32 research outputs found
Testing the Master Constraint Programme for Loop Quantum Gravity III. SL(2,R) Models
This is the third paper in our series of five in which we test the Master
Constraint Programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in Loop Quantum
Gravity. In this work we analyze models which, despite the fact that the phase
space is finite dimensional, are much more complicated than in the second
paper: These are systems with an SL(2,\Rl) gauge symmetry and the
complications arise because non -- compact semisimple Lie groups are not
amenable (have no finite translation invariant measure). This leads to severe
obstacles in the refined algebraic quantization programme (group averaging) and
we see a trace of that in the fact that the spectrum of the Master Constraint
does not contain the point zero. However, the minimum of the spectrum is of
order which can be interpreted as a normal ordering constant arising
from first class constraints (while second class systems lead to normal
ordering constants). The physical Hilbert space can then be be obtained after
subtracting this normal ordering correction.Comment: 33 pages, no figure
IceCube - the next generation neutrino telescope at the South Pole
IceCube is a large neutrino telescope of the next generation to be
constructed in the Antarctic Ice Sheet near the South Pole. We present the
conceptual design and the sensitivity of the IceCube detector to predicted
fluxes of neutrinos, both atmospheric and extra-terrestrial. A complete
simulation of the detector design has been used to study the detector's
capability to search for neutrinos from sources such as active galaxies, and
gamma-ray bursts.Comment: 8 pages, to be published with the proceedings of the XXth
International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, Munich 200
Muon Track Reconstruction and Data Selection Techniques in AMANDA
The Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) is a high-energy
neutrino telescope operating at the geographic South Pole. It is a lattice of
photo-multiplier tubes buried deep in the polar ice between 1500m and 2000m.
The primary goal of this detector is to discover astrophysical sources of high
energy neutrinos. A high-energy muon neutrino coming through the earth from the
Northern Hemisphere can be identified by the secondary muon moving upward
through the detector. The muon tracks are reconstructed with a maximum
likelihood method. It models the arrival times and amplitudes of Cherenkov
photons registered by the photo-multipliers. This paper describes the different
methods of reconstruction, which have been successfully implemented within
AMANDA. Strategies for optimizing the reconstruction performance and rejecting
background are presented. For a typical analysis procedure the direction of
tracks are reconstructed with about 2 degree accuracy.Comment: 40 pages, 16 Postscript figures, uses elsart.st
Neutrino Astrophysics in the cold: Amanda, Baikal and IceCube
This talk review status and results from the two presently operating
underwater/ice neutrino telescopes, NT-200 in Lake Baikal and Amanda-II at the
South Pole. It also gives a description of the design and the expected
performance of Icecube, the next-generation neutrino telescope at South Pole.Comment: Talk given at the Nobel Symposium on Neutrino Physics, Haga Slott,
Sweden, 2004, 14 pages, 10 figure
Sensitivity of the IceCube Detector to Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Muon Neutrinos
We present the results of a Monte-Carlo study of the sensitivity of the
planned IceCube detector to predicted fluxes of muon neutrinos at TeV to PeV
energies. A complete simulation of the detector and data analysis is used to
study the detector's capability to search for muon neutrinos from sources such
as active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. We study the effective area and the
angular resolution of the detector as a function of muon energy and angle of
incidence. We present detailed calculations of the sensitivity of the detector
to both diffuse and pointlike neutrino emissions, including an assessment of
the sensitivity to neutrinos detected in coincidence with gamma-ray burst
observations. After three years of datataking, IceCube will have been able to
detect a point source flux of E^2*dN/dE = 7*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV at a 5-sigma
significance, or, in the absence of a signal, place a 90% c.l. limit at a level
E^2*dN/dE = 2*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV. A diffuse E-2 flux would be detectable at a
minimum strength of E^2*dN/dE = 1*10^-8 cm^-2s^-1sr^-1GeV. A gamma-ray burst
model following the formulation of Waxman and Bahcall would result in a 5-sigma
effect after the observation of 200 bursts in coincidence with satellite
observations of the gamma-rays.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, 6 table
Results from the Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA)
We show new results from both the older and newer incarnations of AMANDA
(AMANDA-B10 and AMANDA-II, respectively). These results demonstrate that AMANDA
is a functioning, multipurpose detector with significant physics and
astrophysics reach. They include a new higher-statistics measurement of the
atmospheric muon neutrino flux and preliminary results from searches for a
variety of sources of ultrahigh energy neutrinos: generic point sources,
gamma-ray bursters and diffuse sources producing muons in the detector, and
diffuse sources producing electromagnetic or hadronic showers in or near the
detector.Comment: Invited talk at the XXth International Conference on Neutrino Physics
and Astrophysics (Neutrino 2002), Munich, Germany, May 25-30, 200
Limits to the muon flux from WIMP annihilation in the center of the Earth with the AMANDA detector
A search for nearly vertical up-going muon-neutrinos from neutralino
annihilations in the center of the Earth has been performed with the AMANDA-B10
neutrino detector. The data sample collected in 130.1 days of live-time in
1997, ~10^9 events, has been analyzed for this search. No excess over the
expected atmospheric neutrino background is oberved. An upper limit at 90%
confidence level on the annihilation rate of neutralinos in the center of the
Earth is obtained as a function of the neutralino mass in the range 100
GeV-5000 GeV, as well as the corresponding muon flux limit.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Version accepted for publication in Physical
Review
Rucaparib maintenance treatment for recurrent ovarian carcinoma after response to platinum therapy (ARIEL3): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial
Background:
Rucaparib, a poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor, has anticancer activity in recurrent ovarian carcinoma harbouring a BRCA mutation or high percentage of genome-wide loss of heterozygosity. In this trial we assessed rucaparib versus placebo after response to second-line or later platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with high-grade, recurrent, platinum-sensitive ovarian carcinoma.
