OPERA first events from the CNGS neutrino beam

The aim of the OPERA experiment is to search for the appearance of the tau neutrino in the quasi pure muon neutrino beam produced at CERN (CNGS). The detector, installed in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory 730 km away from CERN, consists of a lead/emulsion target complemented with electronic detectors. A report is given on the detector status (construction, data taking and analysis) and on the first successful 2006 neutrino runs.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures Proceedings of the XLIInd Rencontres de Moriond session, La Thuile, 10-17 March 200

Nuclear correlation effects in neutrino nucleus interactions

Neutrino

Neutrino and antineutrino quasielastic interactions with nuclei

We investigate the interaction of neutrinos and antineutrinos with nuclei. We explore in particular the role played by the multinucleon excitations which can contaminate the quasielastic cross section. For neutrinos the multinucleon term produces a sizable increase of the quasielastic cross section. Part of the effect arises from tensor correlations. For antineutrinos this influence is smaller owing to the axial-vector interference which increases the relative importance of the terms which are not affected by these multinucleon excitations

The OPERA global readout and GPS distribution system

talk presented at 11th Pisa meeting on advanced detectors, may '09, submitted to the proceedingsInternational audienceOPERA is an experiment dedicated to the observation of $\nu_\mu$ into $\nu_\tau$ oscillations in appearance mode using a pure $\nu_\mu$ beam (CNGS) produced at CERN and detected at Gran Sasso. The experiment exploits a hybrid technology with emulsions and electronics detectors~\cite{opera}. The OPERA readout is performed through a triggerless, continuously running, distributed and highly available system. Its global architecture is based on Ethernet-capable smart sensors with microprocessing and network interface directly at the front-end stage. An unique interface board is used for the full detector reading out ADC-, TDC- or Controller-boards. All the readout channels are synchronized through a GPS-locked common bidirectional clock distribution system developped on purpose in a PCI format. It offers a second line to address all channels and the off-line synchronization with the CNGS to select the events

Pion Scalar Density and Chiral Symmetry Restoration at Finite Temperature and Density

This paper is devoted to the evaluation of the pionic scalar density at finite temperature and baryonic density. We express the latter effect in terms of the nuclear response evaluated in the random phase approxima- tion. We discuss the density and temperature evolution of the pionic density which governs the quark condensate evolution. Numerical evalua- tions are performed.Comment: 13 pages, Latex File, 10 eps Figure

Effects of the Nuclear Correlations on the Neutrino-Oxygen Interactions

We perform a calculation of the absolute charged current neutrino- oxygen events rates relevant in the atmospheric neutrino experiments. The inclusive reaction cross-section is split into exclusive channels, which are classified according to the number of \v{C}erenkov rings they produce. The model includes the effects of residual interaction in a RPA scheme with both nucleon-hole and Delta-hole excited states and the effects of (np-nh) excitations (n=2,3). Our result is that although the flavor ratio $\mu/e$ remains almost unaffected by the nuclear effects considered here and often neglected in the Monte-Carlo simulations, the absolute events rates are subject to important modifications.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2e file, 5 eps figures, part of PhD Thesis (LYCEN T9877, in french) available at: [email protected]; submitted to European Physical Journal

MicroTCA implementation of synchronous Ethernet-Based DAQ systems for large scale experiments

Large LAr TPCs are among the most powerful detectors to address open problems in particle and astro-particle physics, such as CP violation in leptonic sector, neutrino properties and their astrophysical implications, proton decay search etc. The scale of such detector implies severe constraints on their readout and DAQ system. In this article we describe a data acquisition scheme for this new generation of large detectors. The main challenge is to propose a scalable and easy to use solution able to manage a large number of channels at the lowest cost. It is interesting to note that these constraints are very similar to those existing in Network Telecommunication Industry. We propose to study how emerging technologies like ATCA and $\mu$TCA could be used in neutrino experiments. We describe the design of an Advanced Mezzanine Board (AMC) including 32 ADC channels. This board receives 32 analogical channels at the front panel and sends the formatted data through the $\mu$TCA backplane using a Gigabit Ethernet link. The gigabit switch of the MCH is used to centralize and to send the data to the event building computer. The core of this card is a FPGA (ARIA-GX from ALTERA) including the whole system except the memories. A hardware accelerator has been implemented using a NIOS II $\mu$P and a Gigabit MAC IP. Obviously, in order to be able to reconstruct the tracks from the events a time synchronisation system is mandatory. We decided to implement the IEEE1588 standard also called Precision Timing Protocol, another emerging and promising technology in Telecommunication Industry. In this article we describe a Gigabit PTP implementation using the recovered clock of the gigabit link. By doing so the drift is directly cancelled and the PTP will be used only to evaluate and to correct the offset.Comment: Talk presented at the 2009 Real Time Conference, Beijing, May '09, submitted to the proceeding

Pairing images of unhealthy and healthy foods with images of negative and positive health consequences: Impact on attitudes and food choice.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of presenting images of foods paired with images of positive and negative health consequences of their consumption on food choice and attitudes. METHOD: Participants (N = 711) were randomly allocated in a 2 × 3 factorial design (Food Type × Affective Valence) to 1 of 6 conditioning procedures that paired images of either energy-dense snack foods or fruit, with (a) images of negative health outcomes, (b) images of positive health outcomes, or (c) a no image control. The primary outcome was food choice assessed postintervention with a behavioral choice task. Secondary outcomes were implicit attitudes (assessed pre- and postintervention) and explicit attitudes (assessed postintervention). RESULTS: Presenting images of negative health outcomes led to more healthy food choices relative to control and positive image conditions, irrespective of whether they were paired with images of energy-dense snack foods or fruit. This relationship was partially mediated by changes in implicit and explicit attitudes. Images of positive health outcomes did not alter food choices. CONCLUSIONS: This study replicates and extends previous research showing that presenting images of negative health consequences increases healthy food choices. Because effects were elicited by manipulating affective valence irrespective of paired food type, these results appear more consistent with an explanation based on priming than on evaluative conditioning. (PsycINFO Database RecordThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Psychological Association via http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea000029