636 research outputs found
Three-dimensional track reconstruction for directional Dark Matter detection
Directional detection of Dark Matter is a promising search strategy. However,
to perform such detection, a given set of parameters has to be retrieved from
the recoiling tracks : direction, sense and position in the detector volume. In
order to optimize the track reconstruction and to fully exploit the data of
forthcoming directional detectors, we present a likelihood method dedicated to
3D track reconstruction. This new analysis method is applied to the MIMAC
detector. It requires a full simulation of track measurements in order to
compare real tracks to simulated ones. We conclude that a good spatial
resolution can be achieved, i.e. sub-mm in the anode plane and cm along the
drift axis. This opens the possibility to perform a fiducialization of
directional detectors. The angular resolution is shown to range between
20 to 80, depending on the recoil energy, which is however
enough to achieve a high significance discovery of Dark Matter. On the
contrary, we show that sense recognition capability of directional detectors
depends strongly on the recoil energy and the drift distance, with small
efficiency values (50%-70%). We suggest not to consider this information either
for exclusion or discovery of Dark Matter for recoils below 100 keV and then to
focus on axial directional data.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figure
Neutron Halo Isomers in Stable Nuclei and their Possible Application for the Production of Low Energy, Pulsed, Polarized Neutron Beams of High Intensity and High Brilliance
We propose to search for neutron halo isomers populated via -capture
in stable nuclei with mass numbers of about A=140-180 or A=40-60, where the
or neutron shell model state reaches zero binding energy.
These halo nuclei can be produced for the first time with new -beams of
high intensity and small band width ( 0.1%) achievable via Compton
back-scattering off brilliant electron beams thus offering a promising
perspective to selectively populate these isomers with small separation
energies of 1 eV to a few keV. Similar to single-neutron halo states for very
light, extremely neutron-rich, radioactive nuclei
\cite{hansen95,tanihata96,aumann00}, the low neutron separation energy and
short-range nuclear force allows the neutron to tunnel far out into free space
much beyond the nuclear core radius. This results in prolonged half lives of
the isomers for the -decay back to the ground state in the 100
ps-s range. Similar to the treatment of photodisintegration of the
deuteron, the neutron release from the neutron halo isomer via a second,
low-energy, intense photon beam has a known much larger cross section with a
typical energy threshold behavior. In the second step, the neutrons can be
released as a low-energy, pulsed, polarized neutron beam of high intensity and
high brilliance, possibly being much superior to presently existing beams from
reactors or spallation neutron sources.Comment: accepted for publication in Applied Physics
An Optical Readout TPC (O-TPC) for Studies in Nuclear Astrophysics With Gamma-Ray Beams at HIgS
We report on the construction, tests, calibrations and commissioning of an
Optical Readout Time Projection Chamber (O-TPC) detector operating with a
CO2(80%) + N2(20%) gas mixture at 100 and 150 Torr. It was designed to measure
the cross sections of several key nuclear reactions involved in stellar
evolution. In particular, a study of the rate of formation of oxygen and carbon
during the process of helium burning will be performed by exposing the chamber
gas to intense nearly mono-energetic gamma-ray beams at the High Intensity
Gamma Source (HIgS) facility. The O-TPC has a sensitive target-drift volume of
30x30x21 cm^3. Ionization electrons drift towards a double parallel grid
avalanche multiplier, yielding charge multiplication and light emission.
Avalanche induced photons from N2 emission are collected, intensified and
recorded with a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera, providing two-dimensional
track images. The event's time projection (third coordinate) and the deposited
energy are recorded by photomultipliers and by the TPC charge-signal,
respectively. A dedicated VME-based data acquisition system and associated data
analysis tools were developed to record and analyze these data. The O-TPC has
been tested and calibrated with 3.183 MeV alpha-particles emitted by a 148Gd
source placed within its volume with a measured energy resolution of 3.0%.
Tracks of alpha and 12C particles from the dissociation of 16O and of three
alpha-particles from the dissociation of 12C have been measured during initial
in-beam test experiments performed at the HIgS facility at Duke University. The
full detection system and its performance are described and the results of the
preliminary in-beam test experiments are reported.Comment: Supported by the Richard F. Goodman Yale-Weizmann Exchange Program,
ACWIS, NY, and USDOE grant Numbers: DE-FG02-94ER40870 and DE-FG02-97ER4103
Low energy electron/recoil discrimination for directional Dark Matter detection
Directional detection is a promising Dark Matter search strategy. Even though
it could accommodate to a sizeable background contamination, electron/recoil
discrimination remains a key and challenging issue as for direction-insensitive
detectors. The measurement of the 3D track may be used to discriminate
electrons from nuclear recoils. While a high rejection power is expected above
20 keV ionization, a dedicated data analysis is needed at low energy. After
identifying discriminant observables, a multivariate analysis, namely a Boosted
Decision Tree, is proposed, enabling an efficient event tagging for Dark Matter
search. We show that it allows us to optimize rejection while keeping a rather
high efficiency which is compulsory for rare event search.With respect to a
sequential analysis, the rejection is about 20 times higher with a multivariate
analysis, for the same Dark Matter exclusion limit.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figure
Coexistence of 'alpha+ 208Pb' cluster structures and single-particle excitations in 212Po
Excited states in 212Po have been populated by alpha transfer using the
208Pb(18O,14C) reaction at 85MeV beam energy and studied with the EUROBALL IV
gamma multidetector array. The level scheme has been extended up to ~ 3.2 MeV
excitation energy from the triple gamma coincidence data. Spin and parity
values of most of the observed states have been assigned from the gamma angular
distributions and gamma -gamma angular correlations. Several gamma lines with
E(gamma) < 1 MeV have been found to be shifted by the Doppler effect, allowing
for the measurements of the associated lifetimes by the DSAM method. The
values, found in the range [0.1-0.6] ps, lead to very enhanced E1 transitions.
