1,351 research outputs found
Mistletoe lectin dissociates into catalytic and binding subunits before translocation across the membrane to the cytoplasm
AbstractHybridomas producing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against the mistletoe lectin A-chain (MLA) were obtained to investigate the intracellular routing and translocation of ribosome-inactivating proteins. Anti-MLA mAb MNA5 did not bind the holotoxin but interacted with isolated MLA. This epitope was not recognized upon MLA denaturation or conjugation of MLA with the ricin binding subunit (RTB). Furthermore, the mAbs did not appreciably react with a panel of MLA synthetic octapeptides linked to the surface of polyethylene pins. A study of the cytotoxicity of mistletoe lectin, ricin, and chimeric toxin MLA/RTB for the hybridomas revealed that interchain disulfide bond reduction and subunit dissociation are required for cytotoxic activity of mistletoe lectin
Development of the fully Geant4 compatible package for the simulation of Dark Matter in fixed target experiments
The search for new comparably light (well below the electroweak scale) feebly
interacting particles is an exciting possibility to explain some mysterious
phenomena in physics, among them the origin of Dark Matter. The sensitivity
study through detailed simulation of projected experiments is a key point in
estimating their potential for discovery.
Several years ago we created the DMG4 package for the simulation of DM (Dark
Matter) particles in fixed target experiments. The natural approach is to
integrate this simulation into the same program that performs the full
simulation of particles in the experiment setup. The Geant4 toolkit framework
was chosen as the most popular and versatile solution nowadays.
The simulation of DM particles production by this package accommodates
several possible scenarios, employing electron, muon or photon beams and
involving various mediators, such as vector, axial vector, scalar,
pseudoscalar, or spin 2 particles. The bremsstrahlung, annihilation or
Primakoff processes can be simulated.
The package DMG4 contains a subpackage DarkMatter with cross section methods
weakly connected to Geant4. It can be used in different frameworks.
In this paper, we present the latest developments of the package, such as
extending the list of possible mediator particle types, refining formulas for
the simulation and extending the mediator mass range. The user interface is
also made more flexible and convenient.
In this work, we also demonstrate the usage of the package, the improvements
in the simulation accuracy and some cross check validations.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl
A New 76Ge Double Beta Decay Experiment at LNGS
This Letter of Intent has been submitted to the Scientific Committee of the
INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in March 2004. It describes a
novel facility at the LNGS to study the double beta decay of 76Ge using an
(optionally active) cryogenic fluid shield. The setup will allow to scrutinize
with high significance on a short time scale the current evidence for
neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge using the existing 76Ge diodes from the
previous Heidelberg-Moscow and IGEX experiments. An increase in the lifetime
limit can be achieved by adding more enriched detectors, remaining thereby
background-free up to a few 100 kg-years of exposure.Comment: 67 pages, 19 eps figures, 17 tables, gzipped tar fil
The first search for bosonic super-WIMPs with masses up to 1 MeV/c with GERDA
We present the first search for bosonic super-WIMPs as keV-scale dark matter
candidates performed with the GERDA experiment. GERDA is a neutrinoless
double-beta decay experiment which operates high-purity germanium detectors
enriched in Ge in an ultra-low background environment at the Laboratori
Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of INFN in Italy. Searches were performed for
pseudoscalar and vector particles in the mass region from 60 keV/c to 1
MeV/c. No evidence for a dark matter signal was observed, and the most
stringent constraints on the couplings of super-WIMPs with masses above 120
keV/c have been set. As an example, at a mass of 150 keV/c the most
stringent direct limits on the dimensionless couplings of axion-like particles
and dark photons to electrons of and
at 90% credible interval,
respectively, were obtained.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters, added list
of authors, updated ref. [21
Search for invisible decays of sub-GeV dark photons in missing-energy events at the CERN SPS
We report on a direct search for sub-GeV dark photons (A') which might be
produced in the reaction e^- Z \to e^- Z A' via kinetic mixing with photons by
100 GeV electrons incident on an active target in the NA64 experiment at the
CERN SPS. The A's would decay invisibly into dark matter particles resulting in
events with large missing energy. No evidence for such decays was found with
2.75\cdot 10^{9} electrons on target. We set new limits on the \gamma-A' mixing
strength and exclude the invisible A' with a mass < 100 MeV as an explanation
of the muon g_\mu-2 anomaly.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; Typos corrected, references adde
Search for Axionlike and Scalar Particles with the NA64 Experiment
We carried out a model-independent search for light scalar (s) and
pseudoscalar axionlike (a) particles that couple to two photons by using the
high-energy CERN SPS H4 electron beam. The new particles, if they exist, could
be produced through the Primakoff effect in interactions of hard bremsstrahlung
photons generated by 100 GeV electrons in the NA64 active dump with virtual
photons provided by the nuclei of the dump. The a(s) would penetrate the
downstream HCAL module, serving as shielding, and would be observed either
through their decay in the rest of the HCAL detector or
as events with large missing energy if the a(s) decays downstream of the HCAL.
This method allows for the probing the a(s) parameter space, including those
from generic axion models, inaccessible to previous experiments. No evidence of
such processes has been found from the analysis of the data corresponding to
electrons on target allowing to set new limits on the
-coupling strength for a(s) masses below 55 MeV.Comment: This publication is dedicated to the memory of our colleague Danila
Tlisov. 7 pages, 5 figures, revised version accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev. Let
decay of Ge into excited states with GERDA Phase I
Two neutrino double beta decay of Ge to excited states of Se
has been studied using data from Phase I of the GERDA experiment. An array
composed of up to 14 germanium detectors including detectors that have been
isotopically enriched in Ge was deployed in liquid argon. The analysis
of various possible transitions to excited final states is based on coincidence
events between pairs of detectors where a de-excitation ray is
detected in one detector and the two electrons in the other.
No signal has been observed and an event counting profile likelihood analysis
has been used to determine Frequentist 90\,\% C.L. bounds for three
transitions: : 1.6 yr,
: 3.7 yr and : 2.3 yr. These bounds are more
than two orders of magnitude larger than those reported previously. Bayesian
90\,\% credibility bounds were extracted and used to exclude several models for
the transition
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