Evaluation of the aging management system for the Triga research nuclear reactor in Brazil / Avaliação do sistema de gerenciamento do envelhecimento do reator nuclear de pesquisa Triga no Brasil

As most research reactors have over 40 years of operational experience, maintenance, modernization and renovation are increasingly important for safety and operational life extension. This is due to the monitoring and development of techniques to control and mitigate the negative effects of operating conditions on structures, systems and components. Aging management is a strategy of engineering, operation, maintenance and other actions to control, within acceptable limits, the aging degradation of the facility. The first criticality of the IPR-R1 Triga research reactor (Training, Research, Isotopes, Atomics) occurred in 1960 with a maximum thermal power of 30 kW. Therefore, this reactor has been operating for more than 60 years. One of the issues that comes from the long time of the operation is the management of aging. This includes functions and issues related to operation, inspections, design changes, testing, and others. The IPR-R1 reactor is a North American project. So, the requirements of United State Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S.NRC) are applicable. This article discusses the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and U.S.NRC requirements to implement an aging management system for the CDTN IPR-R1 Triga Reactor

Simulação neutrônica do reator nuclear de pesquisa TRIGA, do CDTN, utilizando os códigos Monte Carlo Serpent e MCNPX

O reator nuclear de pesquisa TRIGA IPR-R1 está localizado no Centro de Desenvolvimento de Tecnologia Nuclear - CDTN em Belo Horizonte. Ele permanece em operação desde 1960. Durante este período, o reator tem sido utilizado na produção de radioisótopos, para estudos em radiobiologia, para produção de fontes radioativas para indústrias, na produção de traçadores utilizados em processos industriais, na irradiação de amostras para análise por ativação por nêutrons, docência e treinamento. Devido a um histórico muito longo de operações e à ausência de informações sobre a composição atual dos elementos combustíveis, torna-se muito difícil conhecer, com exatidão, seus parâmetros neutrônicos. Este trabalho apresenta a avaliação teórica do fator de multiplicação de nêutrons (k) desde a primeira configuração, levando em consideração os efeitos da incerteza na composição atual do combustível do reator. Os resultados mostraram que a geometria e detalhes do reator devem ser incluídos no modelo, pois impactam significativamente no cálculo da reatividade. Comparações feitas entre os códigos Monte Carlo MCNPX e Serpent 2.1.20, mostraram diferenças consistentes dos resultados obtidos para a reatividade em todas as geometrias simuladas

Neotropical freshwater fisheries : A dataset of occurrence and abundance of freshwater fishes in the Neotropics

The Neotropical region hosts 4225 freshwater fish species, ranking first among the world's most diverse regions for freshwater fishes. Our NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set is the first to produce a large-scale Neotropical freshwater fish inventory, covering the entire Neotropical region from Mexico and the Caribbean in the north to the southern limits in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay. We compiled 185,787 distribution records, with unique georeferenced coordinates, for the 4225 species, represented by occurrence and abundance data. The number of species for the most numerous orders are as follows: Characiformes (1289), Siluriformes (1384), Cichliformes (354), Cyprinodontiformes (245), and Gymnotiformes (135). The most recorded species was the characid Astyanax fasciatus (4696 records). We registered 116,802 distribution records for native species, compared to 1802 distribution records for nonnative species. The main aim of the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set was to make these occurrence and abundance data accessible for international researchers to develop ecological and macroecological studies, from local to regional scales, with focal fish species, families, or orders. We anticipate that the NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set will be valuable for studies on a wide range of ecological processes, such as trophic cascades, fishery pressure, the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, and the impacts of species invasion and climate change. There are no copyright restrictions on the data, and please cite this data paper when using the data in publications

Elliptic anisotropy measurement of the f0_0(980) hadron in proton-lead collisions and evidence for its quark-antiquark composition

International audienceDespite the f$_0$(980) hadron having been discovered half a century ago, the question about its quark content has not been settled: it might be an ordinary quark-antiquark ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$) meson, a tetraquark ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}q\bar{q}}$) exotic state, a kaon-antikaon ($\mathrm{K\bar{K}}$) molecule, or a quark-antiquark-gluon ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}g}$) hybrid. This paper reports strong evidence that the f$_0$(980) state is an ordinary $\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$ meson, inferred from the scaling of elliptic anisotropies ($v_2$) with the number of constituent quarks ($n_\mathrm{q}$), as empirically established using conventional hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The f$_0$(980) state is reconstructed via its dominant decay channel f$_0$(980) $\to$$\pi^+\pi^-$, in proton-lead collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, and its $v_2$ is measured as a function of transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$). It is found that the $n_q$ = 2 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$ state) hypothesis is favored over $n_q$ = 4 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}q\bar{q}}$ or $\mathrm{K\bar{K}}$ states) by 7.7, 6.3, or 3.1 standard deviations in the $p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 10, 8, or 6 GeV/$c$ ranges, respectively, and over $n_\mathrm{q}$ = 3 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}g}$ hybrid state) by 3.5 standard deviations in the $p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 8 GeV/$c$ range. This result represents the first determination of the quark content of the f$_0$(980) state, made possible by using a novel approach, and paves the way for similar studies of other exotic hadron candidates

