charmed and beauty mesons. High-Z materials
are required for the target/dump, in order to have the shortest possible
absorber and reduce muon background for the downstream experiment. The high
average power deposited on target (305 kW) creates a challenge for heat
removal. During the BDF facility Comprehensive Design Study (CDS), launched by
CERN in 2016, extensive studies have been carried out in order to define and
assess the target assembly design. These studies are described in the present
contribution, which details the proposed design of the BDF production target,
as well as the material selection process and the optimization of the target
configuration and beam dilution. One of the specific challenges and novelty of
this work is the need to consider new target materials, such as a molybdenum
alloy (TZM) as core absorbing material and Ta2.5W as cladding.
Thermo-structural and fluid dynamics calculations have been performed to
evaluate the reliability of the target and its cooling system under beam
operation. In the framework of the target comprehensive design, a preliminary
mechanical design of the full target assembly has also been carried out,
assessing the feasibility of the whole target system.Comment: 17 pages, 18 figure
Proposal to Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons at the SPS
A new fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS accelerator is proposed that
will use decays of charm mesons to search for Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs),
which are right-handed partners of the Standard Model neutrinos. The existence
of such particles is strongly motivated by theory, as they can simultaneously
explain the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, account for the pattern of
neutrino masses and oscillations and provide a Dark Matter candidate.
Cosmological constraints on the properties of HNLs now indicate that the
majority of the interesting parameter space for such particles was beyond the
reach of the previous searches at the PS191, BEBC, CHARM, CCFR and NuTeV
experiments. For HNLs with mass below 2 GeV, the proposed experiment will
improve on the sensitivity of previous searches by four orders of magnitude and
will cover a major fraction of the parameter space favoured by theoretical
models.
The experiment requires a 400 GeV proton beam from the SPS with a total of
2x10^20 protons on target, achievable within five years of data taking. The
proposed detector will reconstruct exclusive HNL decays and measure the HNL
mass. The apparatus is based on existing technologies and consists of a target,
a hadron absorber, a muon shield, a decay volume and two magnetic
spectrometers, each of which has a 0.5 Tm magnet, a calorimeter and a muon
detector. The detector has a total length of about 100 m with a 5 m diameter.
The complete experimental set-up could be accommodated in CERN's North Area.
The discovery of a HNL would have a great impact on our understanding of
nature and open a new area for future research
The role of matter density uncertainties in the analysis of future neutrino factory experiments
Matter density uncertainties can affect the measurements of the neutrino
oscillation parameters at future neutrino factory experiments, such as the
measurements of the mixing parameters and \deltacp. We compare
different matter density uncertainty models and discuss the possibility to
include the matter density uncertainties in a complete statistical analysis.
Furthermore, we systematically study in which measurements and where in the
parameter space matter density uncertainties are most relevant. We illustrate
this discussion with examples that show the effects as functions of different
magnitudes of the matter density uncertainties. We find that matter density
uncertainties are especially relevant for large \stheta \gtrsim 10^{-3}.
Within the KamLAND-allowed range, they are most relevant for the precision
measurements of \stheta and \deltacp, but less relevant for ``binary''
measurements, such as for the sign of \ldm, the sensitivity to \stheta, or
the sensitivity to maximal CP violation. In addition, we demonstrate that
knowing the matter density along a specific baseline better than to about 1%
precision means that all measurements will become almost independent of the
matter density uncertainties.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, LaTeX. Final version to be published in Phys.
Rev.
Neutrino tomography - Learning about the Earth's interior using the propagation of neutrinos
Because the propagation of neutrinos is affected by the presence of Earth
matter, it opens new possibilities to probe the Earth's interior. Different
approaches range from techniques based upon the interaction of high energy
(above TeV) neutrinos with Earth matter, to methods using the MSW effect on the
neutrino oscillations of low energy (MeV to GeV) neutrinos. In principle,
neutrinos from many different sources (sun, atmosphere, supernovae, beams etc.)
can be used. In this talk, we summarize and compare different approaches with
an emphasis on more recent developments. In addition, we point out other
geophysical aspects relevant for neutrino oscillations.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures. Proceedings of ``Neutrino sciences 2005:
Neutrino geophysics'', December 14-16, 2005, Honolulu, USA. Minor changes,
some references added. Final version to appear in Earth, Moon, and Planet
The LHCb experiment control system : on the path to full automation
http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/AccelConf/icalepcs2011/papers/mobaust06.pdfInternational audienceThe experiment control system is in charge of the configuration, control and monitoring of the different subdetectors and of all areas of the online system. The building blocks of the control system are based on the PVSS SCADA System complemented by a control Framework developed in common for the 4 LHC experiments. This framework includes an "expert system" like tool called SMI++ which is used for the system automation. The experiment's operations are now almost completely automated, driven by a top-level object called Big-Brother, which pilots all the experiment's standard procedures and the most common error-recovery procedures. The architecture, tools and mechanisms used for the implementation as well as some operational examples will be described
Mimotopes and Proteome Analyses Using Human Genomic and cDNA Epitope Phage Display
In the post-genomic era, validation of candidate gene targets frequently requires proteinbased
strategies. Phage display is a powerful tool to define protein-protein interactions by
generating peptide binders against target antigens. Epitope phage display libraries have the
potential to enrich coding exon sequences from human genomic loci. We evaluated genomic
and cDNA phage display strategies to identify genes in the 5q31 Interleukin gene cluster
and to enrich cell surface receptor tyrosine kinase genes from a breast cancer cDNA
library. A genomic display library containing 2 Ă
10
6
clones with exon-sized inserts was
selected with antibodies specific for human Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and Interleukin-13. The
library was enriched significantly after two selection rounds and DNA sequencing revealed
unique clones. One clone matched a cognate IL-4 epitope; however, the majority of clone
insert sequences corresponded to E. coli genomic DNA. These bacterial sequences act as
âmimotopesâ (mimetic sequences of the true epitope), correspond to open reading frames,
generate displayed peptides, and compete for binding during phage selection. The specificity
of these mimotopes for IL-4 was confirmed by competition ELISA. Other E. coli
mimotopes were generated using additional antibodies. Mimotopes for a receptor tyrosine
kinase gene were also selected using a breast cancer SKBR-3 cDNA phage display library,
screened against an anti-erbB2 monoclonal antibody. Identification of mimotopes in
genomic and cDNA phage libraries is essential for phage display-based protein validation
assays and two-hybrid phage approaches that examine protein-protein interactions. The
predominance of E. coli mimotopes suggests that the E. coli genome may be useful to
generate peptide diversity biased towards protein coding sequences
Generic and Layered Framework Components for the Control of a Large Scale Data Acquisition System
The complexity of today's experiments in High Energy Physics results in a large amount of readout channels which can count up to a million and above. The experiments in general consist of various subsystems which themselves comprise a large amount of detectors requiring sophisticated DAQ and readout electronics. We report here on the structured software layers to control such a data acquisition system for the case of LHCb which is one of the four experiments for LHC. Additional focus is given on the protocols in use as well as the required hardware. An abstraction layer was implemented to allow access on the different and distinct hardware types in a coherent and generic manner. The hierarchical structure which allows propagating commands down to the subsystems is explained. Via finite state machines an expert system with auto-recovery abilities can be modeled
- âŠ