High-energy cosmic rays are observed indirectly by detecting the extensive air showers initiated in Earth’s atmosphere. The interpretation of these observations relies on accurate models of air ...shower physics, which is a challenge and an opportunity to test QCD under extreme conditions. Air showers are hadronic cascades, which give rise to a muon component through hadron decays. The muon number is a key observable to infer the mass composition of cosmic rays. Air shower simulations with state-of-the-art QCD models show a significant muon deficit with respect to measurements; this is called the Muon Puzzle. By eliminating other possibilities, we conclude that the most plausible cause for the muon discrepancy is a deviation in the composition of secondary particles produced in high-energy hadronic interactions from current model predictions. The muon discrepancy starts at the TeV scale, which suggests that this deviation is observable at the Large Hadron Collider. An enhancement of strangeness production has been observed at the LHC in high-density events, which can potentially explain the puzzle, but the impact of the effect on forward produced hadrons needs further study, in particular with future data from oxygen beam collisions.
Respiratory induced organ motion poses a major challenge for high-precision radiotherapy such as pencil beam scanning proton therapy (PBS). In order to employ PBS for target regions affected by ...respiratory motion, the implementation of dedicated motion mitigation techniques should be considered and residual uncertainties need to be assessed. For the latter purpose, a routine simulating the delivery of a scanned proton beam to a moving target was developed and implemented in the commercial treatment planning system RayStation. The time structure of the beam delivery was extracted from electronic irradiation protocols of the delivery system. Alternatively to electronic irradiation protocols, an empirical time model of the beam delivery was created to allow for prospective estimations of interplay effects between target motion and pencil beam scanning. The experimental validation of the routine was performed using a two-dimensional ionization chamber array and a dynamic phantom. A 4D CT data set, including 10 respiratory phases, provided the spatial temporal information about the phantom motion. The dosimetric comparison of the measured and the calculated dose distribution yielded gamma pass rates above 96% using a 3% dose difference and a 3mm distance to agreement criterion. Thus, a tool for the evaluation of interplay effects is available in a clinical software environment and patient-specific quality assurance can be extended to dynamic treatment scenarios.
Proton fields delivered by the active scanning technique can be interfered with the intrafractional motion. This in-silico study seeks to mitigate the dosimetric impacts of motion artifacts, ...especially its interplay with the time-modulated dose delivery. Here four-dimensional (4d) robust optimization and dose repainting, which is the multiple application of the same field with reduced fluence, were combined. Two types of repainting were considered: layered and volumetric repainting. The time-resolved dose calculation, which is necessary to quantify the interplay effect, was integrated into the treatment planning system and validated. Nine clinical cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) showing motion in the range of 0.4–1.5cm were studied. It was found that the repainted delivery of 4D robustly optimized plans reduced the impact of interplay effect as quantified by the homogeneity index within the clinical target volume (CTV) to a tolerable level. Similarly, the fractional over- and underdosage was reduced sufficiently for some HCC cases to achieve the purpose of motion management. This holds true for both investigated types of repainting with small dosimetric advantages of volume repainting over layered repainting. Volume repainting, however, cannot be applied clinically in proton centers with slow energy changes. Thus, it served as a reference in the in-silico evaluation. It is recommended to perform the dynamic dose calculation for individual cases to judge if robust optimization in conjunction with repainting is sufficient to keep the interplay effect within bounds.
Imaging in radiation therapy has become an important part of clinical routine. In order to evaluate and compare the image quality of verification images from different imaging modalities, one needs ...objective criteria like the modulation transfer function (MTF). The aim of our study was to compare the resolution properties of three generations of electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs), namely one fluoroscopic-optical system and two different flat-panel imaging systems.
Results are reported from an amplitude analysis of the B+ → D+D− K+ decay. The analysis is carried out using LHCb proton-proton collision data taken at √s = 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to a total ...integrated luminosity of 9 fb−1. In order to obtain a good description of the data, it is found to be necessary to include new spin-0 and spin-1 resonances in the D−K+ channel with masses around 2.9 GeV/c2, and a new spin-0 charmonium resonance in proximity to the spin-2 χc2(3930) state.
Abstract
Conventional, hadronic matter consists of baryons and mesons made of three quarks and a quark–antiquark pair, respectively
1,2
. Here, we report the observation of a hadronic state ...containing four quarks in the Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment. This so-called tetraquark contains two charm quarks, a
$$\overline{{{u}}}$$
u
¯
and a
$$\overline{{{d}}}$$
d
¯
quark. This exotic state has a mass of approximately 3,875 MeV and manifests as a narrow peak in the mass spectrum of
D
0
D
0
π
+
mesons just below the
D
*+
D
0
mass threshold. The near-threshold mass together with the narrow width reveals the resonance nature of the state.
Display omitted
Using proton-proton collision data at centre-of-mass energies of s=7,8 and 13TeV recorded by the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated ...luminosity of 9fb-1, the invariant mass spectrum of J/ψ pairs is studied. A narrow structure around 6.9GeV/c2 matching the lineshape of a resonance and a broad structure just above twice the J/ψ mass are observed. The deviation of the data from nonresonant J/ψ-pair production is above five standard deviations in the mass region between 6.2 and 7.4GeV/c2, covering predicted masses of states composed of four charm quarks. The mass and natural width of the narrow X(6900) structure are measured assuming a Breit-Wigner lineshape.
Searches are performed for both promptlike and long-lived dark photons, A^{'}, produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. These searches look for A^{'}→μ^{+}μ^{-} ...decays using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.5 fb^{-1} collected with the LHCb detector. Neither search finds evidence for a signal, and 90% confidence-level exclusion limits are placed on the γ-A^{'} kinetic mixing strength. The promptlike A^{'} search explores the mass region from near the dimuon threshold up to 70 GeV and places the most stringent constraints to date on dark photons with 214<m(A^{'})≲740 MeV and 10.6<m(A^{'})≲30 GeV. The search for long-lived A^{'}→μ^{+}μ^{-} decays places world-leading constraints on low-mass dark photons with lifetimes O(1) ps.
Measurement of the W boson mass Ackernley, T.; Balagura, V.; Belyaev, I. ...
The journal of high energy physics,
2022, Letnik:
2022, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A
bstract
The
W
boson mass is measured using proton-proton collision data at
s
= 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 fb
−
1
recorded during 2016 by the LHCb experiment. With a ...simultaneous fit of the muon
q/p
T
distribution of a sample of
W
→
μν
decays and the
ϕ
*
distribution of a sample of
Z
→
μμ
decays the
W
boson mass is determined to be
m
w
=
80354
±
23
stat
±
10
exp
±
17
theory
±
9
PDF
MeV
,
where uncertainties correspond to contributions from statistical, experimental systematic, theoretical and parton distribution function sources. This is an average of results based on three recent global parton distribution function sets. The measurement agrees well with the prediction of the global electroweak fit and with previous measurements.
PDF