All the emitting states, which have non-natural parity values, are discussed in
terms of alpha-208Pb structure. They are in the same excitation-energy range as
the states issued from shell-model configurations.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, corrected typos, revised arguments in Sect.
III
Simulated production rates of exotic nuclei from the ion guide for neutron-induced fission at IGISOL
Results of the Search for Strange Quark Matter and Q-balls with the SLIM Experiment
The SLIM experiment at the Chacaltaya high altitude laboratory was sensitive
to nuclearites and Q-balls, which could be present in the cosmic radiation as
possible Dark Matter components. It was sensitive also to strangelets, i.e.
small lumps of Strange Quark Matter predicted at such altitudes by various
phenomenological models. The analysis of 427 m^2 of Nuclear Track Detectors
exposed for 4.22 years showed no candidate event. New upper limits on the flux
of downgoing nuclearites and Q-balls at the 90% C.L. were established. The null
result also restricts models for strangelets propagation through the Earth
atmosphere.Comment: 14 pages, 11 EPS figure
Constraints on Dark Matter Annihilation in Clusters of Galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
Nearby clusters and groups of galaxies are potentially bright sources of
high-energy gamma-ray emission resulting from the pair-annihilation of dark
matter particles. However, no significant gamma-ray emission has been detected
so far from clusters in the first 11 months of observations with the Fermi
Large Area Telescope. We interpret this non-detection in terms of constraints
on dark matter particle properties. In particular for leptonic annihilation
final states and particle masses greater than ~200 GeV, gamma-ray emission from
inverse Compton scattering of CMB photons is expected to dominate the dark
matter annihilation signal from clusters, and our gamma-ray limits exclude
large regions of the parameter space that would give a good fit to the recent
anomalous Pamela and Fermi-LAT electron-positron measurements. We also present
constraints on the annihilation of more standard dark matter candidates, such
as the lightest neutralino of supersymmetric models. The constraints are
particularly strong when including the fact that clusters are known to contain
substructure at least on galaxy scales, increasing the expected gamma-ray flux
by a factor of ~5 over a smooth-halo assumption. We also explore the effect of
uncertainties in cluster dark matter density profiles, finding a systematic
uncertainty in the constraints of roughly a factor of two, but similar overall
conclusions. In this work, we focus on deriving limits on dark matter models; a
more general consideration of the Fermi-LAT data on clusters and clusters as
gamma-ray sources is forthcoming.Comment: accepted to JCAP, Corresponding authors: T.E. Jeltema and S. Profumo,
minor revisions to be consistent with accepted versio
Search for lepton-flavor violation at HERA
A search for lepton-flavor-violating interactions and has been performed with the ZEUS detector using the entire HERA I
data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 130 pb^{-1}. The data
were taken at center-of-mass energies, , of 300 and 318 GeV. No
evidence of lepton-flavor violation was found, and constraints were derived on
leptoquarks (LQs) that could mediate such interactions. For LQ masses below
, limits were set on , where
is the coupling of the LQ to an electron and a
first-generation quark , and is the branching ratio of
the LQ to the final-state lepton ( or ) and a quark . For
LQ masses much larger than , limits were set on the four-fermion
interaction term for LQs that couple to an electron and a quark
and to a lepton and a quark , where and are
quark generation indices. Some of the limits are also applicable to
lepton-flavor-violating processes mediated by squarks in -Parity-violating
supersymmetric models. In some cases, especially when a higher-generation quark
is involved and for the process , the ZEUS limits are the most
stringent to date.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by EPJC. References and 1 figure (Fig.
6) adde
Multijet production in neutral current deep inelastic scattering at HERA and determination of alpha_s
Multijet production rates in neutral current deep inelastic scattering have
been measured in the range of exchanged boson virtualities 10 < Q2 < 5000 GeV2.
The data were taken at the ep collider HERA with centre-of-mass energy sqrt(s)
= 318 GeV using the ZEUS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of
82.2 pb-1. Jets were identified in the Breit frame using the k_T cluster
algorithm in the longitudinally invariant inclusive mode. Measurements of
differential dijet and trijet cross sections are presented as functions of jet
transverse energy E_{T,B}{jet}, pseudorapidity eta_{LAB}{jet} and Q2 with
E_{T,B}{jet} > 5 GeV and -1 < eta_{LAB}{jet} < 2.5. Next-to-leading-order QCD
calculations describe the data well. The value of the strong coupling constant
alpha_s(M_Z), determined from the ratio of the trijet to dijet cross sections,
is alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1179 pm 0.0013(stat.) {+0.0028}_{-0.0046}(exp.)
{+0.0064}_{-0.0046}(th.)Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
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