547 research outputs found
Behavioral avoidance tests to evaluate effects of cattle slurry and dairy sludge application to soil¹
Micromegas operation in high pressure xenon: charge and scintillation readout
The operational characteristics of a Micromegas operating in pure xenon at
the pressure range of 1 to 10 bar are investigated. The maximum charge gain
achieved in each pressure is approximately constant, around 4x10^2, for xenon
pressures up to 5 bar and decreasing slowly above this pressure down to values
somewhat above 10^2 at 10 bar. The MM presents the highest gains for xenon
pressures above 4 bar, when compared to other micropattern gaseous multipliers.
The lowest energy resolution obtained for X-rays of 22.1 keV exhibits a steady
increase with pressure, from 12% at 1bar to about 32% at 10 bar. The effective
scintillation yield, defined as the number of photons exiting through the MM
mesh holes per primary electron produced in the conversion region was
calculated. This yield is about 2x10^2 photons per primary electron at 1 bar,
increasing to about 6x10^2 at 5 bar and, then, decreasing again to 2x10^2 at 10
bar. The readout of this scintillation by a suitable photosensor will result in
higher gains but with increased statistical fluctuations.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure
Avoidance, biomass and survival response of soil dwelling (endogeic) earthworms to OECD artificial soil: potential implications for earthworm ecotoxicology
Soil dwelling earthworms are now adopted more widely in ecotoxicology, so it is vital to establish if standardised test parameters remain applicable. The main aim of this study was to determine the influence of OECD artificial soil on selected soil-dwelling, endogeic earthworm species. In an initial experiment, biomass change in mature Allolobophora chlorotica was recorded in Standard OECD Artificial Soil (AS) and also in Kettering Loam (KL). In a second experiment, avoidance behaviour was recorded in a linear gradient with varying proportions of AS and KL (100% AS, 75% AS + 25% KL, 50% KS + 50% KL, 25% AS + 75% KL, 100% KL) with either A. chlorotica or Octolasion cyaneum. Results showed a significant decrease in A. chlorotica biomass in AS relative to KL, and in the linear gradient, both earthworm species preferentially occupied sections containing higher proportions of KL over AS. Soil texture and specifically % composition and particle size of sand are proposed as key factors that influenced observed results. This research suggests that more suitable substrates are required for ecotoxicology tests with soil dwelling earthworms
NEXT-100 Technical Design Report (TDR). Executive Summary
In this Technical Design Report (TDR) we describe the NEXT-100 detector that
will search for neutrinoless double beta decay (bbonu) in Xe-136 at the
Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC), in Spain. The document formalizes
the design presented in our Conceptual Design Report (CDR): an
electroluminescence time projection chamber, with separate readout planes for
calorimetry and tracking, located, respectively, behind cathode and anode. The
detector is designed to hold a maximum of about 150 kg of xenon at 15 bar, or
100 kg at 10 bar. This option builds in the capability to increase the total
isotope mass by 50% while keeping the operating pressure at a manageable level.
The readout plane performing the energy measurement is composed of Hamamatsu
R11410-10 photomultipliers, specially designed for operation in low-background,
xenon-based detectors. Each individual PMT will be isolated from the gas by an
individual, pressure resistant enclosure and will be coupled to the sensitive
volume through a sapphire window. The tracking plane consists in an array of
Hamamatsu S10362-11-050P MPPCs used as tracking pixels. They will be arranged
in square boards holding 64 sensors (8 times8) with a 1-cm pitch. The inner
walls of the TPC, the sapphire windows and the boards holding the MPPCs will be
coated with tetraphenyl butadiene (TPB), a wavelength shifter, to improve the
light collection.Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures, 5 table
Radiopurity control in the NEXT-100 double beta decay experiment: procedures and initial measurements
We have investigated the possibility of calibrating the PMTs of scintillation detectors, using the primary scintillation produced by X-rays to induce single photoelectron response of the PMT. The high-energy tail of this response, can be approximated to an exponential function, under some conditions. In these cases, it is possible to determine the average gain for each PMT biasing voltage from the inverse of the exponent of the exponential fit to the tail, which can be done even if the background and/or noise cover-up most of the distribution. We have compared our results with those obtained by the commonly used single electron response (SER) method, which uses a LED to induce a single photoelectron response of the PMT and determines the peak position of such response, relative to the pedestal peak (the electronic noise peak, which corresponds to 0 photoelectrons). The results of the exponential fit method agree with those obtained by the SER method when the average number of photoelectrons reaching the first dynode per light/scintillation pulse is around 1.0. The SER method has higher precision, while the exponential fit method has the advantage of being useful in situations where the PMT is already in situ, being difficult or even impossible to apply the SER method, e.g. in sealed scintillator/PMT devices
Disposição continental de sedimentos de dragagem em solos tropicais: avaliação do risco ecológico de metais baseada em bioensaios com organismos aquáticos e edáficos
Present Status and Future Perspectives of the NEXT Experiment
NEXT is an experiment dedicated to neutrinoless double beta decay searches in xenon. The detector is a TPC, holding 100 kg of high-pressure xenon enriched in the 136Xe isotope. It is under construction in the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc in Spain, and it will begin operations in 2015. The NEXT detector concept provides an energy resolutionbetter than 1% FWHM and a topological signal that can be used to reduce the background. Furthermore, the NEXT technology can be extrapolated to a 1 ton-scale experiment
Initial results of NEXT-DEMO, a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 experiment
NEXT-DEMO is a large scale prototype and demonstrator of the NEXT-100 High Pressure Xenon Gas TPC, which will search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136 using 100-150 kg of enriched xenon gas. The apparatus was built to prove the expected performance of NEXT-100, namely, energy resolution better than 1% FWHM at 2.5 MeV and event topological reconstruction. In this paper we describe the operation and initial results of the detector. A resolution of 1.7% FWHM at 511 keV (0.77% FWHM at 2.5 MeV) is obtained in the full fiducial volume of the detector. A topological analysis shows that electrons are identified by the characteristic blob energy deposit associated to the Bragg peak in 98.5% of the cases, with a rate of misidentification (two blobs) of 0.14%
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