Extracting the speed of sound in the strongly interacting matter created in ultrarelativistic lead-lead collisions at the LHC

International audienceUltrarelativistic nuclear collisions create a strongly interacting state of hot and dense quark-gluon matter that exhibits a remarkable collective flow behavior with minimal viscous dissipation. To gain deeper insights into its intrinsic nature and fundamental degrees of freedom, we extracted the speed of sound in this medium created using lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV. The data were recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 0.607 nb$^{-1}$. The measurement is performed by studying the multiplicity dependence of the average transverse momentum of charged particles emitted in head-on PbPb collisions. Our findings reveal that the speed of sound in this matter is nearly half the speed of light, with a squared value of 0.241 $\pm$ 0.002 (stat) $\pm$ 0.016 (syst) in natural units. The effective medium temperature, estimated using the mean transverse momentum, is 219 $\pm$ 8 (syst) MeV. The measured squared speed of sound at this temperature aligns precisely with predictions from lattice quantum chromodynamic (QCD) calculations. This result provides a stringent constraint on the equation of state of the created medium and direct evidence for a deconfined QCD phase being attained in relativistic nuclear collisions

Test of lepton flavor universality in B± ⁣→ ⁣K±μ+μ− {\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! \mathrm{K^{\pm}}\mu^{+}\mu^{-} and B± ⁣→ ⁣K±e+e− {\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! \mathrm{K^{\pm}}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^- decays in proton-proton collisions at s= \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A test of lepton flavor universality in ${\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! \mathrm{K^{\pm}}\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ and ${\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! \mathrm{K^{\pm}}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^-$ decays, as well as a measurement of differential and integrated branching fractions of a nonresonant ${\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! \mathrm{K^{\pm}}\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ decay are presented. The analysis is made possible by a dedicated data set of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV recorded in 2018, by the CMS experiment at the LHC, using a special high-rate data stream designed for collecting about 10 billion unbiased b hadron decays. The ratio of the branching fractions $\mathcal{B}({\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! \mathrm{K^{\pm}}\mu^{+}\mu^{-})$ to $\mathcal{B}({\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! \mathrm{K^{\pm}}\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^-)$ is determined from the measured double ratio $R(\mathrm{K})$ of these decays to the respective branching fractions of the ${\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! {\mathrm{J}/\psi} \mathrm{K^{\pm}}$ with ${\mathrm{J}/\psi} \!\to\!\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ and $\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^-$ decays, which allow for significant cancellation of systematic uncertainties. The ratio $R(\mathrm{K})$ is measured in the range 1.1 $< q^2 <$ 6.0 GeV$^2$, where $q$ is the invariant mass of the lepton pair, and is found to be $R(\mathrm{K})=$ 0.78 $^{+0.47}_{-0.23}$, in agreement with the standard model expectation $R(\mathrm{K}) \approx$ 1. This measurement is limited by the statistical precision of the electron channel. The integrated branching fraction in the same $q^2$ range, $\mathcal{B}({\mathrm{B}^{\pm}} \!\to\! \mathrm{K^{\pm}}\mu^{+}\mu^{-}) =$ (12.42 $\pm$ 0.68) $\times$ 10$^{-8}$, is consistent with the present world-average value and has a comparable precision.A test of lepton flavor universality in B$^{\pm}$$\to$ K$^{\pm}\mu^+\mu^-$ and B$^{\pm}$$\to$ K$^{\pm}$e$^+$e$^-$ decays, as well as a measurement of differential and integrated branching fractions of a nonresonant B$^{\pm}$$\to$ K$^{\pm}\mu^+\mu^-$ decay are presented. The analysis is made possible by a dedicated data set of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded in 2018, by the CMS experiment at the LHC, using a special high-rate data stream designed for collecting about 10 billion unbiased b hadron decays. The ratio of the branching fractions $\mathcal{B}$(B$^{\pm}$$\to$ K$^{\pm}\mu^+\mu^-$) to $\mathcal{B}$(B$^{\pm}$$\to$ K$^{\pm}$e$^+$e$^-$) is determined from the measured double ratio $R$(K) of these decays to the respective branching fractions of the B$^\pm$$\to$ J/$\psi$K$^\pm$ with J/$\psi$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-$ and e$^+$e$^-$ decays, which allow for significant cancellation of systematic uncertainties. The ratio $R$(K) is measured in the range 1.1 $\lt q^2 \lt$ 6.0 GeV$^2$, where $q$ is the invariant mass of the lepton pair, and is found to be $R$(K) = 0.78$^{+0.47}_{-0.23}$, in agreement with the standard model expectation $R$(K) $\approx$ 1. This measurement is limited by the statistical precision of the electron channel. The integrated branching fraction in the same $q^2$ range, $\mathcal{B}$(B$^{\pm}$$\to$ K$^{\pm}\mu^+\mu^-$) = (12.42 $\pm$ 0.68) $\times$ 10$^{-8}$, is consistent with the present world-average value and has a comparable precision

