Philip M. Napoli offers a timely and persuasive case for seeing social media as news media, with a fundamental obligation to serve the public interest. Social Media and the Public Interest offers ...valuable insights for the democratic governance of today's most influential shapers of news.
A novel mechanism to produce and detect light dark matter in experiments making use of GeV electrons (and positrons) impinging on a thick target (beam dump) is proposed. The positron-rich environment ...produced by the electromagnetic shower allows us to produce an A^{'} via nonresonant (e^{+}+e^{-}→γ+A^{'}) and resonant (e^{+}+e^{-}→A^{'}) annihilation on atomic electrons. The latter mechanism, for some selected kinematics, results in a larger sensitivity with respect to limits derived by the commonly used A^{'}-strahlung. This idea, applied to beam-dump experiments and active beam-dump experiments, pushes down the current limits by an order of magnitude.
High-energy positron annihilation is a viable mechanism to produce dark photons (A′). This reaction plays a significant role in beam-dump experiments using multi-GeV electron beams on thick targets ...by enhancing the sensitivity to A′ production. The positrons produced by the electromagnetic shower can produce an A′ via nonresonant (e++e−→γ+A′) and resonant (e++e−→A′) annihilation on atomic electrons. For visible decays, the contribution of resonant annihilation results in a larger sensitivity with respect to limits derived by the commonly used A′-strahlung in certain kinematic regions. When included in the evaluation of the E137 beam-dump experiment reach, positron annihilation pushes the current limit on ϵ downwards by a factor of 2 in the range 33 MeV/c2<mA′<120 MeV/c2.
The existence of Dark Matter (DM) is a well established fact since many decades, thanks to the observation of the effects of its gravitational interaction with the ordinary matter in the Universe. ...However, our knowledge of the Dark Matter features is still rather scarce. Indeed, one of the biggest quests in fundamental science today is the investigation of Dark Matter nature, from its origin to its composition, and the way its constituents interact with the ordinary matter, apart from gravity. Huge and ambitious efforts have been spent in the last years into its identification, concentrating especially on the search of viable Weakly Interacting Massive Particle candidates. However, no positive results have been achieved so far along this direction. On the other hand, many fascinating new ideas and models for its interpretation have been blooming: among them, an intriguing hypothesis is that the Dark Matter constituents could be neutral under Standard Model interactions, but they could interact through a new, still unknown, force under a “hidden” charge. This new hidden symmetry would be mediated by a massive gauge boson, the dark photon, which is expected to couple to the Standard Model via a kinetic mixing. The search for such a massive mediator has been pursued with large enthusiasm and dedication in the latest years, as its observation could be within the reach of many already existing experimental facilities, both based on accelerators or in smaller scale setups. This report reviews the present status and progress of the experimental searches in this field.
Light dark matter searches with positrons Battaglieri, M.; Bianconi, A.; Bisio, P. ...
The European physical journal. A, Hadrons and nuclei,
08/2021, Volume:
57, Issue:
8
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We discuss two complementary strategies to search for light dark matter (LDM) exploiting the positron beam possibly available in the future at Jefferson Laboratory. LDM is a new compelling hypothesis ...that identifies dark matter with new sub-GeV “hidden sector” states, neutral under standard model interactions and interacting with our world through a new force. Accelerator-based searches at the intensity frontier are uniquely suited to explore it. Thanks to the high intensity and the high energy of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) beam, and relying on a novel LDM production mechanism via positron annihilation on target atomic electrons, the proposed strategies will allow us to explore new regions in the LDM parameters space, thoroughly probing the LDM hypothesis as well as more general hidden sector scenarios.
Pulse-shape discrimination in NE213 liquid scintillator detectors Cavallaro, M.; Tropea, S.; Agodi, C. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
02/2013, Volume:
700
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The 16-channel fast stretcher BaFPro module, originally developed for processing signals of Barium Fluoride scintillators, has been modified to make a high performing analog pulse-shape analysis of ...signals from the NE213 liquid scintillators of the EDEN neutron detector array. The module produces two Gaussian signals, whose amplitudes are proportional to the height of the fast component of the output light and to the total energy deposited into the scintillator, respectively. An in-beam test has been performed at INFN-LNS (Italy) demonstrating a low detection threshold, a good pulse-shape discrimination even at low energies and a wide dynamic range for the measurement of the neutrons energy.
Nuclear fragmentation measurements are necessary when using heavy-ion beams in hadrontherapy to predict the effects of the ion nuclear interactions within the human body. Moreover, they are also ...fundamental to validate and improve the Monte Carlo codes for their use in planning tumor treatments. Nowadays, a very limited set of carbon fragmentation cross sections are being measured, and in particular, to our knowledge, no double-differential fragmentation cross sections at intermediate energies are available in the literature. In this work, we have measured the double-differential cross sections and the angular distributions of the secondary fragments produced in the (12)C fragmentation at 62 A MeV on a thin carbon target. The experimental data have been used to benchmark the prediction capability of the Geant4 Monte Carlo code at intermediate energies, where it was never tested before. In particular, we have compared the experimental data with the predictions of two Geant4 nuclear reaction models: the Binary Light Ions Cascade and the Quantum Molecular Dynamic. From the comparison, it has been observed that the Binary Light Ions Cascade approximates the angular distributions of the fragment production cross sections better than the Quantum Molecular Dynamic model. However, the discrepancies observed between the experimental data and the Monte Carlo simulations lead to the conclusion that the prediction capability of both models needs to be improved at intermediate energies.
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► Inhibition of protein palmitoylation results in an altered gliding motility in T. gondii. ► Protein palmitoylation seems to play a role in invasion. ► Palmitoylation seems to be ...important to maintain the shape of the intracellular mature tachyzoite.
Protein palmitoylation is the reversible covalent attachment of palmitic acid onto proteins. This post-translational modification has been shown to play a part in diverse processes such as signal transduction, cellular localization and regulation of protein activity. Although many aspects of protein palmitoylation have been identified in mammalian and yeast cells, little is known of this modification in Toxoplasma gondii. In order to determine the functional role of protein palmitoylation in T. gondii, tachyzoites were treated with the palmitoylation inhibitor 2-bromopalmitate (2-BP). Parasites treated with 2-BP displayed a significant increase in non-circular trails which were longer than those trails left by non-treated parasites. Furthermore, 2-BP treatment reduced the invasion process to the host cells. Long-term treatment of intracellular tachyzoites resulted in major changes in parasite morphology and shape in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that palmitoylation could be modifying proteins that are key players in gliding, invasion and cytoskeletal proteins in T. gondii.
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