Radiation dose reduction for CT assessment of urolithiasis using iterative reconstruction: A prospective intra-individual study

Objective: To assess the performance of hybrid (HIR) and model-based iterative reconstruction (MIR) in patients with urolithiasis at reduced-dose computed tomography (CT). Methods: Twenty patients scheduled for unenhanced abdominal CT for follow-up of urolithiasis were prospectively included. Routine dose acquisition was followed by three low-dose acquisitions at 40%, 60% and 80% reduced doses. All images were reconstructed with filtered back projection (FBP), HIR and MIR. Urolithiasis detection rates, gall bladder, appendix and rectosigmoid evaluation and overall subjective image quality were evaluated by two observers. Results: 74 stones were present in 17 patients. Half the stones were not detected on FBP at the lowest dose level, but this improved with MIR to a sensitivity of 100%. HIR resulted in a slight decrease in sensitivity at the lowest dose to 72%, but outperformed FBP. Evaluation of other structures with HIR at 40% and with MIR at 60% dose reductions was comparable to FBP at routine dose, but 80% dose reduction resulted in non-evaluable images. Conclusions: CT radiation dose for urolithiasis detection can be safely reduced by 40 (HIR)–60 (MIR) % without affecting assessment of urolithiasis, possible extra-urinary tract pathology or overall image quality. Key Points: • Iterative reconstruction can be used to substantially lower the radiation dose. • This allows for radiation reduction without affecting sensitivity of stone detection. • Possible extra-urinary tract pathology evaluation is feasible at 40–60% reduced dose

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Measurement of event-shape observables in Z→ℓ+ℓ− events in pp collisions at √ s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Event-shape observables measured using charged particles in inclusive $Z$-boson events are presented, using the electron and muon decay modes of the $Z$ bosons. The measurements are based on an integrated luminosity of $1.1 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ of proton--proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. Charged-particle distributions, excluding the lepton--antilepton pair from the $Z$-boson decay, are measured in different ranges of transverse momentum of the $Z$ boson. Distributions include multiplicity, scalar sum of transverse momenta, beam thrust, transverse thrust, spherocity, and $\mathcal{F}$-parameter, which are in particular sensitive to properties of the underlying event at small values of the $Z$-boson transverse momentum. The Sherpa event generator shows larger deviations from the measured observables than Pythia8 and Herwig7. Typically, all three Monte Carlo generators provide predictions that are in better agreement with the data at high $Z$-boson transverse momenta than at low $Z$-boson transverse momenta and for the observables that are less sensitive to the number of charged particles in the event.Comment: 36 pages plus author list + cover page (54 pages total), 14 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC, All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2014-0

Evidence for the associated production of a W boson and a top quark in ATLAS at √s = 7 TeV

Contains fulltext : 103353.pdf (preprint version ) (Open Access

Search for supersymmetry in events with photons, bottom quarks, and missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Contains fulltext : 111247.pdf (preprint version ) (Open Access

Measurement of the isolated diphoton cross section in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

15 pages plus author list (27 pages total), 9 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. DThe ATLAS experiment has measured the production cross-section of events with two isolated photons in the final state, in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. The full data set acquired in 2010 is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb-1. The background, consisting of hadronic jets and isolated electrons, is estimated with fully data-driven techniques and subtracted. The differential cross-sections, as functions of the di-photon mass, total transverse momentum and azimuthal separation, are presented and compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD

Search for a heavy Standard Model Higgs boson in the channel H→ZZ→l+l−qqˉH\rightarrow ZZ\rightarrow l^{+}l^{-} q\bar{q} using the ATLAS detector

A search for a heavy Standard Model Higgs boson decaying via H->ZZ->llqq, where l=e,mu, is presented. The search is performed using a data set of pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.04 fb^-1 collected in 2011 by the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC collider. No significant excess of events above the estimated background is found. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on the production cross section (relative to that expected from the Standard Model) of a Higgs boson with a mass in the range between 200 and 600 GeV are derived. Within this mass range, there is at present insufficient sensitivity to exclude a Standard Model Higgs boson. For a Higgs boson with a mass of 360 GeV, where the sensitivity is maximal, the observed and expected cross section upper limits are factors of 1.7 and 2.7, respectively, larger than the Standard Model prediction.Comment: 11 pages plus author list (26 pages total), 4 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Search for Diphoton Events with Large Missing Transverse Energy in 7 TeV Proton-Proton Collisions with the ATLAS Detector

A search for diphoton events with large missing transverse energy is presented. The data were collected with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at √s=7  [square root of s=7] TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 3.1  pb-1 [pb superscript -1]. No excess of such events is observed above the standard model background prediction. In the context of a specific model with one universal extra dimension with compactification radius R and gravity-induced decays, values of 1/R<729  GeV are excluded at 95% C. L., providing the most sensitive limit on this model to date.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.

The ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

The ATLAS detector as installed in its experimental cavern at point 1 at CERN is described in this paper. A brief overview of the expected performance of the detector when the Large Hadron Collider begins operation is also presented