Observation of the Ξb−\Xi^-_\mathrm{b}→\toψ\psi(2S)Ξ−\Xi^- decay and studies of the Ξb∗0\Xi_\mathrm{b}^{\ast{}0} baryon in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceThe first observation of the decay $\Xi^-_\mathrm{b}$$\to$$\psi$(2S)$\Xi^-$ and measurement of the branching ratio of $\Xi^-_\mathrm{b}$$\to$$\psi$(2S)$\Xi^-$ to $\Xi^-_\mathrm{b}$$\to$ J/$\psi$$\Xi^-$ are presented. The J/$\psi$ and $\psi$(2S) mesons are reconstructed using their dimuon decay modes. The results are based on proton-proton colliding beam data from the LHC collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV in 2016-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The branching fraction ratio is measured to be $\mathcal{B}$($\Xi^-_\mathrm{b}$$\to$$\psi$(2S)$\Xi^-$)/$\mathcal{B}$($\Xi^-_\mathrm{b}$$\to$ J/$\psi$$\Xi^-$) = 0.84$^{+0.21}_{-0.19}$ (stat) $\pm$ 0.10 (syst) $\pm$ 0.02 ($\mathcal{B}$), where the last uncertainty comes from the uncertainties in the branching fractions of the charmonium states. New measurements of the $\Xi_\mathrm{b}^{\ast{}0}$ baryon mass and natural width are also presented, using the $\Xi_\mathrm{b}^-\pi^+$ final state, where the $\Xi^-_\mathrm{b}$ baryon is reconstructed through the decays J/$\psi \Xi^-$, $\psi$(2S)$\Xi^-$, J/$\psi \Lambda$K$^-$, and J/$\psi \Sigma^0$K$^-$. Finally, the fraction of the $\Xi^-_\mathrm{b}$ baryons produced from $\Xi_\mathrm{b}^{\ast{}0}$ decays is determined

Search for the decay of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalar bosons in the final state with four bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search is presented for the decay of the 125 GeV Higgs boson (H) to a pair of new light pseudoscalar bosons (a), followed by the prompt decay of each a boson to a bottom quark-antiquark pair, H $\to$ aa $\to$$\mathrm{b\bar{b}b\bar{b}}$. The analysis is performed using a data sample of proton-proton collisions collected with the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. To reduce the background from standard model processes, the search requires the Higgs boson to be produced in association with a leptonically decaying W or Z boson. The analysis probes the production of new light bosons in a 15 $\lt$$m_\mathrm{a}$$\lt$ 60 GeV mass range. Assuming the standard model predictions for the Higgs boson production cross sections for pp $\to$ WH and ZH, model independent upper limits at 95% confidence level are derived for the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}$(H $\to$ aa $\to$ $\mathrm{b\bar{b}b\bar{b}}$). The combined WH and ZH observed upper limit on the branching fraction ranges from 1.10 for $m_\mathrm{a} =$ 20 GeV to 0.36 for $m_\mathrm{a} =$ 60 GeV, complementing other measurements in the $\mu\mu\tau\tau$, $\tau\tau\tau\tau$ and bb$\ell\ell$ ($\ell=$ $\mu$,$\tau$) channels

Search for new resonances decaying to pairs of merged diphotons in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search is presented for an extended Higgs sector with two new particles, X and $\phi$, in the process X $\to$$\phi\phi$$\to$$(\gamma\gamma)(\gamma\gamma)$. Novel neural networks classify events with diphotons that are merged and determine the diphoton masses. The search uses LHC proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. No evidence of such resonances is seen. Upper limits are set on the production cross section versus the resonance masses, representing the most sensitive search in this channel

Search for long-lived heavy neutral leptons with lepton flavour conserving or violating decays to a jet and a charged lepton

International audienceA search for long-lived heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) is presented, which considers the hadronic final state and coupling scenarios involving all three lepton generations in the 2-20 GeV HNL mass range for the first time. Events comprising two leptons (electrons or muons) and jets are analyzed in a data sample of proton-proton collisions, recorded with the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. A novel jet tagger, based on a deep neural network, has been developed to identify jets from an HNL decay using various features of the jet and its constituent particles. The network output can be used as a powerful discriminating tool to probe a broad range of HNL lifetimes and masses. Contributions from background processes are determined from data. No excess of events in data over the expected background is observed. Upper limits on the HNL production cross section are derived as functions of the HNL mass and the three coupling strengths $V_{\ell\mathrm{N}}$ to each lepton generation $\ell$ and presented as exclusion limits in the coupling-mass plane, as lower limits on the HNL lifetime, and on the HNL mass. In this search, the most stringent limit on the coupling strength is obtained for pure muon coupling scenarios; values of $\lvert V_{\mu\mathrm{N}}\rvert^{2}\gt$ 5 (4)$\times$10$^{-7}$ are excluded for Dirac (Majorana) HNLs with a mass of 10 GeV at a confidence level of 95% that correspond to proper decay lengths of 17 (10) mm