Methods:
In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial, we recruited patients from 87 hospitals and cancer centres across 11 countries. Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older, had a platinum-sensitive, high-grade serous or endometrioid ovarian, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube carcinoma, had received at least two previous platinum-based chemotherapy regimens, had achieved complete or partial response to their last platinum-based regimen, had a cancer antigen 125 concentration of less than the upper limit of normal, had a performance status of 0â1, and had adequate organ function. Patients were ineligible if they had symptomatic or untreated central nervous system metastases, had received anticancer therapy 14 days or fewer before starting the study, or had received previous treatment with a poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor. We randomly allocated patients 2:1 to receive oral rucaparib 600 mg twice daily or placebo in 28 day cycles using a computer-generated sequence (block size of six, stratified by homologous recombination repair gene mutation status, progression-free interval after the penultimate platinum-based regimen, and best response to the most recent platinum-based regimen). Patients, investigators, site staff, assessors, and the funder were masked to assignments. The primary outcome was investigator-assessed progression-free survival evaluated with use of an ordered step-down procedure for three nested cohorts: patients with BRCA mutations (carcinoma associated with deleterious germline or somatic BRCA mutations), patients with homologous recombination deficiencies (BRCA mutant or BRCA wild-type and high loss of heterozygosity), and the intention-to-treat population, assessed at screening and every 12 weeks thereafter. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01968213; enrolment is complete.
Findings:
Between April 7, 2014, and July 19, 2016, we randomly allocated 564 patients: 375 (66%) to rucaparib and 189 (34%) to placebo. Median progression-free survival in patients with a BRCA-mutant carcinoma was 16·6 months (95% CI 13·4â22·9; 130 [35%] patients) in the rucaparib group versus 5·4 months (3·4â6·7; 66 [35%] patients) in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·23 [95% CI 0·16â0·34]; p<0·0001). In patients with a homologous recombination deficient carcinoma (236 [63%] vs 118 [62%]), it was 13·6 months (10·9â16·2) versus 5·4 months (5·1â5·6; 0·32 [0·24â0·42]; p<0·0001). In the intention-to-treat population, it was 10·8 months (8·3â11·4) versus 5·4 months (5·3â5·5; 0·36 [0·30â0·45]; p<0·0001). Treatment-emergent adverse events of grade 3 or higher in the safety population (372 [99%] patients in the rucaparib group vs 189 [100%] in the placebo group) were reported in 209 (56%) patients in the rucaparib group versus 28 (15%) in the placebo group, the most common of which were anaemia or decreased haemoglobin concentration (70 [19%] vs one [1%]) and increased alanine or aspartate aminotransferase concentration (39 [10%] vs none).
Interpretation:
Across all primary analysis groups, rucaparib significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer who had achieved a response to platinum-based chemotherapy. ARIEL3 provides further evidence that use of a poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor in the maintenance treatment setting versus placebo could be considered a new standard of care for women with platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer following a complete or partial response to second-line or later platinum-based chemotherapy.
Funding:
Clovis Oncology
Search for Neutrino-Induced Cascades with AMANDA
We report on a search for electro-magnetic and/or hadronic showers (cascades)
induced by high energy neutrinos in the data collected with the AMANDA II
detector during the year 2000. The observed event rates are consistent with the
expectations for atmospheric neutrinos and muons. We place upper limits on a
diffuse flux of extraterrestrial electron, tau and muon neutrinos. A flux of
neutrinos with a spectrum which consists of an equal mix
of all flavors, is limited to at
a 90% confidence level for a neutrino energy range 50 TeV to 5 PeV. We present
bounds for specific extraterrestrial neutrino flux predictions. Several of
these models are ruled out.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure
Search for Supernova Neutrino-Bursts with the AMANDA Detector
The core collapse of a massive star in the Milky Way will produce a neutrino
burst, intense enough to be detected by existing underground detectors. The
AMANDA neutrino telescope located deep in the South Pole ice can detect MeV
neutrinos by a collective rate increase in all photo-multipliers on top of dark
noise. The main source of light comes from positrons produced in the
CC-reaction of anti-electron neutrinos on free protons \antinue + p \to e^+ +
n. This paper describes the first supernova search performed on the full sets
of data taken during 1997 and 1998 (215 days of live time) with 302 of the
detector's optical modules. No candidate events resulted from this search. The
performance of the detector is calculated, yielding a 70% coverage of the
Galaxy with one background fake per year with 90% efficiency for the detector
configuration under study. An upper limit at the 90% c.l. on the rate of
stellar collapses in the Milky Way is derived, yielding 4.3 events per year. A
trigger algorithm is presented and its performance estimated. Possible
improvements of the detector hardware are reviewed.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to Astroparticle Physic