A dusty pinwheel nebula around the massive star WR 104

Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are luminous massive blue stars thought to be immediate precursors to the supernova terminating their brief lives. The existence of dust shells around such stars has been enigmatic since their discovery some 30 years ago; the intense radiation field from the star should be inimical to dust survival. Although dust-creation models, including those involving interacting stellar winds from a companion star, have been put forward, high-resolution observations are required to understand this phenomena. Here we present resolved images of the dust outflow around Wolf-Rayet WR 104, obtained with novel imaging techniques, revealing detail on scales corresponding to about 40 AU at the star. Our maps show that the dust forms a spatially confined stream following precisely a linear (or Archimedian) spiral trajectory. Images taken at two separate epochs show a clear rotation with a period of 220 +/- 30 days. Taken together, these findings prove that a binary star is responsible for the creation of the circumstellar dust, while the spiral plume makes WR 104 the prototype of a new class of circumstellar nebulae unique to interacting wind systems.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, Appearing in Nature (1999 April 08

Endocrine Disruptor Regulation of MicroRNA Expression in Breast Carcinoma Cells

Several environmental agents termed "endocrine disrupting compounds" or EDCs have been reported to bind and activate the estrogen receptor-α (ER). The EDCs DDT and BPA are ubiquitously present in the environment, and DDT and BPA levels in human blood and adipose tissue are detectable in most if not all women and men. ER-mediated biological responses can be regulated at numerous levels, including expression of coding RNAs (mRNAs) and more recently non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Of the ncRNAs, microRNAs have emerged as a target of estrogen signaling. Given the important implications of EDC-regulated ER function, we sought to define the effects of BPA and DDT on microRNA regulation and expression levels in estrogen-responsive human breast cancer cells.To investigate the cellular effects of DDT and BPA, we used the human MCF-7 breast cancer cell line, which is ER (+) and hormone sensitive. Our results show that DDT and BPA potentiate ER transcriptional activity, resulting in an increased expression of receptor target genes, including progesterone receptor, bcl-2, and trefoil factor 1. Interestingly, a differential increase in expression of Jun and Fas by BPA but not DDT or estrogen was observed. In addition to ER responsive mRNAs, we investigated the ability of DDT and BPA to alter the miRNA profiles in MCF-7 cells. While the EDCs and estrogen similarly altered the expression of multiple microRNAs in MCF-7 cells, including miR-21, differential patterns of microRNA expression were induced by DDT and BPA compared to estrogen.We have shown, for the first time, that BPA and DDT, two well known EDCs, alter the expression profiles of microRNA in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of these compounds could provide important insight into the role of EDCs in human disease, including breast cancer

Neutrino interaction classification with a convolutional neural network in the DUNE far detector

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is a next-generation neutrino oscillation experiment that aims to measure CP-violation in the neutrino sector as part of a wider physics program. A deep learning approach based on a convolutional neural network has been developed to provide highly efficient and pure selections of electron neutrino and muon neutrino charged-current interactions. The electron neutrino (antineutrino) selection efficiency peaks at 90% (94%) and exceeds 85% (90%) for reconstructed neutrino energies between 2–5 GeV. The muon neutrino (antineutrino) event selection is found to have a maximum efficiency of 96% (97%) and exceeds 90% (95%) efficiency for reconstructed neutrino energies above 2 GeV. When considering all electron neutrino and antineutrino interactions as signal, a selection purity of 90% is achieved. These event selections are critical to maximize the sensitivity of the experiment to CP-violating effects

Design, construction and operation of the ProtoDUNE-SP Liquid Argon TPC

The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) that was constructed and operated in the CERN North Area at the end of the H4 beamline. This detector is a prototype for the first far detector module of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), which will be constructed at the Sandford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, U.S.A. The ProtoDUNE-SP detector incorporates full-size components as designed for DUNE and has an active volume of 7 × 6 × 7.2 m3. The H4 beam delivers incident particles with well-measured momenta and high-purity particle identification. ProtoDUNE-SP's successful operation between 2018 and 2020 demonstrates the effectiveness of the single-phase far detector design. This paper describes the design, construction, assembly and operation of the detector components

The Single-Phase ProtoDUNE Technical Design Report

ProtoDUNE-SP is the single-phase DUNE Far Detector prototype that is under construction and will be operated at the CERN Neutrino Platform (NP) starting in 2018. ProtoDUNE-SP, a crucial part of the DUNE effort towards the construction of the first DUNE 10-kt fiducial mass far detector module (17 kt total LAr mass), is a significant experiment in its own right. With a total liquid argon (LAr) mass of 0.77 kt, it represents the largest monolithic single-phase LArTPC detector to be built to date. It's technical design is given in this report

Experiment simulation configurations approximating DUNE TDR

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a next-generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment consisting of a high-power, broadband neutrino beam, a highly capable near detector located on site at Fermilab, in Batavia, Illinois, and a massive liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) far detector located at the 4850L of Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The long-baseline physics sensitivity calculations presented in the DUNE Physics TDR, and in a related physics paper, rely upon simulation of the neutrino beam line, simulation of neutrino interactions in the near and far detectors, fully automated event reconstruction and neutrino classification, and detailed implementation of systematic uncertainties. The purpose of this posting is to provide a simplified summary of the simulations that went into this analysis to the community, in order to facilitate phenomenological studies of long-baseline oscillation at DUNE. Simulated neutrino flux files and a GLoBES configuration describing the far detector reconstruction and selection performance are included as ancillary files to this posting. A simple analysis using these configurations in GLoBES produces sensitivity that is similar, but not identical, to the official DUNE sensitivity. DUNE welcomes those interested in performing phenomenological work as members of the collaboration, but also recognizes the benefit of making these configurations readily available to the wider community

First results on ProtoDUNE-SP liquid argon time projection chamber performance from a beam test at the CERN Neutrino Platform

The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber with an active volume of 7.2×6.0×6.9 m3. It is installed at the CERN Neutrino Platform in a specially-constructed beam that delivers charged pions, kaons, protons, muons and electrons with momenta in the range 0.3 GeV/c to 7 GeV/c. Beam line instrumentation provides accurate momentum measurements and particle identification. The ProtoDUNE-SP detector is a prototype for the first far detector module of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, and it incorporates full-size components as designed for that module. This paper describes the beam line, the time projection chamber, the photon detectors, the cosmic-ray tagger, the signal processing and particle reconstruction. It presents the first results on ProtoDUNE-SP's performance, including noise and gain measurements, dE/dx calibration for muons, protons, pions and electrons, drift electron lifetime measurements, and photon detector noise, signal sensitivity and time resolution measurements. The measured values meet or exceed the specifications for the DUNE far detector, in several cases by large margins. ProtoDUNE-SP's successful operation starting in 2018 and its production of large samples of high-quality data demonstrate the effectiveness of the single-phase far detector design

Low exposure long-baseline neutrino oscillation sensitivity of the DUNE experiment

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will produce world-leading neutrino oscillation measurements over the lifetime of the experiment. In this work, we explore DUNE's sensitivity to observe charge-parity violation (CPV) in the neutrino sector, and to resolve the mass ordering, for exposures of up to 100 kiloton-megawatt-years (kt-MW-yr). The analysis includes detailed uncertainties on the flux prediction, the neutrino interaction model, and detector effects. We demonstrate that DUNE will be able to unambiguously resolve the neutrino mass ordering at a 3σ (5σ) level, with a 66 (100) kt-MW-yr far detector exposure, and has the ability to make strong statements at significantly shorter exposures depending on the true value of other oscillation parameters. We also show that DUNE has the potential to make a robust measurement of CPV at a 3σ level with a 100 kt-MW-yr exposure for the maximally CP-violating values \delta_{\rm CP}} = \pm\pi/2. Additionally, the dependence of DUNE's sensitivity on the exposure taken in neutrino-enhanced and antineutrino-enhanced running is discussed. An equal fraction of exposure taken in each beam mode is found to be close to optimal when considered over the entire space of interest